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Post by captbob on Jan 3, 2015 23:26:06 GMT -5
I've been restocking some of my tumbling supplies recently, and bought quite a bit of ceramic media to use as filler. Upon opening one of the boxes of ceramics, I noticed some "dust" at the bottom of the bag the ceramics were in. I suppose that's normal. But, it got me wondering if the ceramic dust was a cause for concern if these ceramics were added when running final stages or the polish cycle. Any normal person thinking this way may have taken the ceramics outside and hosed them off. Not normal. So, I split the bag in half and ran two loads of ceramics only in a 12 lb barrel that was just sitting idle and waiting to be put to good use. I probably insulted the barrel by doing this. That kinda surprised me. I have been tumbling some obsidian and the early batches were pretty foamy. Yup, used new ceramics. The later runs in 60/90 of the same stones and same ceramics have not been foamy. Just a good normal looking slurry. CONCLUSION: Don't have one, just thought I would share this. Hosing the ceramics off probably woulda worked. Unfortunately, the "not normal" parta me will want to tumble (pre-wash) all new ceramic media from now on. Rinsing with a hose is for slackers... ETA: pictures were taken inside my iguana's enclosure for those trying to figure that out. (don't ask)
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unclesoska
freely admits to licking rocks
All those jade boulders tossed in search of gold!
Member since February 2011
Posts: 934
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Post by unclesoska on Jan 3, 2015 23:30:48 GMT -5
I use ceramics in my vibe and do a 220 breakin tumble w/ them and some filler rock. It helps to knock down the sharp edges of the new media.
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Post by captbob on Jan 3, 2015 23:33:40 GMT -5
Damn.... now I gotta go check for sharp edges!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,158
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Post by jamesp on Jan 4, 2015 6:05:31 GMT -5
Damn.... now I gotta go check for sharp edges! I bulk tumble the broken glass filler captbob. It needs to be rounded, or it cuts me, and it's got old beer and bottle wrappers in it. And it is better smooth so it can be cleaned easily. The tumbler has a lot of 'sand' in it from the sharp edges being removed rapidly. The first day or two creates a bunch of gas and foam, I suppose it's from the bubbles in the glass being exposed from the rapidly breaking edges. Same thing coarse grinding obsidian, lots of gas, much less in the finer grits. Never figured ceramic filler would foam though. Interesting discovery. if you have a quarter inch square gas bubble in a rock at 3000 psi and the tumbler releases it would fill a 7 inch ballon. I think.
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Post by connrock on Jan 4, 2015 9:50:09 GMT -5
You're not alone in the not normal category captbob! LOL
When trying to make the point with newbies that cross contamination can cause serious problems I stressed the point that everything has to be surgically clean!A bit of an over kill but it's what I do. I've always washed,tumbled and rewashed all my filler materials,,,even uncooked rice! LOL connrock
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Post by pghram on Jan 4, 2015 19:17:16 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing that info.
Rich
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Post by snowmom on Jan 5, 2015 5:38:48 GMT -5
wow! very useful, thanks for the post!
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Post by johnjsgems on Jan 6, 2015 13:19:04 GMT -5
I just finished weighing a lot of ceramic media for my Quartzsite show. The stuff comes really dirty. Pieces of cardboard, foam, errant pieces of abrasive triangles, and dirty enough to turn my hands grey. I run it in all stages in a rotary and don't think it would hurt as is for coarse. In the vibe I would rinse it with the rocks before use. The 220 first step would handle any break in.
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