Rock Tumbling Grit: 3 Tips for Proper Slurry Disposal

Whether you do rock tumbling professionally or as more of a hobby, you are already quite aware of what grit, or slurry, is and what people like you use it for. However, you might not know that there are multiple ways that you can appropriately discard it after using it in your industrial rotary tumbler, like the ones we sell on our site. If you are unaware of the other techniques, then you’ll want to check out these tips for proper slurry disposal.

Let It Dry Before Throwing It Away

The leftover grit that you’ll have can be quite messy to deal with. That’s why the cleanest method for disposing of it is to let it dry out for a few days before throwing the hardened remains of it out in the trash. The reason why you don’t want to throw wet slurry into the garbage is due to the fact that the tiny bits of rock will slowly tear up anything it comes into contact with. That means your trash bag won’t last long before it develops a few holes.

Letting it dry out removes this problem. In order to help speed up the process, it’s best to put it into a container that gives it a large surface area with the surrounding air to speed up the evaporation process.

Separate the Water Before Disposing of the Rest

If this is something that you don’t want to wait around for, you can wait until the water naturally separates itself out. This will still take about a day to happen, but it’ll be quicker than waiting for all that water to evaporate. Once the liquid and grit have separated, you can safely pour the water down the drain and put the rest into a sealed container to throw away.

Just make sure that you only put water down the drain. Large amounts of slurry can harden within your pipes and seal up like cement, making your drains unusable until you go through the costly repairs needed to remove all the solidified grit.

Dump It Somewhere Outside

The final tip for proper slurry disposal that we have for you today is to find a place outside to dump it. This is by far the quickest and easiest way to get rid of it. More people don’t do it because there are a decent number of reports saying that the slurry has killed the grass that it was poured on. However, quite a few statements say that it can even act as a fertilizer for some plants.

It’s up to you if you want to risk it or not, but at the very least, you can find a hole or corner of your yard that you don’t care about and pour it out there. Regardless of what you choose, tumbling grit is non-toxic, so you won’t have to worry about harming the environment.