About

We started the Currently Rockhounding project in March of 2019 as a way to share our adventures. Since then it has grown into a platform to promote rockhounding and a community of like minded people that want to get out, explore and collect rocks and minerals.


The best way to contact us for whatever reason is through email at currentlyrockhounding@gmail.com

We respond to all emails but please be patient as the growing level of correspondence can be overwhelming at times.

You can keep up with our adventures on Instagram and YouTube as well as the other things we have done online with other people and outlets on the Other Media page.

Laika

This is our wonderfully silly dog Laika that you see in some of the videos.

Adventures & Finds

The Identification Station

The current state of the identification station June 2022
The current state of the identification station December 2022
A gallery of the changes and progress to the bench that I do my rock and mineral identifications on as well as my micromounting. The microscope that I have is the AmScope SM-1TSZZ-144S-10M.

The Shop

The current state of the shop.
April 2021
The current state of the shop.
December 2021
The current state of the shop.
February 2023
A gallery of the changes and progress in my shop space over time.

The Machines

In the summer of 2023 this Highland Park Lapidary wet belt sander was added to the line up in the shop and with some modification it had been a very nice machine to have available.
This is my very old and homemade 14″ slab saw. I didn’t build it myself but I am the one currently keeping it on life support as its somewhat on its last legs with many worn parts and problems.
In the winter of 2022 I purchased this very lightly used Lortone TS10-C 10″ trim saw.
In the fall of 2022 I started the restoration of a Lortone NS8 Arbor. I built out the housing for it and everything else.
This was a good little saw but as of November 2022 I have sold it.
These are the two machines that have from Hi-Tech Diamond. I have both the 6″ trim saw and the 8″ flat lap. Both have been good machines that really don’t make much of a mess in the shop which is really nice.
This is my Richardson’s Ranch High Speed Sander. This is a great machine that can high speed sand a rock that’s about 10″. I believe this was one of the early models they made based on the blue marbled color and older outlet on the side of it. Despite being an older one its still in great condition.
I designed and built this machine myself. Its a slow speed carpet wheel that you can put cerium oxide on for polishing the larger rocks after using the Richardson’s sander. I have an article here on the website detailing how to build it.
In the summer of 2022 I added two great machines to the shop. I got an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning rocks and minerals that I find and a vacuum chamber for stabilizing.