|
Post by vegasjames on Sept 11, 2023 19:13:36 GMT -5
Pulled a batch of the mixed stones i broke up. Spent a month in the rotary tumblers 12 and 17 pound barrels then about a week in the UvV-18 tumbler all with just water, no grit or polish. No grit helps the stones retain more of their original shape instead of rounding.
Don't know why the videos come out so dark.
|
|
JR8675309
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since August 2019
Posts: 751
|
Post by JR8675309 on Sept 11, 2023 19:52:38 GMT -5
I definitely like the shape retention as opposed to rounding. Well done on the mix and the tumble.
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Sept 12, 2023 14:39:35 GMT -5
It’s really neat how it polished up with just water.
|
|
hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 414
|
Post by hplcman on Sept 12, 2023 14:53:52 GMT -5
Will all rocks do that? Get a nice polish without any grit or polish stages?
|
|
|
Post by vegasjames on Sept 12, 2023 15:40:47 GMT -5
Will all rocks do that? Get a nice polish without any grit or polish stages? Any hard stone 6-7 in hardness should work. On my other post I show pieces of common chalcedony and jaspers done this way, and they took a great polish as well. The smoother the smoother the surface of the stone to start the better.
In find the candy rhyolite does the best with this process. Probably because most of it has a smoother surface to begin with, and because it is slightly softer than the chalcedonies and so the surface can wear a bit faster.
|
|
johnthor1963
starting to spend too much on rocks
Cattle dogs rock
Member since June 2023
Posts: 139
|
Post by johnthor1963 on Sept 12, 2023 15:41:53 GMT -5
Wow you really got rough shapes and a heck of a great polish on them (you must have really hard water). Lol Wondering what the the clean out looked like did you have small rock chips and a slurry of some kind. Polished rough shapes are cool I get a lot of that with crushed onyx. Looking forward to the next water tumble. Happy tumbling
|
|
pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,433
Member is Online
|
Post by pebblesky on Sept 12, 2023 15:46:45 GMT -5
Love how they look. I will definitely give that a try one day. Wondering if it is needed to tumble the rocks in a vibe? How about only rolling them in the rotary tumblers?
The candy rhyolite I got from you are definitely pleasant to tumble - they rarely show any fracture or chip, and are relatively easy to shape.
|
|
mgroothuis
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2022
Posts: 163
|
Post by mgroothuis on Sept 12, 2023 18:18:44 GMT -5
Wow, super interesting!
|
|
|
Post by vegasjames on Sept 12, 2023 19:55:01 GMT -5
Wow you really got rough shapes and a heck of a great polish on them (you must have really hard water). Lol Wondering what the the clean out looked like did you have small rock chips and a slurry of some kind. Polished rough shapes are cool I get a lot of that with crushed onyx. Looking forward to the next water tumble. Happy tumbling I add my rock chips for "grit" as the sharp little pieces can help clean out dirt, mud, lichens, moss, etc. I end up with small polished chips that are great for crafts.
I fill he barrels pretty full so the rocks do not slam against each other, but after sealing up the barrel I shake the barrels to make sure there is free movement still inside of them. Then I check the barrels every few days and wash out all the mud inside, and add more chops if needed.
Once cleaned up some, I also check the larger stones for obvious bad areas that can be chipped off or ground off. For instance, several of the pieces of candy rhyolite I an running are all from a large piece I broke up an it had a lot of purple inside. Looking great, but there were some really rough areas on the exterior that without grit would take a long time to break down. So, I took two of the pieces so far and ground off the rough areas so that more of the beautiful pattern will show.
|
|
|
Post by vegasjames on Sept 12, 2023 20:05:38 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by vegasjames on Sept 12, 2023 20:11:34 GMT -5
Love how they look. I will definitely give that a try one day. Wondering if it is needed to tumble the rocks in a vibe? How about only rolling them in the rotary tumblers? The candy rhyolite I got from you are definitely pleasant to tumble - they rarely show any fracture or chip, and are relatively easy to shape. I get a pretty good polish by just tumbling them with water and the chips, but the vibe tumbler gives them a super high polish. Maybe if I ran them a few weeks longer in the rotary I may get the same high polish.
I have some really cool quartz I ran for a little while in the rotary with just water and it is staring to take a really nice polish. Took them out temporarily to run some other stones but will probably load these back up and run them some more in the rotary.
|
|