jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 21, 2014 4:00:12 GMT -5
After 2 years of hard use I am making new coarse grit tumbler barrel. I tumble very sharp and hard material and run it fast in coarse grit. The large barrel is 36 inches long and must hold 35-40 pounds for coarse grind. The end cap is the first to wear thru so I just cut the end of and glue another cap on. Which makes the barrel 2.5 inches shorter. I also fill the web on the reducer bushing with silicone caulk as it can wear thru. The shorter barrels are for 220,500 and polish and have no wear problems. I have 8 inch PVC barrels too. But the fittings are expensive. But after 2 years of running both I prefer the coarse grind in the faster turning 6 inch barrels. The 6 inch barrels on coarse grind run a fast 60 RPM, the 8 inch a slower 45 RPM. Because they are loud barrels you can hear the grinding action. The faster turning 6 inch barrels sound much more vigorous. And grind the rock a good bit faster at 60 RPM than the 8 inch barrels at 45 RPM. Not sure why, but it works out that way. Piece of 6 inch sch 40 PVC pipe as long as you need for your barrel to be Piece of 4 inch sch 40 PVC pipe about 5 inches long PVC cement silicon caulk Fernco 4 inch rubber cap $7.65 6 inch coupling @ Lowes $11.56 6 inch DWV end cap $15.11 6 inch to 4 inch reducer bushing I do bevel the inside of the pipe so small rocks will not jam on the inside at the joints and possibly trap grit.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 21, 2014 4:48:00 GMT -5
Two 6 inch barrels about 18 inches long screaming along in coarse grit at 60 RPM. One turn per second.... Each holds 16 pounds. They have been replaced by one 36 inch long barrel. They are loud...
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Post by connrock on Jul 22, 2014 7:40:58 GMT -5
The 60 RPM's sounds fast but I would imagine you've experimented a bit! LOL How long does it take to finish a rough load in the 6" barrel,,,I assume it's the coral you're tumbling? Do you do your glass in the same tumblers? connrock
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 22, 2014 9:55:57 GMT -5
The coral is slow to grind. Coarse grind about 6 weeks and do about 6 grit changes. But use another set of shafts to do the 220,500 and polish at only 30 RPM. The 60 RPM is real fast and only for coarse grit, too violent to get a good finish at that speed. I added another set of shafts to the above tumbler with a 1/2 speed reduction connrock.
But tinkering with 6 and 8 inch barrels at 60 and 45 RPM respectfully I find the fast turning 6 inch barrel grinds a good bit faster. I had to redo the barrels and went with the 6 inch diameter for the faster grind reason alone. You can hear the grinding action in those hard plastic barrels.
That coral does not need much time in 220,500 and polish, like 5 days each. The delay is the darn coarse grind. Always have a big coarse grit cost. The finish grits I use very little.
Trying to perfect that long process of coarse grinding. Never did speed the 8 inch barrels. But was getting some chipping in them at just 45 RPM. Guessing the fall was too abusive. And could hear clunking sounds.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 22, 2014 11:56:26 GMT -5
The 60 RPM's sounds fast but I would imagine you've experimented a bit! LOL How long does it take to finish a rough load in the 6" barrel,,,I assume it's the coral you're tumbling? Do you do your glass in the same tumblers? connrock[/quote I always try to round them pretty much. The coral is slow to grind. Coarse grind about 6 weeks and do about 6 grit changes. But use another set of shafts to do the 220,500 and polish at only 30 RPM. The 60 RPM is real fast and only for coarse grit, too violent to get a good finish at that speed. I added another set of shafts to the above tumbler with a 1/2 speed reduction connrock. But tinkering with 6 and 8 inch barrels at 60 and 45 RPM respectfully I find the fast turning 6 inch barrel grinds a good bit faster. I had to redo the barrels and went with the 6 inch diameter for the faster grind reason alone. You can hear the grinding action in those hard plastic barrels. That coral does not need much time in 220,500 and polish, like 5 days each. The delay is the darn coarse grind. Always have a big coarse grit cost. The finish grits I use very little. Trying to perfect that long process of coarse grinding. Never did speed the 8 inch barrels. But was getting some chipping in them at just 45 RPM. Guessing the fall was too abusive. And could hear clunking sounds. and the 6 inch barrel breaks the grit down faster than the 8 inch ones do at their faster RPM. Guess that means there is more abrasion The glass would get frosted at that fast speed. I would do it on the 30 RPM shafts. Since I about always tumble coral it was easy to tell what speeds and diameters worked best for the coral. And do tumble Texas jaspers, mosses and banded stuff the same way.
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Post by connrock on Jul 23, 2014 8:49:10 GMT -5
A long time ago I read something about the ratio between the diameter of a barrel and it's length and which dia/lgth worked best.There was also some reading about multi-sided barrels v smooth barrels. Of course the bigger the barrel the slower the RPM's and the smaller ones turned much slower. I guess we all try to speed up that dreaded coarse grind but all in all it is what it is and there's really no way to do it. The only way I've found to speed up the 220,500 and polish stages is to use a vibe which also saves a LOT on grit and polish. I was working on a construction site years ago and there was a LOT of 24" PVC pipe laying around.I kept telling myself to grab a couple pieces of it but (as usual) didn't and the job was over. I did try using 30 grit to speed up the roughing but it turned out to be a catch 22 because I still had to do a run in 60/90 to smooth the rocks down! LOL It was hard to get the #30 to break down too.I had to use MUCH less water and add it as the slurry got thick and also had to run the barrel at twice the normal speed to get the grit to completely break down. connrock
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 23, 2014 10:56:24 GMT -5
A long time ago I read something about the ratio between the diameter of a barrel and it's length and which dia/lgth worked best.There was also some reading about multi-sided barrels v smooth barrels. Of course the bigger the barrel the slower the RPM's and the smaller ones turned much slower. I guess we all try to speed up that dreaded coarse grind but all in all it is what it is and there's really no way to do it. The only way I've found to speed up the 220,500 and polish stages is to use a vibe which also saves a LOT on grit and polish. I was working on a construction site years ago and there was a LOT of 24" PVC pipe laying around.I kept telling myself to grab a couple pieces of it but (as usual) didn't and the job was over. I did try using 30 grit to speed up the roughing but it turned out to be a catch 22 because I still had to do a run in 60/90 to smooth the rocks down! LOL It was hard to get the #30 to break down too.I had to use MUCH less water and add it as the slurry got thick and also had to run the barrel at twice the normal speed to get the grit to completely break down. connrock The vibe is the ultimate finisher. Hands down. It's that coarse part that I try to perfect. I know that those rocks have to rub against each other to wear. If they bounce against each other you will get little rubbing... And then I thought about fast rubbing and slow rubbing. Or heavy rubbing and light rubbing in terms of weight or pressure. Or is the 'avalanche' within the small barrel active deeper in the barrel and the bigger barrel acting only on the very top layer of rocks. Shallow water has tall peaky short waves that roll and break and deep water has low long waves that never break. And a tumbler is basically a standing wave or avalanche I guess. So I concluded that the only question is big diameter and slow better than small diameter and fast. And doubt that manufacturers want to deal with a fast spinning tumbler for many reasons such as noise and wear. So I am suspicious of a fast tumble being avoided period. But my experience has been that smaller and faster is most efficient. And the sound in the fast,small diameter barrel sounds like fast rubbing. And maybe I think too much,ha. But thought it worthwhile to experiment with. And is there an optimum speed and diameter? Certainly rock size and fill level would have some influence. If the barrel was 3 inches in diameter i think you would not get much rubbing. If the barrel was 120 inches in diameter I am not sure what all is going on. And does the faster speed spread the grit more evenly? Interesting point about running the 30 grit w/less water. Was it washing off ? Or settling ? I do run 30/60 mix and have to go on the dry side. The coral has a layer of limestone that comes off in coarse grind. It makes a pasty slurry that sticks pretty well in the first 2 days. Then I add a little water. Sometimes the coral has sticky clay on it also that does the same thing. I am not so sure that tossing a bit of limestone in the tumbler is not a bad idea for a quick slurry.
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Post by connrock on Jul 24, 2014 9:31:50 GMT -5
Something I always try to stress with newbies is "surface contact",,,NOT that you are a newbie! LOL The more surface contact you have between the rocks the faster and better the rocks will wear down in the rough stage and the smoother the surface will be in the remaining cycles including the polishing.The only way to get a lot of surface contact is to have a LOT of small rocks in the load.The norm is 1/3 of the load being small rocks but I like to use about 1/2 the load.This of course sacrifices the amount of the type of rocks we are polishing but it does speed up the process. I think your 6' barrels turning faster will rough in faster then the bigger barrels turning slower but the only true way to know is to try it in a controlled experiment.Same amount of rocks,grit and water for the same length of time???
When I first tried the #30 grit I used the normal amount of water to just under the top layer of rocks.I let it run for 7 days and when I opened the 15 lb barrel,, that ran at 22 RPM's ,,I had dirty water with little or no grit break down.I cut back on the water to about the center of the height of the rocks and ran that for 7 days with a little better results but still a LOT of grit that wasn't broken down.I cut the water back again to about 1/4 of the height of the rocks but after another 7 days the grit was still not broken down much at all.
About a year before all of this I got my hands on a brand new Thumler's Model B for 50 bucks but it had the faster motor for doing brass reloads in it. For the heck of it I tried the 30 grit with water about 1/4 way up the rocks running at twice the normal speed and I got a tick slurry in 2 days!I checked the rocks and they were OK and not chipped or cracked so I added water and ran it again for 2 more days and added water for the finally run of about 2-3 days. The thing was that I ran the load for about 7 days but still had to do 2 runs in 60/90 to smooth the rocks enough to continue the normal grit cycles! I had 11 tumblers going at the time and was still working so I was as busy as a 1 armed wall paper hanger after work every day tending to tumblers. Running the #30 grit just didn't seem to be the thing to do so I abandoned the whole idea and went back to the "normal" roughing!Another thing I found with 2 different suppliers was I found what looked like VERY tiny pieces of wood filler in the #30 grit.It may have been "floor sweepings" from the suppliers floor and I don't really know what it was after looking at it with a 10x loupe but it WAS there.
I don't know if throwing limestone in is a good idea? I've read on here that some people use old slurry to "get the load working faster" and to me having a premature slurry only makes it harder for the grit to actually come in contact with the rocks being roughed in?It like adding ceramic media or plastic pellets to cushion the load??? I don't know,,,,some people swear buy it but I've never even tried it! LOL connrock
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 24, 2014 10:22:55 GMT -5
There are a lot of variables. It is hard to get an apples for apples experiment. I am repetitive in what I tumble. Size of rocks, type and mix etc. Many flat rocks...like chips. I can imagine a lot of variables. I probably gave up on the 'whys' and started recording the 'how longs'. I will say that coarse grind on the 30 RPM shafts takes way longer. So the 60 RPM speed made a big difference there. But that may be that way for my material.... No doubt that a mix of sizes is required. I find 3 barrels is a workout. 11 ?!?, that is big work out. To take a break from grinding hard material these whole corals are only a week or two in coarse. They are a relief and give quick gratification. Lots of limestone. I have to laugh at the limestone thing. I tumble the bulk of that stuff off w/out any grit just to remove most of the limestone. It takes about 2-3 days. Let me show you what the slurry looks like: Before (left) and after (right) And this coral had the same coating before it was tumbled and had no idea what was under the limestone covering: That slurry is the finest lime additive for plants. It is so fine grained that the plants use it quickly. The size reduction is huge and I have to keep adding more rocks. Lots of lime. I hate pre-grinding tumbles, but i have to say it makes the best. And does not take long to coarse bring them. If some one would come up with a pre-grinding machine....
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 24, 2014 13:25:45 GMT -5
I wonder if long barrels are better too. The ends of my PVC barrels are about worn out after two years. Makes me suspicious that the rocks are dragging on the ends. disturbing the roll of rocks? Short vs long... Short may tumble faster, I do not know. I think Covington makes longer barrels. the barrel i just made is 6 inch PVC but 3 feet long. a freak. Hope it grinds faster. It is difficult to get the rocks out of. I just wash it out slanted upward and leave the rocks in at grit changes. This is a 12 pound Covington barrel. it is the only long barrel they make though.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 24, 2014 13:38:30 GMT -5
You mentioned getting a quick slurry in the brass tumbler. To me a quick slurry is quicker grinding. Really, those 60 RPM barrels have creamed the 30/60 in 4 days. No big particles left. And often do a clean out every 4 days. I have no concerns w/throwing grit away because it is done coarse grinding as far as i am concerned. Maybe it is crushing it, but the rocks round fast if I do the 4 day grit replacements. I have poured the slurry out and spread it on an old bed sheet and the 30's and 60's are gone. it's just cream.
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Post by connrock on Jul 25, 2014 9:49:04 GMT -5
You're right about all the variables.It seems like something always enters into the "equation" somewhere down the road and what you already did was for nothing! LOL I did a LOT of experimenting with the Lot-O-Tumbler trying to get the best possible shine on my rocks in the shortest amount of time and it was quite a trip to do!Our daughter and son-in-law were living with us at the time and he said he would have quit a long time ago! LOL After all was said and done I found that in order to get the shine I was after it took longer then a "normal" run through the grit/polish stages! LOL With all those rotary tumblers roughing in the rocks,1 Lot-O wasn't enough to keep up so I had to buy another one. That's some serious slurry on your hand! Very similar to what I got after 2 days in the 30 grit.That much dried up fast in CT indoors in winter so it must be like cake fast down there where you live,,,and out in the hot sun too! LOL I don't have anywhere outdoors(especially in winter) to wash my rocks so I had to make a "set-up" in here.A REAL pain in the butt with all those tumblers running!Right now I don't have a single tumbler running!I slowed down a LOT after I retired, mostly due to the cost of grit but I also got into making silver jewelery and then working with copper when silver became too expensive for me!Can't have everything so the tumbling went to the side. It’s amazing how much of the limestone grinds off without any grit!Do you put any hard rocks in with it or just “as is”?If it wasn’t such a pain in the neck to sort after you might be able to put some broken glass in with the as is coral???
“And this coral had the same coating before it was tumbled and had no idea what was under the limestone covering:”
Have these been through a grit run or only done by themselves? Very pretty in any case! I’ve only done about 10lbs of Florida coral I bought on line and some I was given.I put the pieces in “as is” with 60/90 and to say I had a thick slur in a hurry would be a true understatement! LOL In the end they came out beautiful and really surprised me how well they took a shine.
A pre-grinding machine,,,,,,Next time you go to the junk yard see if they have any carbide inserts from machine shops.Carbide may be expensive but if you can get a deal on it,,,throw it in with your “as is” coral and see if it grinds the limestone off faster.It may even pre-grind the hard coral itself too??? connrock
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Post by connrock on Jul 25, 2014 10:24:13 GMT -5
Somehow a 6" barrel turning at 60 RPM' seems all wrong to me!It doesn't seem like the rocks have the time to actually "tumble" but maybe with the smooth ID of the plastic pipe they do?You ARE getting a thick slurry so it HAS to be working but it just goes against everything I've learned about tumbler size and speeds! LOL The only thing I can think of concerning the long 36" barrel is that if the coral gets "separated" by size in the barrel it won't be able to mix in with the smaller pieces again??? Dunno?? The proof is in the pudding,,,or in this case the slurry! LOL The ends of the barrels(rubber gaskets) always wear out pretty fast on my tumblers so what you're getting with wear seems normal to me.If the eds were rubber they'd probably last longer but I don't know how you could do that? “Getting the rocks out is difficult.”Maybe instead of having the end of the barrel like you have it(solid plastic) you could use a rubber plumbers test plug? Here's a few that Grainger carries,,,,just to give you an idea??? test plugsconnrock
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 25, 2014 10:26:01 GMT -5
Experimenting has been interesting. That part intrigues. Glad it is over though, now I feel like things are set up best for given situation. Can load barrels, close eyes, and let them fly!!Yea
Cleaning and washing is a big deal. I know a lot of people run tumblers in their basement. And in cold environments. Got to be an issue. Tumbling is work when running a lot of material. One of those things you need to love to do. Take a reprieve and come back to it. Meantime pursue other stuff. retired ?? Do what you darn well please. You paid your dues.
You probably like to test your skills on the metal work. Tumbling does not give satisfaction in that area so much.
That limestone coating is full of silicified splinters from the coral. It is very abrasive. No problem using it to grind itself off.
Those corals were tumbled like any other agate, just not requiring a long time in coarse grit. Some have to be tumbled longer to get the best surface wear. So they are kind of categorized by wear. Once a load is worn to the right amount they go into the 220 and finished. An evolving process.
I did buy 3 pounds of diamond segments and tried them for coarse grind. They were like rectangular dice. I guess they were meant to have pressure and speed to cut, like mounted on a saw blade. They did not have much effect. Tungsten carbide may be a different animal though.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 25, 2014 10:43:21 GMT -5
Somehow a 6" barrel turning at 60 RPM' seems all wrong to me!It doesn't seem like the rocks have the time to actually "tumble" but maybe with the smooth ID of the plastic pipe they do?You ARE getting a thick slurry so it HAS to be working but it just goes against everything I've learned about tumbler size and speeds! LOL The only thing I can think of concerning the long 36" barrel is that if the coral gets "separated" by size in the barrel it won't be able to mix in with the smaller pieces again??? Dunno?? The proof is in the pudding,,,or in this case the slurry! LOL The ends of the barrels(rubber gaskets) always wear out pretty fast on my tumblers so what you're getting with wear seems normal to me.If the eds were rubber they'd probably last longer but I don't know how you could do that? “Getting the rocks out is difficult.”Maybe instead of having the end of the barrel like you have it(solid plastic) you could use a rubber plumbers test plug? Here's a few that Grainger carries,,,,just to give you an idea??? test plugsconnrock The speed thing came up when I bought a barrel of thin wall PVC pipe on ebay from a man named Bob Bleak. It wore out in 2 months and I complained to him. He was the one that told me to run it faster so that the rocks would not slide in the barrel. It helped. But those barrels were too thin so I built my own out of sch 40 instead of thin wall SDR 35. The sch 40 barrels are hard to wear out at any speed. Just better plastic and thicker. But he was the one that told me to run them so fast. And I was pleased with the speed increase. I was worried about centrifugal force too. But it seems they roll well at that speed. I can hear them from a long ways making that grinding sound. I figure they are doing their job. That hard barrel may send more impact thru the rocks, like tapping on a carb with a wrench to loosen debris. Making the rocks roll better. I would never run an octagonal barrel at that speed. The long barrel will be cut in half and made into two if it does not behave !! It will get 6 grit changes every 4 days and rocks will be appraised for wear. That is the standard test . If it decides to put smalls to the left and bigs to the right-chop suey.
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Post by connrock on Jul 26, 2014 8:23:42 GMT -5
I liked the experimenting ,but like you, am happy it's over with.It's nice to be able to know what's going on in the barrels without looking all the time.I try to tell newbies to earn to listen to the barrels and get to know the different sounds. When we get to a pint where we can hear something wrong from a distance(like you do)and without really listening for it(subconsciously),,,,we're in pretty good shape! Experiments gone wrong: About 20 years ago I was experimenting with different types of cushion/fillers in one of my Lortone 6 lb tumblers.I started a load of Apache Tears in 60/90 for about 2 days and figured I better get something in there as a cushion before they all chipped.I had ceramic media but wanted to try something different just to see what happened. It was about an hour before I had to leave for work and I remembered I had 2 big bags of uncooked rice left over from a flounder fishing trip where we used the rice to attract the fish. I heated up the barrel and Tears in HOT water,,,filled the barrel as usual and tossed in the rice. When I got home from work I found the cover from the barrel about 15' from the exploded barrel with cooked rice a LOT of dirty water and Tears everywhere! I guess between the rice cooking/expanding and the gas from the Tears I created a "pressure cooker" with the tumbler! LOL The lid made a BIG dent in the sheet rock wall where it hit! LOL Had to cross uncooked rice off my cushion/filler list! connrock
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 26, 2014 9:52:06 GMT -5
Dried beans, they will blow up a pressure cooker. Rice, it swells upon wetting too. Pipe bomb Mr. conrock. But that can be the fun part of experimenting. I unscrewed the band clamp off of a bulging rubber cap and it fired off. I had my hand over it to keep it from flying and it slightly sprained my wrist. Lots of force when small pressure spreads over a tumbler cover.
I am glad it popped off when you were away. Pressure cooker comes to mind. Perfect descript.
I did have a little grit piled up at the cap end on that 36" barrel. More than the 18 inchers. Say 2 tablespoons. I washed it back into the rocks. it happens at the 6" to 4 " reducer on these PVC ones. It seems to be working well. It was on the wet side(washing the grit), so i drained some water off to get her tackier.
The guy I bought that thin wall barrel from said to use newspaper for thickener. i have to say that I like the limestone. It was an accident since the coral has it on it. It seems to act as a slightly caustic detergent to. Corals have a dirty limestone layer at start. After being ground off any sign of brown dirt has disappeared and slurry is super white like that on my hand.
It makes sense to have a single giant dedicated coarse grind barrel and a bunch of smaller finish barrels. Do the coarse in bulk since it takes so darn long. Kinda reduces grit change confusion.
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Post by connrock on Jul 27, 2014 6:30:21 GMT -5
Experimenting is fun at times as long as something moves forward once in a while and you learn from each trial and error.Trying to theorize what's going to happen before hand and what actually happens is the fun part but cleaning up a mess isn't! LOL It's when when what actually happens ends up what you though would happen that you're finally learning something and it's time for the next phase! Boy am I happy I didn't have any dried beans here that morning with the rice experiment! LOL I've tried different things as thickeners,Caro Syrup,sugar,newspaper,saw dust,,,even threw in some grass clippings once!The only thing I ever got out of all of them was a bigger mess to clean up and I don't really think any of them are truly necessary.Cushion/fillers yes,,thickeners no! I think I do fairly well polishing rocks without using any thickeners but how do any of us really know how good we're doing?I ,for one,have never had anyone's polished rocks to compare mine with.I've sent a LOT of mine out to people but have only received very few from others who tumble. Hoe good is good,,,how perfect is perfect?We're our own judges in most cases and there are polished rocks then there's polished rocks! I constantly see people asking when it's time to take rocks out of the rough and move them on.I also see people polishing rocks that shouldn't have gone in the tumbler in the first place,,,,in my opinion. I see polished rocks here in the photo section that are all flawed with pits,cracks and concave areas yet they get raves from others here.In my case,I'm here to try to help and I don't believe in Everyone Get's A Trophy but I don't want to get my head chopped off if I "but in" and say,,,your rocks need work,,when everyone else is saying what a wonderful job you've done!I may be the odd sort but I like to call a spade a spade and I don't hand out trophies very often,,,How the heck did I get on this subject??? :)Old minds wonder I guess??? LOL All I need now is to drool a little and I'll be a drooling,babbling,old fart/vegetable! LOL Where were we? Oh,,,now I remember what I was gunna say,,,,, That grit you're finding in the "end cap" probably gets there right in the beginning before the slurry starts? It washes in there and just stays there? Washing the rocks,,,, Many years ago I thought about making a tumbler barrel out of PVC pipe similar you yours.The barrel would have rabbit hutch screen at the end of the barrel where the rocks go in and out and the back end of the barrel would have a female garden hose adapter in it,,,,,plugged of course. When it was time to wash the rocks,,,,stand the barrel up on end with the hose adapter on top,,unscrew the other end and hook the hose to it to wash the rocks out without having a mess and having to take the rocks out. This never happened because as I told you,I don't have anywhere to wash rocks out doors and it's way too cold in winter even if I did. Ok James,,,gotta go get a bowl cuz I'm droolin pretty bad and it's gettin on my key board! connrock
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 27, 2014 7:04:23 GMT -5
The hose wash fitting is a cool idea. If you had two, you could flush from one hose and drain to the yard from another....
Yea, that grit is fresh. Must have a little dead spot. As soon as the slurry gets going it seems to carry it off. Or can be washed it into the batch.
So you have tried all those fillers and it only made a mess. Like you said earlier, a good mix of sizes works darn good. The tiny tumbles at 1 cent each attracted kids at my friends rock booth. Then come the parents. He said those tiny tumbles helped his sales a lot. I do run sugar in polish. For lubricant and slight thickener. Almost as a safety blanket. Again, smalls will do the same thing.
I do see a lot of various levels of shape and finish posted. It takes a lot of time and attention to get fine tumbles. Judging what should and should not be tumbled is key I suppose. Some rocks do not break well too. With out fracturing or having concave areas. Those with Lotto's do crank out some amazing shines. It is hard to tell by comparing. Like no easy way to measure shine.
I think people that remove the duds and replace with good rocks do best at tumbling. Or fix the defects on a grinder of some sort. It amazes me how fast the coarse grind is if rocks are pre-shaped. Saves $$$ on grit and electricity, but a monotonous task.
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Post by connrock on Jul 28, 2014 9:22:15 GMT -5
I kinda like the smalls rather then the "additives".I used to be able to buy very nice mechanical top bottles on line for about $.75 each.I had to buy a case of 12 but that was OK cuz I used a lot of them filled with the 1 cent rocks like your friend has.I bought the bottles 2 or 3 times and had a small stock pile of them.I started running low on the bottles and when I went to order them again they went up to about $2.50 each,,plush shipping from either Italy or Spain,,,can't remember.The bottles were 3-1/2" x 2",,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The smalls end up being a "byproduct". Yes choosing the right rocks makes the world of difference in what you end up with,,,,junk in,,,junk out.I saw your video breaking the coral and you have that down pat!"Y'all" do tawk kinda funny though! LOL Up "noath" they say,,,"Yawant lahbstah and chowdah",,,down south it's "do y'all want some swate taeeeeee?" LOL In many cases what's sold as tumbling rough is garbage that the seller can't do anything with.Newbies don't know this and unfortunately but it and end up with tons of problems.Like you said,,,it takes a long time to know that ins and outs and it ccan be a costly affair too,,,,,,been there,,done that! LOL connrock
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