driver
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2019
Posts: 17
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Post by driver on May 6, 2019 14:20:16 GMT -5
Hello, I am new here and to this hobby. It is my daughters hobby really, but I enjoy it too. We just finished a batch and I paid more attention this time into keeping things clean, and running things longer, but my rocks are not as shiny as store bought rocks, or as shiny as some pictures I see of people into this hobby. I am curious as to what I am doing wrong. I used 4 stages, each stage for a week, and the polish stage was running for 10 days. I used Aluminum Oxide 1200 fused stage 4 grit and here are the results. Any and all advice welcome, I know I have a lot to learn. I would like to know am I mixing the wrong rocks? Not waiting on the stages long enough? Bad grit? I clean everything as good as I can between stages, even use a toothbrush to scrub everything down with it. Here are the pictures of the last batch I just finished, and the new batch I just started. Thanks! Links don't look like they are working, here is a link to the imgur album imgur.com/a/gP7426L
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Post by MsAli on May 6, 2019 14:33:26 GMT -5
1st welcome from Fresno California
2nd it looks like your batch is a mixture of hardness and quite a few of them have some nooks and crannies where grit can hide
A week is not nearly long enough for the previous stages. Did if use any cushioning for the stages after coarse?
There are a lot of helpful threads here also to go back through
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Post by aDave on May 6, 2019 15:16:11 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum. Head on over to the Rock Tumbling section and start reading what look like (by title) beginner threads. Based on the amount and types of rocks in your photos, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you might be using a National Geographic tumbler or similar. Folks, like you, have had difficulty in getting decent results with such tumblers for a few reasons. First, the instructions are pretty lacking, especially when it comes to time frames. One week in each stage isn't long enough, especially with the first stage which takes many of us weeks/months to get the smoothing that we like. Second is possibly the mix of rocks, some of which may be too soft and aren't prone to accepting a polish. Lastly, the grit that you used for your fourth stage is not a polish. 1200 grit is typically a pre-polish and won't produce shine in a rotary tumbler. Take a look at this thread. It covers alot for a user using a Nat Geo tumbler. Absorb it and then post questions in the Rock Tumbling section. You'll get lots of help. forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/77361/new-rock-tumbling
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driver
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2019
Posts: 17
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Post by driver on May 6, 2019 15:45:19 GMT -5
1st welcome from Fresno California 2nd it looks like your batch is a mixture of hardness and quite a few of them have some nooks and crannies where grit can hide A week is not nearly long enough for the previous stages. Did if use any cushioning for the stages after coarse? There are a lot of helpful threads here also to go back through Oh I have been reading from everywhere, I don't know how to identify the rocks and hardness. Ill increase all stages by a week I guess, Ill check after each week.
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driver
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2019
Posts: 17
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Post by driver on May 6, 2019 15:48:20 GMT -5
1st welcome from Fresno California 2nd it looks like your batch is a mixture of hardness and quite a few of them have some nooks and crannies where grit can hide A week is not nearly long enough for the previous stages. Did if use any cushioning for the stages after coarse? There are a lot of helpful threads here also to go back through Oh I have been reading from everywhere, I don't know how to identify the rocks and hardness. Ill increase all stages by a week I guess, Ill check after each week. Thank you, you got the right tumbler I am using. I have tried increasing times but I guess it still isn't enough. I will do some more reading. My hardest part is identifying the rocks, and maybe I need more rocks and tumblers so I can have multiple stages going at once and it wouldn't take forever if say I needed to keep one rock in stage one while the rest go to stage 2. I will invest in another multi container rotary for stage 1 rocks and a vibrating tumbler for the rest. Need to save up.
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Post by MsAli on May 6, 2019 15:54:23 GMT -5
Oh I have been reading from everywhere, I don't know how to identify the rocks and hardness. Ill increase all stages by a week I guess, Ill check after each week. Thank you, you got the right tumbler I am using. I have tried increasing times but I guess it still isn't enough. I will do some more reading. My hardest part is identifying the rocks, and maybe I need more rocks and tumblers so I can have multiple stages going at once and it wouldn't take forever if say I needed to keep one rock in stage one while the rest go to stage 2. I will invest in another multi container rotary for stage 1 rocks and a vibrating tumbler for the rest. Need to save up. I found it very helpful to have 2 tumblers and some of these amazing people have more than that I use 1 to run strictly 80 grit and I check weekly and remove whats ready to be moved on. My other barrel is for the other stages. I really want 1 or 2 more but they are gonna have to wait. Rock ID can be hard My best advice for that is buy one or two types with the same hardness and go from there. I never buy mixed bags as it literally is a mix and majority of the time it doesn't turn out well Hope that helps some
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Post by aDave on May 6, 2019 20:11:20 GMT -5
Wait, I just realized you were posting in the Rock Tumbling forum and not the introduction area, so disregard my advice to go there. I just saw your earlier thread and you got some good advice. Since you mentioned possibly buying more tumblers, let me give you some advice based upon my experience.
Knowing what I know now, and if money is not a consideration, I'd buy a Lortone QT66 to do all of my coarse work. From there, I'd buy a Lot-O tumbler to do all finishing steps.
My advice comes from someone (me) who used rotary tumblers to finish rocks to completion, as I did all my rocks with rotary tumblers until recently.
I totally understand that money may be an issue, so I'm hesitant to make the recommendations that I did. However, if you can pull this off, I think you'll be happy in the long run.
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Post by Rockindad on May 6, 2019 21:15:51 GMT -5
Just piggybacking on the post by aDave above. Investing in larger equipment is not only a cost incurred at time of purchase, you will be paying extra every time you fill it up. If you are collecting material for your tumblers yourself this may not be that big of a deal, just extra grit, polish, etc. If you are buying rocks to fill up those big barrels that can add up pretty fast. Al
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Post by pauls on May 7, 2019 1:43:43 GMT -5
Just a few points on hardness. Generally the softer the stone the more difficult it becomes to tumble successfully, Try and avoid anything softer than glass. Glass, obsidian etc is quite difficult. Avoid stones that look grainy along broken edges. Grains of sand or rock can dislodge and scratch softer stones. Hard stones can damage softer stones. Stones of the same hardness can damage each other, if there are flaws in one stone it can ruin an entire batch. Get yourself some Agate or Petrified Wood, they are hard and tough and polish up beautifully, keep your softer stones for when you have a bit more experience.
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Post by vegasjames on May 7, 2019 1:47:27 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum.
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 7, 2019 5:44:03 GMT -5
Hi Driver, welcome to the forum. You got some good advice above. I made a video that shows lots of detail about how I tumble rocks. I like my rocks as perfect as possible, and I’m willing to put in the time to get them that way. You do not have to make yours perfect but it might be useful to see what goes into producing a finished product, I use the products Dave suggested above, Lortone barrels and a Lot-O vibratory tumbler. The first state is the same even if I was using a rotary tumbler all the way through. The Lot-O just speeds things up.
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Post by fernwood on May 7, 2019 7:05:45 GMT -5
Lots of great advice already. Only things I can add are to use some type of cushioning media, even on some harder rocks. Ceramics for early stages and plastic pellets for later ones. Pre-polished pea gravel works great, too. These help to cushion the rocks. Rocks lose a lot of size during the tumbling process. Some experts here use no cushioning media. Have a variety of sizes of rocks. Run a cleaning stage between stages. Some do a Borax clean between the rough stages. This helps remove any remaining grit. Ivory soap flakes are the choice of others. Some do no cleaning other than a high pressure water wash. Montana agate is an easy tumble which usually produces beautiful results.
Wish you well.
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Post by grumpybill on May 7, 2019 11:42:16 GMT -5
I don't know how to identify the rocks and hardness. When I'm not sure about the hardness of a stone, I try to scratch it with the tip of a knife or the blade of a screwdriver. If the metal gouges the stone, it goes in the "soft" pile. If the metal leaves a streak without scratching the stone, it goes into the tumbler. Many of the "soft" stones can be polished (at least somewhat), but require different techniques than hard ones.
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driver
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2019
Posts: 17
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Post by driver on May 7, 2019 20:59:30 GMT -5
Wait, I just realized you were posting in the Rock Tumbling forum and not the introduction area, so disregard my advice to go there. I just saw your earlier thread and you got some good advice. Since you mentioned possibly buying more tumblers, let me give you some advice based upon my experience. Knowing what I know now, and if money is not a consideration, I'd buy a Lortone QT66 to do all of my coarse work. From there, I'd buy a Lot-O tumbler to do all finishing steps. My advice comes from someone (me) who used rotary tumblers to finish rocks to completion, as I did all my rocks with rotary tumblers until recently. I totally understand that money may be an issue, so I'm hesitant to make the recommendations that I did. However, if you can pull this off, I think you'll be happy in the long run. Yeah that is what I have been buying, mixed rocks and I throw them in together unless it is obvious. I have the Lortone and the Lot-O on my wanted list. I have way too many hobbies so it will have to wait a couple of months! Thanks for the advice.
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driver
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2019
Posts: 17
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Post by driver on May 7, 2019 21:00:31 GMT -5
I don't know how to identify the rocks and hardness. When I'm not sure about the hardness of a stone, I try to scratch it with the tip of a knife or the blade of a screwdriver. If the metal gouges the stone, it goes in the "soft" pile. If the metal leaves a streak without scratching the stone, it goes into the tumbler. Many of the "soft" stones can be polished (at least somewhat), but require different techniques than hard ones. Ill keep that in mind and start scratching the stones! Thank you
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Post by aDave on May 7, 2019 21:52:17 GMT -5
Yeah that is what I have been buying, mixed rocks and I throw them in together unless it is obvious. I have the Lortone and the Lot-O on my wanted list. I have way too many hobbies so it will have to wait a couple of months! Thanks for the advice. If you can't pull off the QT66, do nothing less than a Lortone 45C for your coarse work. The four pound barrel with that tumbler will still be much more efficient than a three pound barrel in any Lortone or Thumlers tumbler. There are a few folks here who have found the Lortone 3 pound tumblers to be pretty insufficient in the first stage. Go as large as you feel you can feed rocks into.
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Post by grumpybill on May 8, 2019 7:08:41 GMT -5
If you can't pull off the QT66, do nothing less than a Lortone 45C for your coarse work. The four pound barrel with that tumbler will still be much more efficient than a three pound barrel in any Lortone or Thumlers tumbler. Course grit typically breaks down completely in my Lortone 45C in 5 days. It typically takes 7-10 days in my Lortone 3lb. barrels.
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