I am not sure where he buys the epoxy. I gave him the walnut and agates and helped lay that out. He did all the epoxy work and finish. I could ask him where he gets it. I believe it was called deep pour. He had a few different weight epoxy jugs for specific reasons but I do not know enough about it to give any good info.
Ok, I see menards sells it and was wondering if that stuff is any good or if it’s all the same pretty much?
I have used the Envirotex brand from menards to do clear coats over wood with photos under it. Similar to a bar top pour. It worked great for that. I dont know how good it is for a thick pour?? 1-2 inch thick?? When I used the Envirotex it was about 1/4 inch thick pour.
The photo above has about 80.00 of epoxy. The stuff he used is expensive!! I do know that.
Ok sounds good thanks
Found this bad boy the other day.
That’s a nice little johnson you have.
D’oh-wayne 
We bought my daughter a HF tumbler for her birthday. We started our first batch tumbling this weekend. She and I are excited.
We bought my daughter a HF tumbler for her birthday. We started our first batch tumbling this weekend. She and I are excited.
It is a fun Hobby. I got my Daughter one as a present when she was younger as well. The Biggest problem is the time it takes to see the finished results. No matter how much you or your daughter want to shorted the process and Look – Don’t. Each stage needs enough time to do its part in the final results. also be careful when mixing different rock type. Make sure they are close to the same hardness rating. If not the end results will not turn out well. I’d start with Tigers Eye, Quarts, and Jasper. They are a beautiful rocks and are easy for beginners to get a good finished product.
We bought my daughter a HF tumbler for her birthday. We started our first batch tumbling this weekend. She and I are excited.
Awesome. Just in case the same thing that happened to mine happens to yours, let me know, I have a sure fix.
The motor on mine seized up in pretty short order. I returned it for a new one under warranty and replaced the plastic bushings with flanged bearings. It spins much more freely now.
The Biggest problem is the time it takes to see the finished results.
Yes, I watched an hour-long Youtube video the other day. He was a bit more obsessive than I will be, but it does take a long time. I have prepared her the best I can for that. 
We’ll see how this first run turns out. I did order some interesting rocks off Etsy for Christmas, but this first run is just ones the kids have collected, so it might end up poorly. Time will tell.
Our first batch of rocks finished up this weekend, and I can say that I was quite pleasantly impressed with how they turned out. It was a fun project for my daughter and I do do together, and she was excited to see the final results and show them off. Now that we know what we’re doing, we started another batch, too.
Most of these were just rocks that she and our son had collected locally. Some of the ones that I thought were just blah turned out to be really cool after polishing.
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Nice agate from that batch.
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The black one in the upper right looks like glass now. Fun project.
Looks like you got a nice shine on those. The first attempt with my NatGeo tumbler my rocks were very dull at the end. I think the HF tumbler had better media than the NatGeo.
Overall they look pretty nice. My only recommendation is to run that first stage as many cycles as it takes to get the cracks and sharp breaks smoothed out. Tough to do without a lot of rocks ready to go in the tumbler though.
I end up having one barrel almost always on stage 1 and the other one cycling through stages stages 2-4. It’s not uncommon for a rock to spend a month or more on stage 1 alone.
Spring can’t come fast enough for rock hunting. My daughter is getting the itch to do some agate hunting already.
They’ve got great shine. I ordered media from Rock Shed.
I did think about rough tumbling some of them longer, but the patience of a 9-year old can only be stretched so thin. I did 2 weeks with 60/90 carbide and decided they looked good enough for us. 
This next batch is some assorted stuff we bought on Etsy. They’re pretty rough, so I imagine they’ll take a while longer, but I think there will be some really cool rocks.
So whenever we get rid of some of this snow, get out and find some Jasper, chert and quartz. They also tumble really well. Obviously agates too if you can find them.
Good choice with rock shed. That’s where I get my stuff too. Get yourself some ceramic pellets too. They work really well as a filler for the media.
Another tip I saw on YouTube from Michigan rocks, he swears by using 500 grit aluminum oxide for stage 3 vs using 500 grit silicon carbide. He says the shape of the aluminum oxide under the microscope is a more rounded shape vs the silicon carbide be a very rough and jagged shape. It sets up for the final polish a lot better.
Yep, I’ve got the ceramic pellets and used that and 500 grit aluminum oxide. 
Last weekend Isabelle asked if we could post an agate hunting trip on YouTube so we started a channel to post videos from. This is our first video of a short agate hunt last Sunday.
Then we went again yesterday and had our best day agate hunting ever. Here’s a short video of our biggest one we found yesterday.
Very cool! I’m commenting on both posts. I like the buckets and scooper. Didn’t there were so many different types of agates. And the biggest one is definitely a “bomb”, pun intended!
Thanks! She was pretty jacked up the whole day after she found that one. It wound up being 10.7 oz so short of a lb.
Very cool! I’ll need to watch your vids with my daughter.
Thanks! She was pretty jacked up the whole day after she found that one. It wound up being 10.7 oz so short of a lb.
Good work Matt!! My youngest daughter is a rockhound also. Great to have the kids out with us and learning whats right at your feet near home.
Very cool! I’ll need to watch your vids with my daughter.
Thanks! Hoping to post a full length video that includes the big agate from the short in the next couple days. I’ll post it here as well.
Good work Matt!! My youngest daughter is a rockhound also. Great to have the kids out with us and learning whats right at your feet near home.
Thanks! With all the sports and activities we have right now I just don’t have the time and energy to get the boat packed up to go fishing. This is a really fun substitute. I spend as much time scouting out new spots for agate hunting as I used to spend looking for new fishing spots. The thrill of finding a big agates feels the same as catching a trophy fish.
we found some nice cold water agates last weekend in a local river. i never got any pics of them but we put them in our bird bath at home for the birds to sit on
Finally got around to putting the next video up. It’s a long one but easily our best day ever agate hunting.
We went up by Moose Lake this time. Sorry for the terrible audio. Still learning.
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