Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
|
Post by Steve on Jul 11, 2012 13:39:24 GMT -5
Here are some Montana agate slabs that I polished in the tumbler. These are among the best tumbles I ever done. It took several trial and error runs before I got it right. I've found that using the camera flash with the light box lights tend to reduce the glare. I had to use a back drop with these as the slabs acted like a mirror and I kept getting pictures of my shirt instead of the slab. First without the camera flash: Next, with the camera flash: Some more without flash, the flash picture didn't work at all, too much glare:
|
|
rockingthenorth
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2012
Posts: 1,637
|
Post by rockingthenorth on Jul 11, 2012 16:31:09 GMT -5
nice slabs
|
|
carloscinco
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,639
|
Post by carloscinco on Jul 11, 2012 18:10:19 GMT -5
Good looking slabs. Are you doing rotary or vibe?
|
|
Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
|
Post by Steve on Jul 12, 2012 11:21:27 GMT -5
These were done in a rotary with a lot of pea sized agates and plastic pellets.
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jul 12, 2012 11:51:01 GMT -5
Those are nice ones, good job
Chuck
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 12, 2012 14:32:04 GMT -5
Nice material!! Good job with the rotary. The red/orange is only found in a small percentage of nodules.
Bill
|
|
|
Post by FrogAndBearCreations on Jul 12, 2012 14:41:30 GMT -5
Montanas are so cool to work with! neat slabs!
|
|
|
Post by 3rdrockfromthefun on Jul 12, 2012 15:34:25 GMT -5
I would never in a million years have guessed you could tumble those - and not in 100 million that you could do it in a rotary tumbler! That in and of itself impresses me as much as the agate itself!
Nice and Nice!
|
|
|
Post by talkingstones on Jul 12, 2012 15:43:09 GMT -5
Beautiful job and in a rotary too! Impressive!!!!!! They came out beautifully!!!!!
Cathy
|
|
Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
|
Post by Steve on Jul 13, 2012 0:23:14 GMT -5
Thick layer of pea sized agates and jasper, that have already been tumbled to at least a prepolish, layer of plastic pellets, layer of slabs (one slab thick), reapeat until barrel is about 4/5 ths full. Run extra long at each stage and replace the plastic pellets when changing grit size. I also had extra polished pea sized agates to replace lost volume. I did a 2 month run with tripoly followed by a 2 month run with cerium. I had one slab that was stuck to the bottom of the barrel at the end of the tripoly run and didn't look as good as the others. I made sure that slab was in the middle for the cerium run and I couldn't distinguish it from the others at the end.
To get the slabs I put the nodules in plaster of paris in a milk carton. I then slabbed the block of plaster. After each cut you have to carefully check to make sure that there aren't any loose heels - they tend to rotate and bind up the saw. It only took the saw binding up once to teach me that lesson.
|
|
stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
|
Post by stefan on Jul 18, 2012 10:24:38 GMT -5
Just can't go wrong with montanas! Gotta be one of my favorite agates to tumble.
|
|
riverrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2010
Posts: 1,395
|
Post by riverrock on Jul 19, 2012 12:38:29 GMT -5
i like the one that looks a little like a pig.
|
|