Can you polish gemstones with a common drill?

My kids did some "mining" at one of those tourist places. They have several good size chunks of aquamarine, one as big as a fist. They were charging a lot to polish them so we passed. Is there some drill bit I could use with my handheld electric drill, and do some polishing myself? I don't need perfection - the kids are like ravens, they like shiney objects.

Can you polish gemstones with a common drill?
You're going to have a really hard time. And I mean hard. Most gemstones are high on Mohs Hardness Scale, which geologists and gemologist use to measure the relative hardness of minerals. A diamond is the hardest mineral, which is why you often see diamond drill bits for tough jobs. These drill bits are not solid diamonds, though (talk about a lot of $$$$ !), but are instead tiny diamonds that are basically glued to the drill bit. Most minerals will actually rip the diamonds off the bit! I experienced this a few weeks ago while trying to drill a hole in a thin piece of agate. Using a high quality diamond bit, I got less than a mm into it before the diamond pieces were totally gone. (FYI, diamond has a hardness of 10 while agate has a hardness between 6 and 7, roughly that of quartz varieties like amethyst.) I've since talked to a gemologist about this and learned that you have to use a wet drill and even then a single piece of a hard mineral can take several bits.





So, now that you have all the background info, the short answer is that, depending on what minerals you have, you may be able to polish them with a diamond bit drill, but it would take an extrodinary amount of money, effort, and time if you don't have professional tools.





A rock polisher can be a fun idea, but most cheap ones won't work very well. And even the expensive ones take a long time and make lots of noise. But, your kids might enjoy the experience. Another alternative is to get a gem and mineral book with photos. Many minerals look vastly different when they are cut and/or polished. Your kids can try to identify what they have (if you don't already know) and see what their "treasure" might look like if it were cut or polished (and if they were gem quality).





Edit: I've just reread your email, and saw that you said your kids have several pieces of aquamarine. Aquamarine is a variety of the mineral beryl, which has a hardness of about 8. Unfortunately, that means it's going to be even harder to cut and polish. :(
Reply:A rock tumbler is inexpensive and fun. But if you want to polish by hand, use a dremel with a polishing head.
Reply:yup





you can attach ANYTHING to a drill





if you use some elastics and put the drill in a vise, that would be best





then get dremmel attachments maybe, you can even make facets, and use some rouge to for the final polish, try some amethysts maybe, table cut , etc, like $1 each



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