lthornton
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2019
Posts: 19
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Post by lthornton on Sept 7, 2019 15:47:54 GMT -5
I am using the small ceramic cylinder pellets from The Rock Shed in my UV-10. The ceramic pellets are sticking/climbing the wall during tumbling. They don't seem to want to mix-in with the rocks. Some do, but not all. My batch is full - just under the top of the cylinder. When I turn the tumbler on, I notice pretty quickly that the whole top inch or two of the bowl is just the ceramic media stuck to the sides. I also noticed they are now more square than round - is that normal? Here is a picture of what they look like now, after 3 uses.
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pizzano
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,390
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Post by pizzano on Sept 7, 2019 20:14:14 GMT -5
First off, I'll qualify my comparisons by stating I use vibe's that are almost identical to the UV-10 model, with ceramics exclusively, in all stages 120/220 thru polishing. I do not use vibe's for rough grinding 60/90 type stages.....!
The ceramics you've shown look very similar to what I use (5/32" x 5/16") during 500 thru polishing stages........I no longer use them for any stages lower than 500. For (what I call) rough vibe cycles 120/220 thru 400, I use a larger angle ceramic media 1/4" x 5/8" that has a mild abrasive in it. They work great for quick grinding and last pretty well. I have used the smaller ceramics during the "rough' stages, but like what you have experienced, they wear out quickly and you need to apply at least a +40% ratio with the stones in order for them to be effective during the rough 120/220 cycle..........otherwise, you'll experience the floating and sticking to the bowl walls until the slurry has really thickened up.......just like you've mentioned.
Consider larger ceramic media (of various shapes) for the rough grinding cycles, which take a longer period of time (relatively speaking), to develop a thicker slurry that will bind to the ceramics. As you move up in the finer media cycles, which develop a thicker slurry quicker, small ceramics will do just fine if the ratio to stone is adequate based on the size of stones you're working with....!
That's been my experience with bowl vibe applications......other's may have had different results under the same circumstances.....!
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Post by TheRock on Sept 7, 2019 20:29:01 GMT -5
I am using the small ceramic cylinder pellets from The Rock Shed in my UV-10. The ceramic pellets are sticking/climbing the wall during tumbling. They don't seem to want to mix-in with the rocks. Some do, but not all. My batch is full - just under the top of the cylinder. When I turn the tumbler on, I notice pretty quickly that the whole top inch or two of the bowl is just the ceramic media stuck to the sides. I also noticed they are now more square than round - is that normal? Here is a picture of what they look like now, after 3 uses. It would be nice for you to show the Tumbler In Action, Short Clip? How much rock -vs- ceramics you using? How much water do you start out with? And how much grit are you starting with in each stage? More Info please, I have a UV-10 and a UV-18 in both of my tumblers the small Ceramics scale the walls and after 3 days of tumbling there are ceramics with clay from the rocks on the lid this is normal. My ceramics get warn like yours but doesn't hurt anything. I normally use a Mixture of the larger ceramics with the smaller ones but I have done it both ways.
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lthornton
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2019
Posts: 19
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Post by lthornton on Sept 7, 2019 22:11:49 GMT -5
First off, I'll qualify my comparisons by stating I use vibe's that are almost identical to the UV-10 model, with ceramics exclusively, in all stages 120/220 thru polishing. I do not use vibe's for rough grinding 60/90 type stages.....! The ceramics you've shown look very similar to what I use (5/32" x 5/16") during 500 thru polishing stages........I no longer use them for any stages lower than 500. For (what I call) rough vibe cycles 120/220 thru 400, I use a larger angle ceramic media 1/4" x 5/8" that has a mild abrasive in it. They work great for quick grinding and last pretty well. I have used the smaller ceramics during the "rough' stages, but like what you have experienced, they wear out quickly and you need to apply at least a +40% ratio with the stones in order for them to be effective during the rough 120/220 cycle..........otherwise, you'll experience the floating and sticking to the bowl walls until the slurry has really thickened up.......just like you've mentioned. Consider larger ceramic media (of various shapes) for the rough grinding cycles, which take a longer period of time (relatively speaking), to develop a thicker slurry that will bind to the ceramics. As you move up in the finer media cycles, which develop a thicker slurry quicker, small ceramics will do just fine if the ratio to stone is adequate based on the size of stones you're working with....! That's been my experience with bowl vibe applications......other's may have had different results under the same circumstances.....! Yes - I am using the ceramics in all 3 stages - 120/220, 500, and polish. They climb the walls immediately in all 3 stages. I have been using 30% media. Even in the 120/220 stage when the slurry gets really thick they are stuck to the wall. Maybe I need to try a 40% or even 50% ratio and larger media.
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lthornton
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2019
Posts: 19
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Post by lthornton on Sept 7, 2019 22:25:49 GMT -5
I am using the small ceramic cylinder pellets from The Rock Shed in my UV-10. The ceramic pellets are sticking/climbing the wall during tumbling. They don't seem to want to mix-in with the rocks. Some do, but not all. My batch is full - just under the top of the cylinder. When I turn the tumbler on, I notice pretty quickly that the whole top inch or two of the bowl is just the ceramic media stuck to the sides. I also noticed they are now more square than round - is that normal? Here is a picture of what they look like now, after 3 uses. It would be nice for you to show the Tumbler In Action, Short Clip? How much rock -vs- ceramics you using? How much water do you start out with? And how much grit are you starting with in each stage? More Info please, I have a UV-10 and a UV-18 in both of my tumblers the small Ceramics scale the walls and after 3 days of tumbling there are ceramics with clay from the rocks on the lid this is normal. My ceramics get warn like yours but doesn't hurt anything. I normally use a Mixture of the larger ceramics with the smaller ones but I have done it both ways. I've already cleaned it out so I can't do a video clip right now. I have been using 30% media. I fill the bowl with water, and then dump the water off. I then add the grit (180/200 SC; then 500 AO; then AO polish from The Rock Shed) and then start the tumbler. I may add a few squirts of water at this point if it needs it to start clinging to the rocks. I have been using the recipe that comes with the tumbler, even though I know a lot of people here use less. Since I am brand new to using a vibratory tumbler I thought I would go with what the manufacturer recommended and then adjust it from there. My rocks climb the walls immediately when I turn the tumbler on. I was worried because they are now square instead of round and I didn't know if that mattered or would be to rough. I have been using them in all 3 stages. I guess I should get a couple of pounds of the larger ones to mix in. I also noticed that they have round ball ones for the polishing stage. Have you ever tried those or are the other ones good enough? Also a little worried about the fact that so much of my bowl seems to the chipping off with each stage. I spend probably 30-45 minutes cleaning the bowl between stages. Do you use a separate bowl for polishing?
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,546
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Post by tkvancil on Sept 8, 2019 12:27:01 GMT -5
lthornton the wear is normal. The small cylinders climbing the walls is normal. With the lid on they fall back into the mix. Are you getting results you are happy with? ... If so I'd venture a guess that your formula is in no need of change.
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Post by TheRock on Sept 8, 2019 14:18:54 GMT -5
It would be nice for you to show the Tumbler In Action, Short Clip? How much rock -vs- ceramics you using? How much water do you start out with? And how much grit are you starting with in each stage? More Info please, I have a UV-10 and a UV-18 in both of my tumblers the small Ceramics scale the walls and after 3 days of tumbling there are ceramics with clay from the rocks on the lid this is normal. My ceramics get warn like yours but doesn't hurt anything. I normally use a Mixture of the larger ceramics with the smaller ones but I have done it both ways. I've already cleaned it out so I can't do a video clip right now. I have been using 30% media. I fill the bowl with water, and then dump the water off. I then add the grit (180/200 SC; then 500 AO; then AO polish from The Rock Shed) and then start the tumbler. I may add a few squirts of water at this point if it needs it to start clinging to the rocks. I have been using the recipe that comes with the tumbler, even though I know a lot of people here use less. Since I am brand new to using a vibratory tumbler I thought I would go with what the manufacturer recommended and then adjust it from there. My rocks climb the walls immediately when I turn the tumbler on. I was worried because they are now square instead of round and I didn't know if that mattered or would be to rough. I have been using them in all 3 stages. I guess I should get a couple of pounds of the larger ones to mix in. I also noticed that they have round ball ones for the polishing stage. Have you ever tried those or are the other ones good enough? Also a little worried about the fact that so much of my bowl seems to the chipping off with each stage. I spend probably 30-45 minutes cleaning the bowl between stages. Do you use a separate bowl for polishing? Okay the ceramics look fine they seem to be wearing a little bit faster than normal. I don't know what you mean by the bowl chipping off. On the outside of the bowl I use Mothers VLR vinyl, leather, rubber to keep clay rock mud from sticking to the outside of the bowl. I use muratic acid to clean the bowl sometime when it has dried streaks of mud on it to eat off the chalky rock them wash it good with water and apply VLR to keep it looking Black. Are you reffering to the rock mud chipping or the black plastic? I use a measuring cup and use 300 ml of water to fill it UV-10 and 400ml of water on the UV-18 works for me I add 2 TBL spoons of Borax for UV-10 and 3 for UV-18 on every stage. Grit I use 1 TBL spoon on every stahe on UV-10 and 1.5 TBL spoon on UV-18 depending on how thick the mud is will determin how many ceramics stick to top of lid.
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lthornton
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2019
Posts: 19
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Post by lthornton on Sept 8, 2019 17:06:54 GMT -5
As far as the bowl chipping off - I mean I always have bits of black stuff floating in the bowl at the end of my tumble. The post in the center looks like it has a whitish dust coating on it and I can't find a way to clean it - I guess because its not dirty, but it has rubbed off instead? I don't really know. This is what it looked like after my last polishing stage.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Sept 17, 2019 3:50:39 GMT -5
First off, I'll qualify my comparisons by stating I use vibe's that are almost identical to the UV-10 model, with ceramics exclusively, in all stages 120/220 thru polishing. I do not use vibe's for rough grinding 60/90 type stages.....! The ceramics you've shown look very similar to what I use (5/32" x 5/16") during 500 thru polishing stages........I no longer use them for any stages lower than 500. For (what I call) rough vibe cycles 120/220 thru 400, I use a larger angle ceramic media 1/4" x 5/8" that has a mild abrasive in it. They work great for quick grinding and last pretty well. I have used the smaller ceramics during the "rough' stages, but like what you have experienced, they wear out quickly and you need to apply at least a +40% ratio with the stones in order for them to be effective during the rough 120/220 cycle..........otherwise, you'll experience the floating and sticking to the bowl walls until the slurry has really thickened up.......just like you've mentioned. Consider larger ceramic media (of various shapes) for the rough grinding cycles, which take a longer period of time (relatively speaking), to develop a thicker slurry that will bind to the ceramics. As you move up in the finer media cycles, which develop a thicker slurry quicker, small ceramics will do just fine if the ratio to stone is adequate based on the size of stones you're working with....! That's been my experience with bowl vibe applications......other's may have had different results under the same circumstances.....! Note lthornton 's ceramic seems to be wearing fast for only 3 uses. I agree about not using non-abrasive ceramic or quartz pea gravel media in vibe with 120/220. Best used for AO 500 to polish steps.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Sept 17, 2019 4:08:57 GMT -5
lthorntonThe Rock Shed's ceramic media is supposed to be non-abrasive. Abrasive ceramics will sure nuff shave plastic off your hopper. The photo of your ceramic media looks like it has black specks in it, hard to tell. Not likely that it has silicon carbide fused into it. Black specks is often silicon carbide imbedded into the ceramic and it will certainly shave plastic off your hopper when fused into ceramic media. The black specks are not always silicon carbide though. If you bought it from The Rock Shed you should have the correct non-abrasive ceramic media. Are you running silicon carbide 120/220 or aluminum oxide 120/220 ? Guessing it is silicon carbide 120/220 which is aggressive and will wear ceramic media fairly quickly in a vibe. I agree with pizzano and not use non-abrasive ceramics in your silicon carbide 120/220 step since you should have plenty of quick slurry development to protect your rocks. Or use abrasive ceramics with 120/220 but you may find some hoppers get a frayed inner surface caused by the abrasive ceramics. Abrasive ceramics are hell on most vibe hoppers. Silicon carbide can fray/abrade polyethylene hoppers. Best used with certain polyurethane hoppers(Vibrasonic) or rubber(Lot-O). The small particles during your polish may have been created from a frayed or abraded hopper in the silicon carbide 120/220 step.
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