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Post by RocksInNJ on Oct 8, 2019 3:12:44 GMT -5
Hello, my name is Bill and I’m finally up and rolling with many thanks to you all for all the excellent info here. I just received my new QT-66 from the rock shed on Thursday and am waiting for the first stage to complete and sort through. I’m already saving up for a 10 inch tile saw and a Lot-O vibe.
Now if I could just find some really nice rocks to roll in my crappy state of New Jersey. So jealous of all the agates and other awesome rocks you all find. My only real hope would be to hopefully make the long haul to the Sterling or Franklin mines someday, but it’s a pretty long trip. So for now I’ve just been collecting rocks from the river, streams, beaches and some big chunks of glass from back in the early 1900’s, as my town was a big glass producing town back then.
I can’t thank you all enough for all the helpful knowledge that you’ve shared here. It has helped me immensely and I’m hoping to get to know you all better as time goes by.
Oh and one quick question if I may?
How many Tbsp. of grit should I be using for each stage in a 6 pound barrel? I used 10 Tbsp. of 60/90 when I loaded them up, but when I went to burp the barrels and check them, I noticed a lot of the rocks were stuck to the bottom of the barrel like they were almost cemented in place and I had to dig and scrape them off the bottom to get them rolling again, so was thinking I used to much grit.
What about the other 3 stages? Should I use the same or less? I’ve seen so many different post on the topic and some use the same through all stages and some use less on stages 3 and 4 and I’m uncertain what to do when I get to that point.
Many thanks again my friends and happy hunting and rolling.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Oct 8, 2019 8:36:30 GMT -5
Welcome from Northern Arizona!
I don't tumble, but the folks that do will be along to help you out.
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deedolce
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2006
Posts: 1,828
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Post by deedolce on Oct 8, 2019 8:56:07 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern AZ! Yes, we do have tumbling experts here that can help out. Share pics of your tumbles too, we love pictures!
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 8, 2019 10:57:12 GMT -5
Yes, we have the best tumblers here and they don't mind sharing. I'm so glad you got the help you needed and it was nice of you to acknowledge it. People like to hear that as much as they like helping.
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Post by aDave on Oct 8, 2019 11:40:27 GMT -5
Oh and one quick question if I may? How many Tbsp. of grit should I be using for each stage in a 6 pound barrel? I used 10 Tbsp. of 60/90 when I loaded them up, but when I went to burp the barrels and check them, I noticed a lot of the rocks were stuck to the bottom of the barrel like they were almost cemented in place and I had to dig and scrape them off the bottom to get them rolling again, so was thinking I used to much grit. What about the other 3 stages? Should I use the same or less? I’ve seen so many different post on the topic and some use the same through all stages and some use less on stages 3 and 4 and I’m uncertain what to do when I get to that point. Many thanks again my friends and happy hunting and rolling. Hi Bill, welcome to the forum. As far as my QT-66 barrels, I'm adding 9 or 10 LEVEL TBSP of grit for the coarse stage, so you should be okay with 10. In fact, if I recall correctly, the Lortone manual recommends that amount for the barrel. I think what you're seeing with the settling is not so much a case of too much grit - it's just that all of the unused grit has caked at the bottom when you set the barrel down to check it. I had that happen to me once, and it can occur pretty quickly. Some folks may have other theories about the caking, but I'm in the camp it's just everything going to the bottom when you set the barrel down. You won't see that later in the week, as the grit will be broken down. As far as your Lot-O for the other stages, take a look at this series of posts from Jugglerguy . He spells things out rather nicely which saves me a bunch of typing. Just keep reading on from this post: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/post/926384/threadI, as well as others, are using this recipe with great success. As noted in the post, I've eliminated the 1000 stage and run the 500 stage longer. Seems to work quite well. Good luck. ETA: Woops, it looks like I misread your post, and you don't have the Lot-O yet. As far as your other stages, use the same amount of grit for all stages except polish. Lortone recommends an amount that I've found to be too problematic with making things thick and foamy. When I was using rotaries to finish my rocks, I was using 3 level TBSP of AO polish in a four-pound barrel, and it worked rather well. The spoon was not packed - I shook up the jar first and then scooped out with a spoon. I think the math worked out to .75 TBSP per pound of barrel size.
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Post by TheRock on Oct 9, 2019 2:01:26 GMT -5
RocksInNJ to RTH forum from ~Duke in SW Michigan
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Post by RocksInNJ on Oct 9, 2019 7:37:11 GMT -5
Many thanks for the warm welcome and the tips. Just another day or two, before I check on my very first stage of rocks to see if any are ready for the next stage or not. I’m pretty excited to see what they look like and hope all goes well.
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julieooly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2018
Posts: 714
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Post by julieooly on Oct 9, 2019 10:28:11 GMT -5
Another thing that may help is to make sure you're using some small pieces mixed in with the larger ones. I typically start a barrel with large on the bottom quarter, then sprinkle some chips over them. Repeat twice util you get to the max 2/3 -3/4 full barrel. Rockshed sells some beautiful small mix for just this purpose. I would send a link but it seems their website is being updated. A lot of people re-use this small mix in the first stages but I like to carry mine all the way to the end. You have to be super careful to check each little piece before sending them to the next stage as they tend to break easily. It's a big time-suck but well worth it if you like small things. Some of this is what you'll find in their mix.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Oct 10, 2019 1:42:42 GMT -5
I’m so glad you posted that picture. I just checked the rocks and was in shock when I saw most of them turned out to be tiny pebbles like in your photo above. I did use all different size rocks for a balanced load along with one that was a little bigger than the rest. So I’m assuming either my lousy New Jersey rocks are soft, I used to much grit or the one bigger rock really beat the others up or quite possibly all of the above.
I took out the ones that were ready and have them sitting in a bowl of water waiting for the next stage and threw the rest back in for a few more days or so. Now I’m just debating on what to do with so many tiny stone. Was really hoping they would’ve been bigger. I will probably send the nice ones onto the next stage and use the ugly ones for filler in the next run.
At least I know I’m not the only one who wound up with such tiny stones. Thanks so much for the photo and the tips.
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julieooly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2018
Posts: 714
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Post by julieooly on Oct 11, 2019 8:18:23 GMT -5
I’m so glad you posted that picture. I just checked the rocks and was in shock when I saw most of them turned out to be tiny pebbles like in your photo above. I did use all different size rocks for a balanced load along with one that was a little bigger than the rest. So I’m assuming either my lousy New Jersey rocks are soft, I used to much grit or the one bigger rock really beat the others up or quite possibly all of the above. I took out the ones that were ready and have them sitting in a bowl of water waiting for the next stage and threw the rest back in for a few more days or so. Now I’m just debating on what to do with so many tiny stone. Was really hoping they would’ve been bigger. I will probably send the nice ones onto the next stage and use the ugly ones for filler in the next run. At least I know I’m not the only one who wound up with such tiny stones. Thanks so much for the photo and the tips. You've misunderstood. These rocks started out tiny (well most of them). Your rocks that ended up tiny are most likely soft if they have only gone through the first stage. When you're loading your barrel you want to add small stones *of the same hardness* along with the larger stones. It makes them tumble better with more surface area bumping against one another. Rockshed sells a great mix of small chips just for this purpose, and they're nice hard rocks. Lots of people don't bother taking these chips all through the final polishing stage because it's just a pain to check every little piece. What you see in the picture is a combination of the small rock chips from rockshed and some others that have made their way into the jar along the way. Not all soft rocks are lousy, you may have some cool stuff there but the harder rocks wore them down. I'd suggest maybe buying some rocks of known hardness and tumbling an unmixed batch, or buy a mix like rockshed sells of midsized rocks that are near the same hardness and experiment with that. There's probably some people here that can sell you good tumbling rocks too, people who are good at it. I'm a novice tumbler that got into cabbing.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Oct 11, 2019 14:16:42 GMT -5
I’m so glad you posted that picture. I just checked the rocks and was in shock when I saw most of them turned out to be tiny pebbles like in your photo above. I did use all different size rocks for a balanced load along with one that was a little bigger than the rest. So I’m assuming either my lousy New Jersey rocks are soft, I used to much grit or the one bigger rock really beat the others up or quite possibly all of the above. I took out the ones that were ready and have them sitting in a bowl of water waiting for the next stage and threw the rest back in for a few more days or so. Now I’m just debating on what to do with so many tiny stone. Was really hoping they would’ve been bigger. I will probably send the nice ones onto the next stage and use the ugly ones for filler in the next run. At least I know I’m not the only one who wound up with such tiny stones. Thanks so much for the photo and the tips. You've misunderstood. These rocks started out tiny (well most of them). Your rocks that ended up tiny are most likely soft if they have only gone through the first stage. When you're loading your barrel you want to add small stones *of the same hardness* along with the larger stones. It makes them tumble better with more surface area bumping against one another. Rockshed sells a great mix of small chips just for this purpose, and they're nice hard rocks. Lots of people don't bother taking these chips all through the final polishing stage because it's just a pain to check every little piece. What you see in the picture is a combination of the small rock chips from rockshed and some others that have made their way into the jar along the way. Not all soft rocks are lousy, you may have some cool stuff there but the harder rocks wore them down. I'd suggest maybe buying some rocks of known hardness and tumbling an unmixed batch, or buy a mix like rockshed sells of midsized rocks that are near the same hardness and experiment with that. There's probably some people here that can sell you good tumbling rocks too, people who are good at it. I'm a novice tumbler that got into cabbing. Yea I understand the mixed sizes and did that. I tried my best to get the same type of rocks by eye and a few scratch test here and there. I don’t know enough about all the different ones and such, but did the best I could. I can’t really afford to buy rocks to tumble atm and part of the reason I started the hobby was to get out and get my handicapped butt some exercise. Plus I’d rather find my own rather than buy anyway, but to be honest New Jersey rocks suck? Lol. I honestly didn’t think they’d wear down as much as they did. Most looked like a rose quarts or just your average plain brown/tan rock, which I assumed were either quarts or chalcedony and thought they’d be hard enough, but I guess not or I probably misidentified them. No biggie, I knew going in it’s gonna be a long trial and error learning process. I was just a little disappointed, as I was hoping to at least have some decent looking and nice sized ones. I’m about to check the ones that weren’t ready yet and tossed them back in for a few days, but I’m expecting the same results. Fingers crossed and thank you so much for your help and time. It’s very much appreciated. If worse comes to worse, I may buy some ground up corn cob and try the same type of rocks with that and see how it goes.
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julieooly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2018
Posts: 714
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Post by julieooly on Oct 13, 2019 8:19:25 GMT -5
There are probably people here on the forum who will sell you rocks you can try out for not much more than the cost of postage. I don't do much tumbling so I can't help you though. These hobbies are definitely something you should set budgets for though, it's easy to get caught up in them
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Post by As I in does tries! on Oct 31, 2019 1:26:39 GMT -5
Greetings from Scotland on the other side of the pond!
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