Tommy
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Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,717
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Post by Tommy on Aug 12, 2013 23:09:01 GMT -5
OK Feather Ridge plume agate to be specific. I was lucky enough to get a few little slabs of this beautiful material from the latest sale on Rare Rocks and Gems. This stuff is like swiss cheese and so hoping for the best I took the plunge and went through the procedures this weekend to seal the slabs with Opticon. Without having done that I doubt if this thin cab would have stayed together but it did and it is a beauty :-) It has some surface features and two tiny druzy areas but they aren't noticeable and I'm not going to worry about them. Thanks for looking.
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Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,557
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Post by Tom on Aug 12, 2013 23:11:32 GMT -5
That is one sweet cab!
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Post by rockpickerforever on Aug 13, 2013 9:46:22 GMT -5
Tantalizing! Nice stone and great work! It was definitely worth the extra steps to Opticon it - the difference between a beautiful cab and a bunch of rock crumbles.
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 13, 2013 10:57:02 GMT -5
Wow! What a gemmy looking plume! You are a step ahead of me. I just ordered some opticon. Did you use the tute here on Rth? Do you have any comments for a newbie?
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,717
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Post by Tommy on Aug 13, 2013 13:51:46 GMT -5
Thanks all! This was one of those exciting cabs that I wanted to start taking pictures of after the 600 grit revealed I had gotten all the scratches and low spots. Every time I get emotionally invested it ends up breaking or burning on the higher grits haha.
Tela, I very definitely did use Bobby’s tute with a few mod. Kind of a cross between the package instructions and the tutorial. I used a digital remote thermometer (the kind that the probe sticks into a prime-rib and the unit sits outside the stove) and I was able to regulate the temperature to slight fluctuations between 148 and 155 degrees by raising or lowering the lamp. It took about an hour to get to a regulated temperature so all together the slabs soaked for around four hours. After soaking I cleaned the slabs and coated them liberally with the hardener-activated mix and let them slowly cool to room temperature. I took a couple of pictures and might start a thread later if I can.
In hind sight I wish I had done a few things better – I fixed around 10 slabs of Dryhead Agate that had a single well-defined fracture through them and I wish I had been more careful and used less of the activated mix and focused on only the cracks and pits. With the Dryheads, Feather Ridge, and several slabs of a heavily fractured colorful jasper I collected at Burris Creek it all became kind of a big sticky mess that took a long time to dry. The other thing I wish I had done was have a wire rack or something prepared to hold the slabs while they dried overnight. I coated both sides of all the slabs then set them down on tin-foil and of course they stuck fast to the tin-foil despite my best efforts to crinkle the foil to allow air underneath the slabs. So those things were a pain. Future endeavors will be focused on smaller quantities and see if I can keep it from getting out of control again hahaha.
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Post by pghram on Aug 13, 2013 13:53:54 GMT -5
If you had not mentioned it, I would never had know that you sealed it, it worked great. That is a beautiful cab with great colors, it was well worth the effort.
Rich
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,717
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Post by Tommy on Aug 13, 2013 14:10:48 GMT -5
If you had not mentioned it, I would never had know that you sealed it, it worked great. That is a beautiful cab with great colors, it was well worth the effort. Rich Thanks rich the reality is that there is very little sealer in this cab if any at all. The feather Ridge had lots of little pits on the surface of the slab but any of those that got filled in quickly got ground away. I just wanted to make sure I didn't hit any hidden fractures and have it break on me.
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 13, 2013 17:09:58 GMT -5
Thanks Tommy, I'll keep that in mind. Mine should be here in a few days.
I want to do this in the house. It's flippin hot outside with no garage or shed with A/C. Did you find the fumes real bad?
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,717
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Post by Tommy on Aug 13, 2013 17:21:19 GMT -5
Ugg… yeah it smelled pretty strong. It could have been a lot worse because I was in my garage with the big door and back door open and a fan running. Even still it was making me a bit nauseous while cabbing or sitting at my garage desk wrapping. I wouldn’t recommend doing it in anything less than a very well ventilated space.
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 13, 2013 17:22:39 GMT -5
Darn, I was afraid you were going to say that. Thanks!
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Post by vegasjames on Aug 13, 2013 19:18:15 GMT -5
Great colors and pattern.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,717
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Post by Tommy on Aug 13, 2013 22:52:13 GMT -5
Darn, I was afraid you were going to say that. Thanks! Hahaha sorry! yeah it's some stinky stuff. Don't let that deter you though.
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Post by kk on Aug 14, 2013 8:35:08 GMT -5
The depth of those plumes is fantastic. Excellent job you have done there.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,717
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Post by Tommy on Aug 14, 2013 15:50:08 GMT -5
Thanks Kurt! It’s rocks like this that make me wish I had a macro-camera to try to capture what’s going on inside. Amazing stuff for sure.
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Post by Bikerrandy on Aug 14, 2013 20:09:07 GMT -5
Amazing depth, beautiful cab!!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Aug 14, 2013 20:47:50 GMT -5
that's a beautiful stone and you sure did a great job on it.
Chuck
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