kenney21
off to a rocking start
Member since November 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by kenney21 on Nov 24, 2011 14:28:14 GMT -5
Hello Everyone. I'm brand new to the hobby and brand new to this board. I recently bought a Ratech VT5 vibrating tumbler. I bought a grit kit off ebay which doesn't list the number on the grit but rather referred to each bag as "rough grind" "fine grind" "pre-polish" and "polish."
I recently ran 2 1/2 pounds of rocks through the tumbler along with two sizes of ceramic media. One pound of Leopard Skin Jasper, one pound of Prairie Agate, and one half pound of Petrified Wood.
The first three stages went fine each lasting about a week. Between each stage I tumbled the rocks overnight in Borax soap to clean them. Prior to the polishing stage, I noticed that the rocks were smooth as a baby's behind and had already taken on a little bit of a shine. I have a separate bowl for the polishing stage.
After 5 days of the polishing stage, I checked the rocks and the Agates were gorgeous and half of the Petrified Wood had a nice shine as well. The Jaspers however seemed to be going in the wrong direction. They felt rougher than before I started the polish stage and seemed to have lost the shine they had before I started it. I removed the other rocks from the tumbler am now going to see if a few more days in the polishing stage will help.
Any suggestions as to what I did wrong or need to do would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Nov 24, 2011 14:43:30 GMT -5
Hello,welcome.I would have done the agates and wood separate from the leopardskin jasper.I've never been able to get a shine on any leopardskin to compare with agates.Maybe someone else has the secret to good leopardskin.
snuffy
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Post by susand24224 on Nov 24, 2011 15:03:23 GMT -5
I agree with Snuffy. The Leopard skin I have done (several batches) tends to undercut. I always run it alone--it is softer overall than agates and most petrified wood.
You can get a decent shine on *parts* of the Leopardskin, and the amount that undercuts varies from rock to rock, but it has never been the perfect "overall" shine that you get with agates and petrified wood.
You almost did right with the combination that you had. Most jaspers are just fine in there with the agates, as are most petrified woods. But there are exceptions in both of those. Certain jaspers and petrified woods cannot go in with agates and you had the misfortune of picking one of those.
Also, you might want to be careful and the type of grit you are getting. 60/90 grit or thereabouts is what is usually started with in rotaries. It is too coarse for frequent use in a vibe, though, and you may prematurely ruin your barrel.
I'm not familiar with Raytechs, so if I'm wrong about the grit I hope someone else will chime in.
Susan
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Post by susand24224 on Nov 24, 2011 15:08:18 GMT -5
I neglected to mention--when I have a harder rock eat up a softer one (like your leopardskins) I go back to 1000 grit for a spin before repolishing. Repolishing often is not enough to repair the damage. Your prepolish is probably 1000 grit or something close to it. If that doesn't repair, go back to "fine." A day for either one should be sufficient.
What has happened is that the grit helps cushion the softer rocks--when you move on to polish, there's not as much cushion.
Susan
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Nov 24, 2011 16:04:20 GMT -5
Susan is right about the grit.Those 4 stage grits are normally for rotaries.I think 200 or above is recommended for 1st stage in vibes,which is the fine most likely in your packs.
snuffy
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Post by connrock on Nov 25, 2011 9:21:47 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure the Raytech T-5 has a plastic bowl and if so the rough 60/90 grit would wear the bowl out pretty fast. The rougher grits are pretty tough on even the rubber barreled vibe units which is one of the reasons why most of us who have vibe units use a rotary tumbler to rough our rocks in. The other reason we use a rotary for the rough stage is because a rotary rounds off the rocks much more then a vibe will.
Some people like to rough their rocks in a vibe because they like a more natural look to their polished rocks but this is only personal preference.
I've roughed a lot of rocks in both the rotary and vibe and even though I have very durable rubber barrels in my vibe I VERY seldom use grit rougher then 220 graded grit and have had barrels last over 10 years running pretty much 24/7/365.
I think everyone else has covered your polishing problem already but will add that Leopard Skin Jasper can be a difficult jasper t polish. I,like others here,have had mixed results with it but I find that doing it by itself using a lot of "cushion" such as plastic pellets or other plastic media helps to not get the undercutting as bad.
"Undercutting" ,,,,occurs when you polish rocks that have different hardness areas within the same rock,,,such as Leopard Skin Jasper. The hard areas don't get ground down as fast as the softer areas so the soft areas get "undercut". With Leopard kin Jasper,I find that the closer and smaller those "orbs" are in the rock,the better the shine will be.
Leopard Skin Jasper doesn't like "long runs' especially in a vibe as this tends to do more undercutting then if the run was only as long as necessary to achieve good enough results to continue on to the next stage.
It's a very pretty jasper but it's just one of those that needs a little TLC!
Good luck,,,,,
connrock
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 25, 2011 9:24:21 GMT -5
Howdy, Leopardskin Jasper ( misnamed) is actually an orbicular rhyolite that varies greatly in hardness and porosity. Much of it will not take a good polish tough sometimes a really well silicified hunk will. Pet wood is also not always highly replaced with silica. Mot will polish much like good agate and jasper but the occasional piece will not polish due to insufficient quartz content...Mel
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Post by 150FromFundy on Nov 25, 2011 16:24:47 GMT -5
I have worked some Leopardskin that took an amazing shine for cabs on a flat lap but undercut in my UV-10. The tumbling process is a little too rough for Leopardskin.
Darryl.
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kenney21
off to a rocking start
Member since November 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by kenney21 on Nov 26, 2011 16:15:24 GMT -5
Thank you everyone for the advice. I would have responded sooner but had a sudden medical emergency to deal with. Thankfully God was looking out for me. I appreciate all the suggestions and help. I just checked on the leopard skins and their appearance is improving. I'm going to pull a few out of the tumbler tomorrow and check on them, and I'll let you all know how they look. I love the hobby and this forum is awesome. Thanks again.
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kenney21
off to a rocking start
Member since November 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by kenney21 on Nov 29, 2011 8:59:49 GMT -5
Like many of you alluded to, I got mixed results with my Leopard Skins. Some have a decent shine (nothing like the agates of course) , but not too bad. The good news is that the rock I liked best, the biggest one, looks the best of all. Some probably need to go through another per-polish stage, but overall I am not disappointed. Thanks for all your suggestions. I found them to be very helpful.
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