kellyj
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 100
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Post by kellyj on Feb 23, 2015 0:28:11 GMT -5
Hello,
I'm excited to show you all my very first batch of rocks I ever tumbled in my life. Please tell me what you think. I know some of them ended up with cracks and I was wondering how do I fix them if I can? Some of the pictures didn't turn out the greatest. I use a Nikon D3200 with a Nikkor Micro lens 55-105. Please let me know what you think of both the pictures and how the rocks turned out.
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Post by snowmom on Feb 23, 2015 6:43:13 GMT -5
those are some really nice agates. #6 and #7 the same one, different sides? I think it is fascinating! I love the pink ones! I am still very new at tumbling so will let other more experienced members chime in about the chips and dings, and I'll take notes, eventually i'll try tumbling agates too. thanks for the show! Keep on keeping on.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 23, 2015 7:07:31 GMT -5
First of all congrats on getting your first batch completed. You do have some great agates in there. Its hard to tell if your damage on the rocks was there when you started or if they were getting beat up in the tumbler. When I was just using a rotary to tumble lakers some of them spent as much as 4 full months in stage one to get rid of imperfections but now I have sped that up a bit by doing some hand grinding on diamond wheels. I just posted pictures of a large batch of lakers yesterday but to be fair its more like my 100th batch then my first,lol
What type of equipment were these run in and for how long each stage?
Chuck
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,182
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Post by jamesp on Feb 23, 2015 8:44:24 GMT -5
You can try different lighting keelyj. A desk lamp at a steep angle, next to a window where natural light comes in. Natural light is probably the friendliest. The glare angle is critical in any light on tumbles. Round tumbles much more challenging. If you can set your camera on manual and use a slower shutter speed and f8 to f12 aperture you will get a deeper focus. but you got to figure out how to hold the camera still with a slow shutter speed, like a tripod. I shoot at 1/10-1/15 and prop the front of the lens on a cardboard box to hold it still about 6 inches from the stone. Was trying to learn to take photos this day. rocks are wet, so glare was an issue. The first 10 photos were with a desk lamp with light shinning from the side at a very low angle.(from the right) The second 10 photos were shot in window light with low winter sun coming from the side.(from the left) notice the stones are flatter than round and focus was not an issue(depth of field). Hope this helps The second set of photos in natural light gives the truest representation of the actual color. www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157640379442916
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azgnoinc
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 484
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Post by azgnoinc on Feb 23, 2015 9:32:07 GMT -5
Hi Kelly, congrats on your first batch!! For a beginner batch it came out pretty good - my suggestion is to take your favorite 3-5 pieces from the batch and put them someplace special so you can always look back to see how your skills advance with more tumbling. The chipped areas are most likely impact fractures from the looks of them - this can be attributed to several things including not enough media in the batch, or having a couple of larger pieces -aka -Smashers - they will wreak havoc on your smaller filler pieces - so I'd suggest throwing some of them back in to the grind if you aren't happy with them - but if you are happy with them then keep'em. The beautiful thing for us is we can always throw the ones we aren't 100% happy with back in to another batch. I notice in a couple of the pics that there is a residue/film coating some of the pieces - so did you run them through a final burnish stage after the polish? If not you may want to try that on future batches - I use a few teaspoons of borax along with a few drops of Dawn & run that for about 4 hours - then do my final rinse.
The pics themselves look pretty good, so keep plugging away - you will find natural light gives you the best overall results, but when it below zero outside we have to make due with what we can create indoors.
You are off to a great start, keep experimenting & refining your methods & you'll be where you want in no time at all.
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rodeodan
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2010
Posts: 213
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Post by rodeodan on Feb 23, 2015 15:26:57 GMT -5
Nice batch, good job!
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,546
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Post by tkvancil on Feb 24, 2015 10:03:06 GMT -5
Very good first batch Kelly. You have some really nice ones there and looks like a good shine on them.
I'm no help with pictures. I generally take 3 to 10 shots of any particular set of rocks from different angles. Then I sort through and pick my favorite shot.
Some agates will have fractures that occurred naturally. One way to fix these is to break along the fracture line. Another is to leave them in the coarse grind long enough to grind past them which can take months. Or do like Chuck said and grind them off on diamond wheels.
Impact damage in the tumblers can also happen. Keeping the tumblers at a full 2/3 to 3/4 volume greatly helps reduce impact damage. In my experience having too much water can also increase impact damage. The rocks "float" and therefore have farther to fall. I have also gotten significant impact damage from allowing the slurry to get overly thick. When the slurry gets too thick the smaller stuff tends to stick to the sides of the tumbler and the larger pieces are left loose to bash around.
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kellyj
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 100
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Post by kellyj on Feb 27, 2015 17:06:43 GMT -5
Thank you everybody for all your helpful advice! I learned a lot for each of the responses ! I took down notes from each that will be very helpful with my next batch I'm doing of more Lakers and Mexican lace. I use a Chicago Electric double barrel rotary tumbler. I ran the coarse grit polish for seven days, fine grit for seven days, final polish for 3 days. I went by the instructions that came with the tumbler. I didn't run the one final stage with the soap...I need to look those instructions over again, but I will do what azgoinc said.
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Post by gingerkid on Feb 27, 2015 19:16:07 GMT -5
Very nice job on your 1st tumbles of LSA, kellyj! I love the one that looks like it has tree growth rings in it.
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Post by Starguy on Feb 27, 2015 20:12:51 GMT -5
kellyjVery nice job on your lakers. Once I got my first batch polished, I was hooked on tumbling. I think some of the shallow cracks and pits could be removed by letting them stay in the coarse grit (stage 1) longer. I clean out the tumbler weekly. I pick out the ones I feel are ready for stage 2 and set them aside then recharge the tumbler with rocks, adding enough new rocks to replace the volume I picked out to go to stage 2. I add coarse grit and water and start them again. Once I've picked out enough stones to fill the tumbler I will start a batch with the fine grit. I can't remember what kind/size of tumbler you have. I use a 12 lb rotary for coarse grit exclusively. I then use a 3 lb tumbler for fine thru polish. It's not high production but once I get enough through coarse, I seem to be completing a 3 pounder of polished stones about every 3-4 weeks. When I start a completely new batch it takes at least two months for me to get enough for the fine grit stage. For the most part, my big tumbler is at least half full of rocks that have been in there for a while. I hope this helps. You have some outstanding lakers to work with. I wish I had a better source for them than ebay.
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Mar 12, 2015 13:35:07 GMT -5
Congrats on your first tumble, nice stuff!
Coarse grit for a month, recharging weekly, and you'll get rid of those surface flaws, which are presumably a result of being rolled around by the glaciers, and then the surf, amongst bigger rocks.
Some folks grind until each piece is flawless, some say flaws add character; I'm in the middle. I hammer anything that's going to trap grit or poses any chance of coming open, and feel that the whole point is to produce stones without flaws, but I'm sure not hand-grinding each piece. It's up to you how much time you want to invest.
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Post by Starguy on Mar 13, 2015 16:39:48 GMT -5
kellyj and SirRoxalotI do some grinding to remove flaws. I just got an 80 grit wheel. Man does that thing remove flaws in a hurry. I only grind the ones that can be improved in a minute or two on the grinding wheel. It's also good for shaping rocks so they have more potential for use as jewelry.
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