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Post by Garage Rocker on Oct 14, 2017 9:15:06 GMT -5
Maybe the crow will get cooked medium if behaving, maybe raw if not. Ugly piece of fluorite at 48 hours and I really don't care. Damn thing has a polish on it. That is a hair comb in the reflection. I'm hungry.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 9:30:33 GMT -5
MrP I was going to split the pipe in half and put 2 or 3 independent H-4# hoppers into the half pipe. In an attempt to prevent all the big rocks and thick slurry from migrating to one end. Having a lot of problems with this migration at low off-balance settings. So you are doing your small stuff in the Lot-O's ? Like this rig Michael: I James Yes I either do them in the Lot-O's or UV 4/10, it just depends how I feel at the time. Truth be told I have been doing very little tumbling or cutting for some time because I retired in July. I always knew when I retired I would spend a large amount of doing nothing but playing with my rocks. How wrong can a person be!!! I have spent my time doing things around the place that have needed to be done plus getting things out of the way for the future. Winter is coming so will bring the tumblers into the basement. A pain in the a$$ for cleanout but it is what it is. I have a 10" Lortone Saw that I use Lube Kool in so I can cut smaller stuff in the winter also.
I like your idea. It being an open pipe to start with you can weld the dividers in from the open before you weld the end on. The only reason I say 1/4 is because I run my tubs very full, well over the halfway point. The deeper the fill the larger the slab I can run............................MrP
We are at that age. Man, I see my friends retiring and never see them anymore. What's w/that ? Years of honey do's rain down out of the sky. Years of you-wanna-do's rain down from the sky. Congrats and enjoy, stay off that couch !! Michael, I was going to buy 2 or 3 of those little black 4 pound rubber hoppers used with the Vibrasonic and set them down in the half pipe. Weld hooks to strap them in. They have a round bottom and should sit snuggly in the 1/2 pipe. That way I can remove the hoppers individually.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 9:31:53 GMT -5
Maybe the crow will get cooked medium if behaving, maybe raw if not. Ugly piece of fluorite at 48 hours and I really don't care. Damn thing has a polish on it. That is a hair comb in the reflection. I'm hungry. Wife is gonna have nightmares when she sees your creation. How on earth did you do that ? The fluorite is dead polished go figure. As much or more so than the agates and coral.
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Post by Garage Rocker on Oct 14, 2017 9:36:02 GMT -5
I have many useless skills. But I used to do head swaps in large group portraits. Hard to get everybody's best look in one photo. Looks great as an avatar! Halloween season especially.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 9:51:22 GMT -5
It has been 48 hours. This is normally the time I do a clean out on the AO 80 and do 18 hours in AO 14,000 which is exactly what I am going to do. However I will add 6 tablespoons of pumice to thicken slurry. Here are the 48 hour results on obsidian: Left is 32 hours, middle is 48 hours, right is after AO 14,000 polish. The difference in 32 and 48 hours is that the 48 hour reflection shows the outline of the lamp. The moss at lower left and coral at lower right is darn shiny at 48 hours. This is normal. But notice the middle obsidian at top with 48 hours is no where near as polished as the moss or coral. Regardless, they are all going into AO 14,000 with pumice slurry. Now this is a heat treated/softened rhyolite. Note scratches. The obsidian easily scratched it, so it is soft. But it easily scratches fluorite, hmm. I have never made better than a matte finish on it. Let's see what the polish and slurry does for it.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 9:55:30 GMT -5
I have many useless skills. But I used to do head swaps in large group portraits. Hard to get everybody's best look in one photo. Be cautious, you will get a reputation as a master photoshopper and create doubts among us followers. Head swapping eh ? Looks like you took a skill saw and axle grease to my poor head. Where's your conscience ? Can't wait for my wife to see that photo. How much do I owe you for your craft ? My wife is out of town for 2 weeks. She harasses me when in experiment mode. Asks me BS questions, trips me up constantly, interrupts serious concentration, etc. If you hear a huge explosion from a southerly direction.....
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Post by Garage Rocker on Oct 14, 2017 10:00:33 GMT -5
I have many useless skills. But I used to do head swaps in large group portraits. Hard to get everybody's best look in one photo. Be cautious, you will get a reputation as a master photoshopper and create doubts among us followers. Head swapping eh ? Looks like you took a skill saw and axle grease to my poor head. Where's your conscience ? Can't wait for my wife to see that photo. How much do I owe you for your craft ? Haha! Tommy should be getting a sack of my tumbles for a certain challenge today. Maybe he can verify quality. A good chuckle is payment enough.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 10:07:07 GMT -5
I will say, that the first time I ran the pumice slurry it was with used AO 14,000 and small media that was sitting in the vibe from the last time I polished a big rock. And as far as I can remember the obsidian was fresh out of the rotary in broken down SiC 30. That would mean that the AO 14,000 took the obsidian from (broken down) coarse grit to a polish. I have more of the rough obsidian to add to this AO 14,000 run. Will see if the 14,000 polishes it. That may mean that the AO 80 run was redundant other than removing the frost. The one on the right is what I started with(not certain of it's finish). And the one on the left is after running in used AO 14,000.
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Post by MrP on Oct 14, 2017 10:16:31 GMT -5
James Yes I either do them in the Lot-O's or UV 4/10, it just depends how I feel at the time. Truth be told I have been doing very little tumbling or cutting for some time because I retired in July. I always knew when I retired I would spend a large amount of doing nothing but playing with my rocks. How wrong can a person be!!! I have spent my time doing things around the place that have needed to be done plus getting things out of the way for the future. Winter is coming so will bring the tumblers into the basement. A pain in the a$$ for cleanout but it is what it is. I have a 10" Lortone Saw that I use Lube Kool in so I can cut smaller stuff in the winter also.
I like your idea. It being an open pipe to start with you can weld the dividers in from the open before you weld the end on. The only reason I say 1/4 is because I run my tubs very full, well over the halfway point. The deeper the fill the larger the slab I can run............................MrP
We are at that age. Man, I see my friends retiring and never see them anymore. What's w/that ? Years of honey do's rain down out of the sky. Years of you-wanna-do's rain down from the sky. Congrats and enjoy, stay off that couch !! Michael, I was going to buy 2 or 3 of those little black 4 pound rubber hoppers used with the Vibrasonic and set them down in the half pipe. Weld hooks to strap them in. They have a round bottom and should sit snuggly in the 1/2 pipe. That way I can remove the hoppers individually. jamesp Now I get where you are going with this build...................................MrP
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 10:58:07 GMT -5
We are at that age. Man, I see my friends retiring and never see them anymore. What's w/that ? Years of honey do's rain down out of the sky. Years of you-wanna-do's rain down from the sky. Congrats and enjoy, stay off that couch !! Michael, I was going to buy 2 or 3 of those little black 4 pound rubber hoppers used with the Vibrasonic and set them down in the half pipe. Weld hooks to strap them in. They have a round bottom and should sit snuggly in the 1/2 pipe. That way I can remove the hoppers individually. jamesp Now I get where you are going with this build...................................MrP I wanted you to get it Michael. Always been inspired by your homemade hopper. I thought about doing metal or PVC but I want shorter compartments left to right. And want the versatility of the adjustable Vibrasonic. Removing one at a time is sweet. Running my dang experiments separately too. Maybe the vibe experts have designed those small hoppers to be real efficient. They may have a limited mouth opening for doing large rocks individually. The 14 pound hopper does them fine.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 14, 2017 11:02:14 GMT -5
How about placing a bread baking pan on top for polishing slabs?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 11:08:07 GMT -5
All the obsidian in this thread at various hours 3-7-12-24-32-48 will be put in AO 14,000 with pumice. I have photos of them so they can be identified by the photos after the 14,000 run.
I will see if the AO 14,000 w/pumice will remove the scratches and divots of the 3-7-12-24-32 hour obsidian. Because the pumice is not only acting as a slurry agent but is also an abrasive. 6 tablespoons of abrasive at that. It is unknown how much abrading the pumice is actually performing.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 11:11:37 GMT -5
How about placing a bread baking pan on top for polishing slabs? Dave, I have used the top of that thing for mixing paint, sorting different size little parts, mixing chemicals, sorting small media from tumbles and other tasks I cannot remember. It may serve as a vibratory lap. You may have to use a creamy slurry to keep it from splattering.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 14:22:13 GMT -5
Ran till 54 hours. Still increasing in polish. Cleaned out and started with Pumice and AO 14,000. figured everything was pre-polished enough. Left is glass. Center is fluorite. The obsidian has the least polish.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 17:13:08 GMT -5
During clean out there was no white coating around the rim of the hopper. Normally the upper inside edge has to be scrubbed till the thin caked on coating is removed.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 14, 2017 20:25:47 GMT -5
Looks like the AO 14,000 mixed with fresh pumice quickly removed the polish on the fluorite and glass after 3 hours. Had no effect on the hard polished small coral on the right. 3 hour items on left. Fluorite at top, looks butchered in only 3 hours. It was polished. Fluorite and other soft rocks may be a fast tumble using grades of pumice. It may only take short times( an hour or two ?) to do each stage. Soft rock, cuts fast ?? Lots of grades. I ordered FF and FFFF for $2/pound from his glassworks.com. Been using 0-1/2 totally on this thread.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 15, 2017 5:41:52 GMT -5
Brainstorming(or talking to myself). Gut instincts.
Pretty damn sure a thicker non-abrasive slurry is needed immediately at startup of vibe for finishing operations for soft rock. It takes several hours for the pumice to break down to a muddy slurry. By that time you may have deep frost damage, it does not take long at 2000+ vibrations per second. Frosting is enemy #1. The only way to remove frost is to back up and re-run a coarser grit again. Not good. Or run fine grit for a long long time. The pumice should be the abrasive and not the slurry. Aluminum oxide 14,000 can be added anytime with the pumice as it should only help polish. Minimum of 50% small Mohs 7 media or ceramic media to help break down the pumice (and aluminum oxide polish if used). And for cushioning. Don't count on soft fluorite or calcite to break down pumice, doubt it will. Glass media is hard enough to break it down. So small(tumbled) glass would likely(also) make a hard enough media for pumice. Select a good range of sizes of soft rocks and no big soft rocks, preferably under 1.5 inches and smaller. Mud may develop quickly, even when using finer grits like 220 and maybe 500, soft rocks cut fast. Real fast. It may take an aggressive vibe to maintain a rolling action when using thick slurry. Or a thinner slurry for gentle vibes. Slurry thickness requires recipe. Figure your own. Pumice will have no effect on Mohs 7 rocks other than burnishing them. It is too soft. It appears to be a fine burnishing compound for Mohs 7 rocks and leaves no residue like sugar, soap and Borax. It has an earth tone color and does not seem to get stuck in cracks like bright white aluminum oxide and bright white Borax grrrr. Or it is not so noticeable. The vibe hopper was the cleanest after running pumice(like running silicon carbide). No residue. No ring around the hopper to scrub.
Thought for the day:
There is a fine line between poor final polish and micro-frosting.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 15, 2017 10:05:19 GMT -5
Pressure/wear points. Wear points more reflective of course. Pits are after 7 hours in AO 80. Probably 200 grit pits. Smoother pressure points are after 16 hours in pumice and AO 14,000.
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Post by captbob on Oct 15, 2017 10:14:33 GMT -5
way off topic, but that's not unusual around here ... Jim, you remember the big honkin' Rio that I was (am) tumbling all by itself in a 15 lb barrel? I thinkin' about pulling it out today. It has been running in the polish stage for 4 months as of today. Haven't even opened the barrel since July 15th at which point it had already be running in polish for a month. Wasn't satisfied with the polish at that point, so I added another half cup of polish and just let it run. Hope 4 months is long enough in polish ... ya think I should just give it another month? now, where is your Dr. Jim avatar?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Oct 15, 2017 10:28:22 GMT -5
way off topic, but that's not unusual around here ... Jim, you remember the big honkin' Rio that I was (am) tumbling all by itself in a 15 lb barrel? I thinkin' about pulling it out today. It has been running in the polish stage for 4 months as of today. Haven't even opened the barrel since July 15th at which point it had already be running in polish for a month. Wasn't satisfied with the polish at that point, so I added another half cup of polish and just let it run. Hope 4 months is long enough in polish ... ya think I should just give it another month? now, where is your Dr. Jim avatar? Is it running with any other rocks bigger than say a ping pong ball ? The only reason I ask is if I run a big rock with even one other big rock ping pong ball to golf ball size I never get a good polish. The only reason for this is micro frosting. Been there done this. Microscopic pits from impact. Bigger rocks very sensitive to this. They don't show at 500 or 1000, but they rear their ugly head at polish. Above 2 pound Mohs 7 rocks often do it anyway regardless of size of other rocks to a point. Maybe tiny rocks or all ceramic media is needed for your 6 pound Rio. You said by itself, I assume you have media with it ? By media, I mean ceramics or 1/2 inch agates.
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