It is definitely large. I had to add ceramic to continue doing some rocks, as I found out the hard way the mixing different hardness rocks is costly. Also, if I could afford it, I would only use this for the coarsest tumbling and then go to a vibratory setup. Because this tumbler holds so much stone, if you try to take it all the way to a polish the chances are that a chip or chips will break off and damage a lot of stone during the finer tumbling. I would also state that this tumbler lacks some of the touches that I would consider I high quality unit, but it seems durable for the price. I have been using this constantly for the last two months.