Minisculus asked for the tumbler two years ago for Christmas, and we did not know about the noise. So, when we tried it the first time, the boys' father said NO! But I don't really mind it so much (it is loud, but I don't mind drowning out the boys' chatter sometime), so now that he's gone for 4 weeks we are doing it. You can get all kinds of different assortments of rocks and the one Minisculus has comes with 4 kinds of grit. So 4 stages of polishing, progressively finer. But each stage is longer so the first is 5 days and I think the last is 8 or 10! But I've gotten used to it. And it makes them happy.

I hope your nephew enjoys it! It does produce very handsome rocks. Ours is the National Geographic tumbler.