What it is

The Rock Shed is a first-party rock shop and lapidary equipment and rough supplier at 515 1st Street in Keystone, South Dakota, in the Black Hills just below Mount Rushmore. It sells online through its own WooCommerce shop at rockshed.com and from a walk-in retail store. The History page calls it “Family Owned for 37 Years”. It shows the original Rock Shed shack after the 1972 flood and the 1973 building in Keystone’s historic district. The shop’s Lapidary Equipment department lists cabbing machines, slab and trim saws, diamond blades, flat laps, a diamond band saw, silicon carbide belts and discs, grinding wheels and diamond pads. Its Rough Rocks department lists rough and cutting rock, slabs and geodes, alongside Fairburn, Prairie and other agates. Brand and category names on the site include Diamond Pacific, CabKing, Barranca, Covington, Inland, Lortone, Thumler’s, Lot-O, Tumble-Bee and Rebel 17. The store also sells polished rocks, spheres, minerals, fossils and gemstone jewelry. It is not a membership gem club and not a teaching school.

Who it’s for

Cabochon cutters, slabbers, tumblers and rockhounds who want one U.S. shop for name-brand cabbing machines, slab saws, blades, tumbler parts and grit, plus rough and slabs priced by the piece. Black Hills and Mount Rushmore visitors can also buy at the Keystone store counter. The shop also takes phone orders and uses flat-rate Priority Mail for small orders when that is cheaper.

Why it’s listed

This is a first-party lapidary supplier with its own online shop, a printed Keystone, South Dakota street address, published retail hours, ordering and shipping policies, and on-page dollar prices. It is not a scraped directory card, not Amazon, and not an affiliate-only storefront.

Business (Contact Us page, checked 2026-10-07): The Rock Shed, 515 1st Street, Keystone, SD 57751. Toll-free order line 1-866-354-0894; information 605-666-4813; email [email protected].
Retail store hours (Contact Us page, checked today, Mountain Time): Summer, May 20–August 31, Monday–Sunday 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.; Fall, September 1–30, Monday–Sunday 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; Winter, October 1–May 19, Thursday–Monday 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The page says winter hours depend on staff and weather and asks long-distance visitors to call first.
Sample machine prices (cabbing-machines and slab-saws collections and product pages, checked today): CabKing-6V3 $1,399.00; CabKing-8V1 $2,399.00; “Genie” Diamond Pacific Gem-Maker $2,600.00; “Titan” Diamond Pacific Gem-Maker $3,800.00; 6″ Slant Cabber and 6″ All-U-Need flat lap $549.00 each; Covington 18″ Slab Saw $6,200.00; 10″ Trim Saw Complete with Power Feed $1,595.00–$1,695.00; Inland DB-100 Diamond Band Saw $359.00. The CabKing-6V3, Genie and Covington 18″ product pages showed “Available on backorder”.
Sample blade and rough prices (diamond-blades, rough-and-cutting-rock and slabs collections, checked today): 301 10″ Diamond Lapidary Blade $150.00 (in stock); 303 6″ Professional Continuous Rim blades $46.00–$55.00; on the first page of the Rough & Cutting Rock collection, rough ran from $5.00–$10.00 (Rough Green Quartzite) to $150.00 (BCR306 Shattuckite, sold out); the first page of the Slabs collection listed slabs and slab sets from $10.00 to $60.00.
Ordering and shipping (Ordering Information and Shipping Information pages, checked today): the cart quotes FedEx Ground or USPS. When it is cheaper and the order fits, the shop ships Priority Mail flat rate at $8.50 (envelope), $13.00 (medium box) or $18.00 (large box). In most cases orders ship the same day or next day after payment. Merchandise can be returned unused within 14 days for a refund or exchange, excluding shipping. Phone orders are taken 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. daily except Sunday, Mountain Time.

The prices above are what the official product and collection pages showed on the check date. Stock and prices change. Use the live product pages before treating any figure as fixed.

Official URL

Last checked: 2026-10-07

https://www.rockshed.com/

Online shop: https://www.rockshed.com/rock-shop/

Lapidary equipment: https://www.rockshed.com/lapidary-equipment-and-blades/

Cabbing machines collection: https://www.rockshed.com/product-category/lapidary-equipment/cabbing-machines/

Diamond blades collection: https://www.rockshed.com/product-category/lapidary-equipment/diamond-blades/

Rough & cutting rock: https://www.rockshed.com/product-category/rocks-gemstones-fossils-and-minerals/rocks/rough-and-cutting-rock/

Ordering Information: https://www.rockshed.com/instructions.html

Location

Retail store (Contact Us and History pages, checked 2026-10-07): The Rock Shed, 515 1st Street, Keystone, SD 57751. The History page says the store is half a mile east on Highway 40 toward Rushmore Cave.

This is a walk-in rock shop with an online lapidary supply store. It is not a classroom or a gem-club workshop.

Notes

Category is Suppliers. This listing covers The Rock Shed’s own shop of lapidary machines, blades, abrasives, rough and slabs, along with its published prices and policies. The store also sells polished décor, jewelry and specimens, but its lapidary equipment and rough departments are what put it in Suppliers. It is not a Clubs gem society and not a Workshops class program.
The Rock Shed is a dealer for several brands already listed on Lapidary Plaza (Diamond Pacific, CabKing, Covington, Thumler’s Tumbler, Inland). It is a different business and domain from those manufacturers. The site also sells Lortone tumblers and parts as a dealer; Lortone itself remains a standing skip.
The site has a “Rock Shed Grinders” category, but it showed no products on the check date.
The History page says the shop is “open April to October from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm” and “October to March as weather permits”. That disagrees with the season-by-season hours on the Contact Us page. The Contact Us hours are used here. Call first in winter.
The footer reads ©2022, but the product sitemap shows items updated through 2026-10-07. Product pages showed live prices and stock flags on the check date.
Sample prices are from official product and collection pages checked on 2026-10-07 and may change. Several large machines were marked backorder.
The first-party Rock Shed logo is saved as the-rock-shed.png. It came from rockshed.com (/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/cropped-Rock-Shed-Logo-002.png) and was PNG-recompressed only.
Not affiliated with Lapidary Plaza.
No Lapidary Plaza contact, purchase, booking, or publication action was taken.

FAQ

Q: Where is The Rock Shed, and when is it open?
A: 515 1st Street, Keystone, SD 57751 (Contact Us page, checked 2026-10-07). Winter hours (October 1–May 19) are Thursday–Monday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Mountain Time, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, depending on staff and weather. Summer hours (May 20–August 31) are daily 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.

Q: What lapidary equipment does it sell, and what does it cost?
A: Cabbing machines, slab and trim saws, diamond blades, flat laps, a band saw, belts, discs and tumblers. Examples checked on 2026-10-07: CabKing-6V3 $1,399.00, Diamond Pacific Genie $2,600.00, Covington 18″ slab saw $6,200.00 (all marked backorder) and a 10″ 301 diamond blade $150.00. Confirm on https://www.rockshed.com/rock-shop/

Q: Does it sell rough and slabs?
A: Yes. The Rough & Cutting Rock and Slabs collections list priced pieces, for example Rough Green Quartzite at $5.00–$10.00, and slabs and slab sets from $10.00 to $60.00 on the first page of the Slabs collection. The site also has a Fairburn, Prairie & Other SD Agates collection. Many one-of-a-kind items showed as sold out.

Q: How does shipping work?
A: The cart quotes FedEx Ground or USPS. When it is cheaper and the order fits, the shop uses Priority Mail flat rate ($8.50 envelope, $13.00 medium box, $18.00 large box). Orders usually ship the same or next day after payment, according to the Ordering Information page.

Q: Does The Rock Shed run classes or a club?
A: No class or club program appears on the pages checked today. It is listed here under Suppliers, not as a Clubs society or a Workshops class.