jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 11, 2014 17:01:09 GMT -5
plastic floats and garnets are dense. Sure would love to see a video how that works in the barrels. I never had result with plastic - n= 3 batches. I need more experience. Jim have you tried limestone "flour" to thicken? Cheaper than sugar I am sure. $3 per 50# bag. They use it to chalk the lines on little league fields. The mine is 50 miles from here so it may cost a bit more in Hotlanta. I have used limestone. The coral is covered with it and makes a nice slurry. The sugar is slicker. And it has the same viscosity from start to finish of each stage. And would be also if you mixed a batch of lime powder beginning each stage. The sugar is so slick you can thrust your hand to the bottom of the barrel. it is an exceptional lubricant. The limestone will get pretty alkaline and do a number on your skin. But I do add dried old slurry that is full limestone powder to the coral to get a heavy slurry to float the grit. Tumbling concrete will sure burn your hands and cause foam. the limestone does not foam like concrete.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2014 17:05:33 GMT -5
Thanks.
The coral you sent me has no limestone.
The reason I ask is some polishes add limestone to the mix. Zam comes to mind.
Calcium carbonate is a pH8 buffer and wasn't a problem to skin when I raised turtles is saturated limestone water. pH 8 not very high.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 11, 2014 17:14:40 GMT -5
Thanks. The coral you sent me has no limestone. The reason I ask is some polishes add limestone to the mix. Zam comes to mind. Calcium carbonate is a pH8 buffer and wasn't a problem to skin when I raised turtles is saturated limestone water. pH 8 not very high. No. 8 not bad. Limestone is easy to powder out. wonder why they add it to polish? The Tennessee River will sure work on your skin. It must be super alkaline. I am not sure what to say about the limestone from those Florida Rivers. It is as if they have soaked in acid so long that it's PH has changed. You said that it is not. Are you basing that on an acid test ?
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akroes
off to a rocking start
Member since October 2014
Posts: 11
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Post by akroes on Oct 12, 2014 16:38:15 GMT -5
I was thinking the brain in the jar was that of a 9 year old girl, a specimen he keeps in a jar. Could be, we don't really know this guy ! Who knows what other kinds of things Ted I mean Tony might have lying around... If you only knew....! Just kidding - no body parts or anything, just a lot of hobbies and never enough time to do them. Funny also about this thread starting as such an innocent (as far as I knew at the time) question and turning into such an interesting and lengthy conversation . While I was on my camping trip this weekend I finished reading the book 'Modern Rock Tumbling' by Steve Hart and in the section on the polish stage and he says that "there are 'mysteries' that don't add up" (like how some polishes are better for certain materials while other polishes are better for others, so it can't be just a grit size thing) and that there are many theories, (including a few which haven't been mentioned here) but no one will ever know truly how it works. I am happy to say 'uncle' and give in. I will accept, just like I do with my TV, that it works, but I don't have to know exactly how to enjoy the results. PS: Picked up some large (fist-sized to head-sized) quartz chunks this weekend in northern Wisconsin - should be cool to break them up and see how they turn out. I got a couple of color variations white, clearish, slight purple, and kind of a bluish-grey - very subtle, so I hope the color is still visible in the final polished specimens. I tried to include a couple image in this message, but got error message saying that this forum had exceeded its space limit. Anyway - I'm off to unpack the new UV-10 that came in on Friday! And don't worry - the quartz won't be going into that until it runs through my rotary for a few weeks (once I get *that* fixed - arghh, how does anyone have time to do anything fun in this word!! Tony
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