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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 16, 2017 12:24:39 GMT -5
Shiny is very easy to obtain in a wet tumble. It is the undercutting to deal with when wet tumbled. You are from the land of granite. Have you found a way to tumble granite that is as flawless as cabbing it? I honestly think the pudding stone undercuts even worse then our Lake Huron beach granite. The matrix is quartzite. Chuck Yes, no luck with granite. It is the Mohs 6 felspar that undercuts in this granite. Never tumbled granite that ended up like cabbed granite without under cut felspar. I figured that quartzite is harder than felspar though. That tells the tale. I can tumble granite in one of my pudding stone wet lot-o loads and it will not undercut nearly as bad as the pudding stone does. Been there done that. Chuck
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 16, 2017 12:35:45 GMT -5
Yes, no luck with granite. It is the Mohs 6 felspar that undercuts in this granite. Never tumbled granite that ended up like cabbed granite without under cut felspar. I figured that quartzite is harder than felspar though. That tells the tale. I can tumble granite in one of my pudding stone wet lot-o loads and it will not undercut nearly as bad as the pudding stone does. Been there done that. Chuck No surprise. Some of our local quartzite is hard. Takes a fine polish. Others not so. Quartzite is so variable. S Alabama quartzite is some of the densest finest grained quartzite. It even shapes slow in coarse SiC. Sounds like you have low grade quartzite in your puddings. Sounds like a real challenge. Tough goal to polish stones of various hardness. Catch 22, polish verses matte finish. wet verses dry
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 16, 2017 12:40:02 GMT -5
That tells the tale. I can tumble granite in one of my pudding stone wet lot-o loads and it will not undercut nearly as bad as the pudding stone does. Been there done that. Chuck No surprise. Some of our local quartzite is hard. Takes a fine polish. Others not so. Quartzite is so variable. S Alabama quartzite is some of the densest finest grained quartzite. It even shapes slow in coarse SiC. Sounds like you have low grade quartzite in your puddings. Sounds like a real challenge. Tough goal to polish stones of various hardness. Catch 22, polish verses matte finish. wet verses dry Bingo. Nail on the head. The 3 pounds I have kept as my keepers out of hundreds of pounds of tumbles are ones that had a much harder quartzite matrix. Chuck
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 16, 2017 13:47:44 GMT -5
No surprise. Some of our local quartzite is hard. Takes a fine polish. Others not so. Quartzite is so variable. S Alabama quartzite is some of the densest finest grained quartzite. It even shapes slow in coarse SiC. Sounds like you have low grade quartzite in your puddings. Sounds like a real challenge. Tough goal to polish stones of various hardness. Catch 22, polish verses matte finish. wet verses dry Bingo. Nail on the head. The 3 pounds I have kept as my keepers out of hundreds of pounds of tumbles are ones that had a much harder quartzite matrix. Chuck Usually but not always the finer the grain the better the quartzite. Maybe that falls true with pudding stone quartzite. I believe heat is involved too, and the higher heat seems to have welded together better quartzite. May be you can tell by looking at them with the experienced eye. Or have to tumble first which is a bummer. Maybe a you have to hammer a chip off to know the tightness of the quartzite. Similar situation with high grade coral, it chips like glass and looks like a smooth glass face chip. Chips with greatest of ease. The grainy stuff takes a sledge hammer to chip/break. Incredibly unbreakable. The very best Alabama quartzite almost chips off like glass, pretty stuff.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 16, 2017 18:56:53 GMT -5
I just got home from school a little over an hour ago and missed all the conversation today. How about Vibra-dry? I'm not sure how that differs from corn cob media with aluminum oxide, but I've heard good things about it. Drummond Island Rocks, I know you considered buying some, but decided not to, right? Is there someone here who has some who could run a test batch of rocks? If it worked, it would be worth the investment, otherwise that stuff is really expensive.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 16, 2017 19:21:30 GMT -5
I just got home from school a little over an hour ago and missed all the conversation today. How about Vibra-dry? I'm not sure how that differs from corn cob media with aluminum oxide, but I've heard good things about it. Drummond Island Rocks, I know you considered buying some, but decided not to, right? Is there someone here who has some who could run a test batch of rocks? If it worked, it would be worth the investment, otherwise that stuff is really expensive. I certainly considered it. I called Diamond Pacific and talked to Don about it. I did not get a very warm fuzzy feeling about the idea after discussing it so I did not fork over the money. One thing I remember was that he recommended very gradual increments because that stuff does not break down at all. In other words 500 stays 500. So on top of it being very expensive it also required stocking many more sizes. At the end of the day every one that I have ever tumbled has sold for what I consider top dollar. The price I sell them for per pound would not go up at all even if I fixed the issue. I will always want them better but that's just me being picky. For now I'll just keep taking out the 1 in a hundred that come out perfect for myself. I ran the dry ones from this post overnight last night in wet A/O polish at the lowest speed setting on the mini-sonic last night and that was enough to start the pitting. I'll post updated pictures when I can. Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 16, 2017 19:28:13 GMT -5
If someone was willing to run them, it would still be worth you or I sending a batch of rough tumbled rocks to them for the experiment. At least then we'd know if the investment would pay off. I think that from the point you had them done dry, it shouldn't take too many steps to finish them off. I'd send someone a batch that I have already dry tumbled.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 16, 2017 19:32:54 GMT -5
If someone was willing to run them, it would still be worth you or I sending a batch of rough tumbled rocks to them for the experiment. At least then we'd know if the investment would pay off. I think that from the point you had them done dry, it shouldn't take too many steps to finish them off. I'd send someone a batch that I have already dry tumbled. Worth a try. I would do that if the opportunity comes up. I have been on here for 5 years though and have never seen anyone posting anything about vibra-dry though. Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 16, 2017 19:35:41 GMT -5
If someone was willing to run them, it would still be worth you or I sending a batch of rough tumbled rocks to them for the experiment. At least then we'd know if the investment would pay off. I think that from the point you had them done dry, it shouldn't take too many steps to finish them off. I'd send someone a batch that I have already dry tumbled. Worth a try. I would do that if the opportunity comes up. I have been on here for 5 years though and have never seen anyone posting anything about vibra-dry though. Chuck I just did some searching. It looks like johnjsgems had some at one time. John, do you feel like running a batch of pudding stones in Vibra-dry? I couldn't find anyone else.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 16, 2017 19:41:32 GMT -5
Worth a try. I would do that if the opportunity comes up. I have been on here for 5 years though and have never seen anyone posting anything about vibra-dry though. Chuck I just did some searching. It looks like johnjsgems had some at one time. John, do you feel like running a batch of pudding stones in Vibra-dry? I couldn't find anyone else. Yes it seems like I remember discussing vibra dry with John before. I think he is the one that told me to give Don a call. Chuck
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 16, 2017 19:44:20 GMT -5
I would say that all steps would be required because they start at 600.
600,1700,3000,8000,14000,25000,50000 at $30 per grit per pound
Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 16, 2017 20:52:44 GMT -5
I would say that all steps would be required because they start at 600. 600,1700,3000,8000,14000,25000,50000 at $30 per grit per pound Chuck Oh, that is bad.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 17, 2017 3:35:25 GMT -5
I would say that all steps would be required because they start at 600. 600,1700,3000,8000,14000,25000,50000 at $30 per grit per pound Chuck That was my thoughts about soft dry media. The abrasive simply is not going to break down. Can't see it happening. That means you have to force the finishing steps by using smaller and smaller abrasive. I presume you have to have separate containers of say corn cob with each abrasive size in it. Would have to wash and dry the hopper each step.
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Post by MrP on Oct 17, 2017 4:17:16 GMT -5
I have no clue of the consistency of vibra dry but as you were talking about it I started thinking of floor sweeping compound. The compound is just sawdust with a lite floor oil in it. It sure seems like that type of consistency would help cushion the stones. I am not sure if sawdust alone, as the medium, would work but it may be worth a try..................MrP
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 17, 2017 6:57:03 GMT -5
I have no clue of the consistency of vibra dry but as you were talking about it I started thinking of floor sweeping compound. The compound is just sawdust with a lite floor oil in it. It sure seems like that type of consistency would help cushion the stones. I am not sure if sawdust alone, as the medium, would work but it may be worth a try..................MrP Might want to consider slice free sweeping compound Michael.
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Post by orrum on Oct 17, 2017 7:21:53 GMT -5
Pudding stones drive me crazy. Chuck you get much better results than me! Yours seem pretty darn good!
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
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Post by tkvancil on Oct 17, 2017 10:09:31 GMT -5
Let me guess ... the surface is good until the polish stage.
Just finished a mixed batch which had sodalite in it. Sodalite looked clean until polish when some of it undercut. Rest of batch good though.
When (if?) your tenacity pays off I'm sure you'll share and I for one will be all over it for my problem children.
Think I prefer the shinier ones ...
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