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Post by HankRocks on Aug 6, 2023 8:55:55 GMT -5
Ok, I got these out a couple days ago, the garage hit 98 degrees yesterday afternoon but I must be getting pretty adjusted to working in the heat as it doesn't seem to bother me that much. Anyway a few photos to keep the Mad badger fellow happy!! Here's some of the 40 slabs I just polished, medium sized 2 1/2 to 3 inches. The next batch of 20 large(4 to6 inches) slabs are in pre polish now, hope to move to polish in about a week. IMG_5884 by Findrocks, on Flickr This is the end of a Singleton Ranch nodule, I always like the blue color; IMG_5888 by Findrocks, on Flickr The rest of these are all Vib Lap polished. The first one, victor1941 might name the ranch of origin. It was pretty flat and could have tumbled, just did not want to lose the profile look; IMG_5887 by Findrocks, on Flickr Another Singleton Ranch black plume piece cut in half. The plumes did not show well in the picture; IMG_5890 by Findrocks, on Flickr Was hoping for Red Plumes in this Walker Ranch biscuit but all I got was these two guys looking at me!! IMG_5894 by Findrocks, on Flickr Not sure what this material is, I cut 2 or 3 slabs of of this and lap polished one; IMG_5896 by Findrocks, on Flickr Another Singleton Ranch Bouquet agate split, did not want to tumble it so I polished on the Vib Lap (always saddens me a bit knowing the Ranch is now closed to collecting, "I just needed one more day", I was zeroed in on a real sweet spot!!) IMG_5898 by Findrocks, on Flickr I have a good bit more to pull out for pictures that I have polished in the last 3 months. I am waiting to see if it hits 100 degrees in the next day or two out in the garage. I definitely don't run any saws past 9:30am.
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Post by jasoninsd on Aug 6, 2023 9:08:00 GMT -5
Thanks for the pics Henry!! Singleton Ranch never ceases to produce amazing material! I love seeing the backlit photos as well! *I was thinking about you the other day. I had cut a piece of Rose Quartz...and the slabs just didn't hold the same colors as the original piece. I remember it was you who had brought up (you're the first one I came across mentioning it) where slabbing a material oftentimes won't maintain the same "color tones" or intensity as a larger/thicker piece.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Aug 6, 2023 9:32:29 GMT -5
Spectacular slabs, Henry! The slab in the 3rd picture is so cool. It's a perfect silhouette of a little boy. My favorite is the Walker Ranch eyeball slabs, though. I love them.
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Post by victor1941 on Aug 6, 2023 9:41:17 GMT -5
My guess is Walker for the clear skin piece that also appears to have sagenite burst. I have also cut some of the mixed material that is second up from the bottom.
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Post by HankRocks on Aug 6, 2023 9:53:55 GMT -5
My guess is Walker for the clear skin piece that also appears to have sagenite burst. I have also cut some of the mixed material is second up from the bottom. Walker is correct, the sagenite burst are really neat. The 2nd to last piece was in a bucket of scraps I bought 3 or 4 years ago, I think at the Deming Rock Show. Fellow had 7 or 8 half filled buckets of misc scraps and halves for $10 to $20 each. I bought 4 of the buckets one of which contained both halves of a very nice Baker Ranch Thunderegg that was badly cut. I glued both to wood and re-cut both halves with a very thin. The halves polished great and they are in a box somewhere!! Henry
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,709
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Post by Fossilman on Aug 6, 2023 10:07:26 GMT -5
Excellent 👍
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dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,622
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Post by dillonf on Aug 6, 2023 12:29:22 GMT -5
Really nice stuff!
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,979
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Post by khara on Aug 6, 2023 15:38:35 GMT -5
All really pretty stuff. It’s cool they can be polished using a vibe and you aren’t having to do them manually by hand.
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Post by velodromed on Aug 7, 2023 7:00:44 GMT -5
Ok, I got these out a couple days ago, the garage hit 98 degrees yesterday afternoon but I must be getting pretty adjusted to working in the heat as it doesn't seem to bother me that much. Anyway a few photos to keep the Mad badger fellow happy!! Here's some of the 40 slabs I just polished, medium sized 2 1/2 to 3 inches. The next batch of 20 large(4 to6 inches) slabs are in pre polish now, hope to move to polish in about a week. IMG_5884 by Findrocks, on Flickr This is the end of a Singleton Ranch nodule, I always like the blue color; IMG_5888 by Findrocks, on Flickr The rest of these are all Vib Lap polished. The first one, victor1941 might name the ranch of origin. It was pretty flat and could have tumbled, just did not want to lose the profile look; IMG_5887 by Findrocks, on Flickr Another Singleton Ranch black plume piece cut in half. The plumes did not show well in the picture; IMG_5890 by Findrocks, on Flickr Was hoping for Red Plumes in this Walker Ranch biscuit but all I got was these two guys looking at me!! IMG_5894 by Findrocks, on Flickr Not sure what this material is, I cut 2 or 3 slabs of of this and lap polished one; IMG_5896 by Findrocks, on Flickr Another Singleton Ranch Bouquet agate split, did not want to tumble it so I polished on the Vib Lap (always saddens me a bit knowing the Ranch is now closed to collecting, "I just needed one more day", I was zeroed in on a real sweet spot!!) IMG_5898 by Findrocks, on Flickr I have a good bit more to pull out for pictures that I have polished in the last 3 months. I am waiting to see if it hits 100 degrees in the next day or two out in the garage. I definitely don't run any saws past 9:30am. These are beautiful Hank! Incredibly so. What vibe do you use by the way? I’ve been cutting small slabs from petrified wood and other rocks we find locally, then polish in my raytech 5 (limited to 3.5” slabs in it) over this last six months. I need to use better rocks though (and get a flat trap), because yours are amazing. I’ve just been so unsure about my sawing skills that I’ve hesitated to cut any of the nice agates we’ve bought. Thank you very much for showing these. I understand what you mean about the garage heat, I’m in South Central Texas and it’s hitting 103-105 during the day. I’ve done experiments with venting and manage to keep my garage just a little over 90… but my body can’t handle the heat all of a sudden after these last recent surgeries. Which sucks because I love the heat. So I can only work in 15 to 20 minute increments or so.
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Post by HankRocks on Aug 7, 2023 8:27:10 GMT -5
velodromed I use a UV-18 for my tumble polishes. The exception to that is for larger pieces where the motion is affected, then they stay in the Model B for polishing. For flat surfaces I use a 20 inch pan Vibe-Lap. Most of the thinner or imbalanced pieces have extra weight added to them. I use a caulk to secure the weights; Dap ALEX PLUS - Clear Acrylic Latex Caulk plus Silicone. For whatever reason I picked this and it worked so I never really tried any others. There is a "Fast Dry" caulk I use to re-attach weights that loosen during the process. It's more expensive so I prefer the first one at about half the price per tube. The caulk is not perfect as it takes a while to dry or if the slab is very thin, the water in pan can eventually soften the caulk to where it lets go.. In my case I have enough pieces in the queue that waiting a few days is not a big issue. Someone mentioned using Hot Glue, forget who but may have to test it. Henry
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rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2022
Posts: 1,368
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Post by rocknewb101 on Aug 7, 2023 8:32:56 GMT -5
Those look amazing! Lot's I've never heard of so thanks for sharing!
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Post by velodromed on Aug 7, 2023 9:00:42 GMT -5
velodromed I use a UV-18 for my tumble polishes. The exception to that is for larger pieces where the motion is affected, then they stay in the Model B for polishing. For flat surfaces I use a 20 inch pan Vibe-Lap. Most of the thinner or imbalanced pieces have extra weight added to them. I use a caulk to secure the weights; Dap ALEX PLUS - Clear Acrylic Latex Caulk plus Silicone. For whatever reason I picked this and it worked so I never really tried any others. There is a "Fast Dry" caulk I use to re-attach weights that loosen during the process. It's more expensive so I prefer the first one at about half the price per tube. The caulk is not perfect as it takes a while to dry or if the slab is very thin, the water in pan can eventually soften the caulk to where it lets go.. In my case I have enough pieces in the queue that waiting a few days is not a big issue. Someone mentioned using Hot Wax, forget who but may have to test it. Henry Thank you, Henry! I’m gonna be looking to get a flat lap around the end of the year. What would you suggest to start off with? I know the type you have…I have seen them on youtube working and they’re amazing, but I imagine quite expensive. How about the same gunk that they use to attach a rock to stick for making a cab? I forget what it’s called. Maybe that would work for keeping the weights on. Have you tried hotmelt glue? My wife and kid have tons of it and I know there’s different types of sticks, ones that detach (some kind of wax?) ones that make it stick permanent (glue). I think if the rock surface was relatively smooth on the back I would try shoo goo or e6000. Just a very small dab, like pea size, and I wouldn’t press the way all the way down firmly just moderately. It’s waterproof also. But it takes 12 to 24 hours to set. After six hours it would probably hold firm, but still you’d have to wait a bit. I use a lot of the stuff with my other hobby, RC cars, and it works for sticking things together, temporarily and permanently, depending how you use it.
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Post by 1dave on Aug 8, 2023 8:59:16 GMT -5
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Post by velodromed on Aug 8, 2023 10:37:23 GMT -5
But… I don’t see any corn (wait, was it invented yet?)
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Post by pebblesky on Aug 8, 2023 12:07:51 GMT -5
The profile slab is fun to look at!
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,525
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Post by RWA3006 on Aug 8, 2023 12:21:36 GMT -5
I'm going to say no because there is too much angular structure within it. One thing you'll notice about most coprolites is the structures within are usually rounded presumably because of the tumbling action of digestion. The slab in question reminds me a lot of material I've found near Jackson Peak West of Saint George, Utah. Nice slab.
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texhex
starting to spend too much on rocks
Rocks 10 - TexHex 2
Member since August 2023
Posts: 149
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Post by texhex on Aug 8, 2023 20:47:40 GMT -5
IMG_5887 looks like a shadow portrait. Did you mean for it to look that way? This is such an interesting rock with an extremely unique shape.
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Post by HankRocks on Aug 9, 2023 3:29:13 GMT -5
IMG_5887 looks like a shadow portrait. Did you mean for it to look that way? This is such an interesting rock with an extremely unique shape. The "Biscuit" was shaped that way and very flat. I glued it to a piece of 2x4 and cut it in half. I really did not want to do any enhancements to the piece other than grind the edge just a bit as I do for all the rocks for the Vib Lap. Caulked two weights to it and ran it through the grinding/polishing process. The other half was so thin it broke on cutting. I really do need to pull out more of the Walker Ranch and Singleton Ranch material and start cutting. The Walker Ranch Biscuits tend to be flatter and getting 1 slab if you are lucky and two end pieces is typical. "Too many rocks, too little time"!! and "Boredom is never on the menu"
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Post by orrum on Aug 9, 2023 5:19:37 GMT -5
@hankrocks how do you get the caulk off? Great pics you do art!!!
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Post by orrum on Aug 9, 2023 5:20:40 GMT -5
@hankrocks
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