grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
Posts: 878
|
Post by grizman on Oct 21, 2014 12:00:05 GMT -5
Glad to see some Montana collected rocks & veggies going through the tumbler! I am very curious as to how well the tomatoes will turn out though? You may have to consider not using the course grit for very long, or you will have catsup! Seriously, how does it get any better?...Fresh tomatoes out of the garden, fresh caught fish for the grill, and Montana collected pet-wood and agates.
I too am a native Montanan, and still spend 6 months in the Big Sky (Great Falls & Seeley Lake), but I am now in southern Arizona for the winter months.
Keep us posted with your progress and photos. I am very anxious to see just how large of a rock you can get polished in your 12# barrel.
|
|
herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
|
Post by herchenx on Oct 22, 2014 13:07:04 GMT -5
+1 to what captbob said, I have this exact classifier screen on my 5gal and it is a life saver
|
|
Sandy
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since July 2014
Posts: 91
|
Post by Sandy on Oct 23, 2014 7:37:13 GMT -5
Well, I cleaned her out an hr ago. Tumbled a full 7 days. I was struggling with whether to go ahead and do some more coarse grinding or take it up to 120/220. After much thought I decided to continue with another week of coarse grind. One thing I learned from looking at my stones and reading these forums was, the coarse grind is actually pretty important. It does the majority of shaping your stones as well as smoothing them. My last coarse batch was 7 weeks. I also took a lot of notes. I learned to be chintzy on water, and make sure I had plenty of small fill.
|
|
hornseeker
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 268
|
Post by hornseeker on Oct 23, 2014 10:53:36 GMT -5
Geesh, this morning I got antsy and opened her up real quick... I had the barrel "overly full" in my opinion... at least 3/4 full... and I had water only at maybe a 1/4 way up rocks... Well... I opened it and it couldn't have been half full of rock and there was water right up to the 1/2 full line wth the rocks!! What the heck!!??
Herch... I think you are right... that does look like flint. I have looked over many miles of river bank and in the last 5-6 years have only found a couple pieces of that, and they are always small... Very interesting to imagine the origin of it...
Thanks all!! I'll be picking up one of those classifiers!!
And OH... That green rock looked amazing this morning... I think it is going to turn out beautiful. I'll snap pics Sat night when I clean it all again...
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
|
Post by jamesp on Oct 23, 2014 12:28:28 GMT -5
Rocks will settle in a tumbler. If they get dropped in they seem to be higher up the barrel, like more air space. Once you open the barrel after they are tumbled shortly the rocks are usually more organized with less open area. And for that reason the water rises. Could be the case. If your going to let it run for 4-5 days it is safer to open the barrel back up an hour or a day later after putting the rocks in to let everything 'settle'. I let mine run a day and reopen the barrel and almost always have to pour some water off to a level below the rocks. Often having to add more rocks. then let er rip for a long haul.
Beware of the ladies kitchen wares LOL Seems to be a common occurrence around here.
|
|
|
Post by connrock on Oct 24, 2014 6:41:53 GMT -5
James said,,,, "Beware of the ladies kitchen wares LOL Seems to be a common occurrence around here."
I've been married for over 48 years and find that the longer you're married the easier it gets to "procure" kitchen wares without getting caught cuz the older she gets the more forgetful she gets and the easier it is to convince her that she never had said object in the first place,,,or that she bought a new one,,,,,, but NO PHOTOS!!! LOL connrock
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
|
Post by jamesp on Oct 24, 2014 7:42:28 GMT -5
[/quote] James said,,,, "Beware of the ladies kitchen wares LOL Seems to be a common occurrence around here."I've been married for over 48 years and find that the longer you're married the easier it gets to "procure" kitchen wares without getting caught cuz the older she gets the more forgetful she gets and the easier it is to convince her that she never had said object in the first place,,,or that she bought a new one,,,,,, but NO PHOTOS!!! LOL connrock hornseeker did the photo thing-sometimes single guys can get away with murder. All comes back to haunt starting a day after the wedding bells After the bells I graduated from a hornseeker to a honeydoer LOL.
|
|
hornseeker
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 268
|
Post by hornseeker on Oct 24, 2014 9:37:48 GMT -5
Hehehe... Thanks guys... Good advice on many fronts there!
|
|
hornseeker
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 268
|
Post by hornseeker on Nov 3, 2014 17:11:37 GMT -5
Well... I was gone for a week, came back and opened her up and was pleased with what I found. I will do more batches and do them differently over time, but for this batch... I wanted to move through the stages and see what would happen. In other words, I did not grind these rocks until they were perfectly smooth and without divets and abnormalities that would not take a polish... and I'm ok with that. In the end, I'll probably have rocks that have some nice shiny areas but some dull areas where the rocks contours did not allow a polish!
Anyhow... I rinsed all the rocks that had been 8 days in the 120/220 grit... and to my surprise, even most of the "fill" I put in from my 1/2 minus driveway mix was smooth and shiny and some of it is pretty dang cool looking!The pet wood and agates are starting to look beautiful. I also have some granite type rocks that are going to turn out beautiful. SO... I put them in with the 500 and will run them for about 4 days... and see how they look. May recharge and run some more or just move to 1k... we'll see.
This also spurred me to go to the river and pick up a load of these granite type pebbles that are turning out so pretty...
I"ll get some pics up, but Im buried in catch-up right now from being gone a week!
|
|
hornseeker
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 268
|
Post by hornseeker on Nov 17, 2014 0:18:21 GMT -5
Well... As most of you know... There is a lot of patience and time involved with this tumbling deal!! Hehehe... The pics I'm taking are just not that great... I'll try and get some better ones... Anyhow... I ran this first batch in 500 for nearly two weeks with a partial recharge... Rinsed and have had them in 1000 for about 8 days now. I put another scoop in about three days ago. I think I will let them go for a couple more days. Then I'm going to drop the polish in there an see what happens... I do have a question though... After 1000... They aren't going to look shiny without being wet rt? Right now, they look awesome wet, but are dull when dry. Some of the wood and some of the agate are going to be beautiful eventually.... So this rock is wy more amazing in person... This little piece of wood is amazing... Out of focus unfortunately... This is my favorite... I'm fairly convinced it has fossilized insect eggs in it... And this is what we have to contend with in central MT rt now...
|
|
tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,546
|
Post by tkvancil on Nov 17, 2014 0:39:21 GMT -5
I always had a matte finish out of 1000 in the rotary. Get a shine from the vibe with 1000 however.
I like your favorite ... eggs or not.
|
|
|
Post by connrock on Nov 17, 2014 8:29:48 GMT -5
I think the reason for a matte finish in a rotary v a semi-gloss finish with 1000 K in a vibe is due to grit break down time. It takes about a week for grit to break down in 1/2 in a rotary and only about 12 hours to do the same in a vibe.
I would let the 1000 K run for at least a week -10 days or even longer without adding anything to it.Let it run until you at least have a semi shine to your rocks or you won't get much of a glossy shine after the polish stage. connrock
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 17, 2014 8:50:24 GMT -5
I just ran a load of agate in AO 1000 and had a slight shine after 7 days, and a pretty good one after 2 weeks. Like connrock and tk says, the vibe can break that 1000 grit down quick. Saves money on fine grits. Tumbling is a 2 step-rough grinding to shape, and finish. Rotary for shaping and vibe most efficient to finish. Me learning the these facts slowly. Dang veteren tumblers.
|
|
|
Post by pghram on Nov 17, 2014 9:06:12 GMT -5
They're ready for polish, should be really nice, if you can keep it from freezing. Those temps are rough.
Rich
|
|
hornseeker
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 268
|
Post by hornseeker on Nov 17, 2014 10:21:18 GMT -5
ITs warmed up now... well..its 4 this morning, but will be near 35 this afternoon... and even though its well below freezing in my garage, I highly doubt the slurry will freeze up while being tumbled...
Interesting...I did not think about the grit breaking down and therefore becoming sort of a polisher... hmmm. I am in no hurry and have no prob with running this stuff another week in the 1000....
And looking at the pics I see the obvious defects in the rocks... the little nicks and such that aren't smoothed out. I can see running them in rough grit for another few weeks may have been benficial!! Live and learn.. and yeah... you guys told me that from the get go!
Anyhow...on my new thread you'll see I have a new tumbler and a half... I think my first order of business for that machine is to run a couple big rocks I have... they are softball size, maybe 5-7 pound rocks... I'll throw in some driveway gravel and some sand from the river along with some 40/60 and run the heck out of them for a few weeks.
Thanks all! I'll try and keep this thread up to date and I'll take a little more care to produce some better pics!
Ernie
|
|
|
Post by snowmom on Nov 17, 2014 10:51:19 GMT -5
watching with interest/ keep posting!
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 17, 2014 10:53:19 GMT -5
My slurry can freeze on the edges at the cap at about 15F. But just the edges, all still tumbled fine. I would be concerned at lower than 15F though.
|
|
|
Post by Pat on Nov 17, 2014 11:23:53 GMT -5
I don't have the patience to tumble rocks, but like watching the progress, so thanks for posting. My small vibe tumbler shines and deburs metal pieces. Re using kitchen tools outside: what's a little grit in your soup?
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
|
Post by jamesp on Nov 17, 2014 11:38:07 GMT -5
I don't have the patience to tumble rocks, but like watching the progress, so thanks for posting. My small vibe tumbler shines and deburs metal pieces. Re using kitchen tools outside: what's a little grit in your soup? I treat the tumbler like my wife treats me-neglect is a great technique for peace of mind.
|
|
hornseeker
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 268
|
Post by hornseeker on Nov 18, 2014 10:25:19 GMT -5
Well, 22 here this morn.... So I think I'm safe for a while!!
|
|