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Post by puppie96 on Sept 12, 2004 1:18:35 GMT -5
Let's begin with the confession.
I need to head out to RA or TA or whatever it is, because I decided I needed a BIGGER tumbler so I found the Lortone that takes either 2 6-lb. or 1 12-lb. barrel, got what seemed to be a good price for the 2 barrel one and ordered the 12-lb. barrel separately. I am SO excited! Wouldn't you know it. The 12-lb. barrel arrived Friday (UPS) but the unit isn't going to get here till Monday (also UPS, different company shipping it).
Next, the question.
I have been assuming that bigger barrel = ability to tumble bigger rocks. However, I was just reading the generic Lortone instruction manual and it talks about upper end sizes of 3/4 inch to 1 inch! Well, obviously we are exceeding that by a lot much of the time, otherwise our polished pictures would look very different. However, some of the rocks I want to tumble are quite a bit bigger -- we are talking up to fist size (mine, which is small).
In a nutshell: WILL THIS WORK?
Obviously, I'm planning to tumble the large rocks with a balanced load containing mainly smaller ones.
THANKS! to anyone who knows anything!
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Sept 12, 2004 1:31:05 GMT -5
go ahead and put the big rocks in with some small filler I recently tried to tumble a rock about the size of a big grapefriut in a 6lb lortone barrel. I put it on the frame and watched it for awhile (mostly I tried to listen) after a few minutes it wasn't making enough noise and so I decided to open the barrel. the big rock was stuck almost in the center. So I broke out the 15lb barrel I bought on ebay awhile back and put it and almost all the coarse rock I had in it and it fit on my homemade frame so it is in coarse. it seems like you get a lot of "action" in the big barrel a thumlers model B barrel. will have to watch and see if I can buy another spare barrel.
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JKowalski33
spending too much on rocks
Member since August 2004
Posts: 451
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Post by JKowalski33 on Sept 12, 2004 2:03:15 GMT -5
I big grapefruit? thats huge!! at least for the grapefruits i've seen, that rock must have weighed at least 5 lbs! let us know if the bigger barrel gets it tumbled and polished well.
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MoonStone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2004
Posts: 202
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Post by MoonStone on Sept 12, 2004 6:50:56 GMT -5
Hello puppie96 :-) If you have the Lortone Manual "Professional Gemstone Tumbling - 580-34", that manual's info is quite general and related to all of their tumblers (specially the basic one barrel tumbler 3A). I'm currently tumbling some 1.5" rocks in my 33B and they are doing very well. My guess is, if they fit comfortably in the barrel they will do fine. Hope this helps a little :-)
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Sept 12, 2004 8:06:09 GMT -5
Hey puppie, I run rocks 3 to 4 inches quite often in my 15 pound Thumler's barrel with no problems. I sometimes run 6 to 8 at a time with small rocks to fill in the load. I have run a single 3 inch rock in my Lortone 4.5 pound barrel with small rocks as filler as well with good success.
Be carefull though because putting the larger rocks in can also be hard on the smaller rocks. The larger and heavier rocks can cause some impact damage, especially in the pre-polish and polish stages.
Ron
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Post by puppie96 on Sept 13, 2004 1:33:09 GMT -5
Hi! Thank you everyone for your responses, they were really helpful.
I've also gone up to 1-1/2 to 2 inches in my Lortone 33 barrels, no problem, except that the larger rocks are always slower. Seems like you guys assumed what I did, that bigger tumbler meant bigger max. size rocks, just not so big it could get stuck. It's reassuring to know that others have tried and been successful. I've also been wondering about the big rocks beating up on the smaller ones. However, this is pretty rough rock, and I've got a lot of intermediate size rocks too, so hopefully stuff will roll and not crash.
Might as well ask another question. Time wise, do these big barrels move things along any faster?
thanks again!
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Sept 13, 2004 14:47:42 GMT -5
In short, no. Only time saving is that more rock is produced at the end of each cycle.
Ron
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Post by puppie96 on Sept 14, 2004 3:35:17 GMT -5
Yeah Ron, I kinda figured that was the case. Still & all, though, if you keep pulling the good ones and adding more rough as I have done from the time I started tumbling, it doesn't take too long to accumulate a batch, and with the variety of smaller sized barrels that I have, it should be relatively easy to get a progression going on, and that will happen faster with the bigger barrel.
THERE! I have just wasted a lot of time saying the obvious... And all of it just to rationalize my disappointment that this BIG tumbler, which, BTW, arrived today, won't do rocks at warp speed.
No, not true, I am still happy. Having this BIG barrel gives me a great sense of freedom. I've just got too many piles of rocks that I'm dying to do, and it was driving me crazy thinking about doing all this with 3 and 1.5 pound barrels and one TV-5 vibe. AAARGH! I should live that long.
pup
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Post by BIRDSEED on Sept 14, 2004 3:41:23 GMT -5
Eat grapefruits..tumble rocks
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Sept 17, 2004 23:08:50 GMT -5
you will learn patience with this hobby or it will drive you crazy
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birdseed
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since September 2004
Posts: 167
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Post by birdseed on Sept 18, 2004 2:54:55 GMT -5
Some suggest getting a faster motor-some say use more grit-some even think that smaller stones shapEfaster than large ones---Bigger barrels... I SAY THIS...RELAX-HAVE A BEER-IT TAKES TIME..
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Sept 18, 2004 23:19:17 GMT -5
AMEN: have another beer
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RedwoodRocks
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 762
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Post by RedwoodRocks on Sept 18, 2004 23:23:46 GMT -5
...... then another beer
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Post by puppie96 on Sept 19, 2004 3:59:30 GMT -5
Oh, why not have a whole herd of beeersz? Oh, sorry I meant a sixpack not a herd.
(stolen from a very old commercial for Stag Beer. A classically surreal commercial directly from the Twilight Zone. anybody remember it?)
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deepsouth
fully equipped rock polisher
He who rocks last rocks best
Member since January 2004
Posts: 1,256
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Post by deepsouth on Sept 19, 2004 20:31:21 GMT -5
Then forget about driving and have a real nice long SNOOZE all the while dreaming of fast tumbling Jack
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