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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 9, 2019 9:56:47 GMT -5
I recently rotary tumbled a large, banded chert that turned out pretty good. I got some of those little crescent shaped marks on it that sometimes occur with hard rocks. I've had it happen with Bots before. This rock was too big to fit in my Lot-O, so I was forced to rotary tumble it to the end. I haven't done too many batches with the rotary tumbler, and I've never done a batch with ceramics, only plastic. The ceramics worked well, but I wonder if they caused those marks.
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Post by wigglinrocks on Nov 9, 2019 11:06:16 GMT -5
NICE chunk of chert , love that stuff . Awesome job on the polish . Nice ones in the video also . All the banders we find around here are quarter size or smaller . Save me 10 pounds or so ?
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agatemaggot
Cave Dweller
Member since August 2006
Posts: 2,195
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Post by agatemaggot on Nov 9, 2019 11:15:21 GMT -5
That is pretty crazy looking, almost like Polish Flint !
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,652
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Post by Tommy on Nov 9, 2019 11:18:56 GMT -5
That is some gorgeous rock Rob! Thanks for the big video reveal
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 9, 2019 11:26:28 GMT -5
There's a zebra on the back of the one you pulled from the tumbler! Nice rock and great tumbles.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Nov 9, 2019 12:46:33 GMT -5
Great rock and really nice rotary polish. The crescent marks are a real bummer. I have a whole bunch of super nice and Brazilians and Bots that ended up like that. I am not fully on the clay and kitty liter band wagon but I do think for those type of rocks a slurry additive in stage one would help. My Bots and Brazilians had them after stage one and did not get any worse in the loto so I think the rotary is where it happens. I would like to try mine again but I have no idea how deep the damage is or how long I would need to run stage one to remove those crescents.
Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 9, 2019 16:26:13 GMT -5
NICE chunk of chert , love that stuff . Awesome job on the polish . Nice ones in the video also . All the banders we find around here are quarter size or smaller . Save me 10 pounds or so ? Nice ones like these are very rare. I find a few each summer.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 9, 2019 16:27:37 GMT -5
Great rock and really nice rotary polish. The crescent marks are a real bummer. I have a whole bunch of super nice and Brazilians and Bots that ended up like that. I am not fully on the clay and kitty liter band wagon but I do think for those type of rocks a slurry additive in stage one would help. My Bots and Brazilians had them after stage one and did not get any worse in the loto so I think the rotary is where it happens. I would like to try mine again but I have no idea how deep the damage is or how long I would need to run stage one to remove those crescents. Chuck They’re not obvious to the naked eye, so I’m not too upset.
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Post by HankRocks on Nov 9, 2019 18:46:45 GMT -5
Great rock and really nice rotary polish. The crescent marks are a real bummer. I have a whole bunch of super nice and Brazilians and Bots that ended up like that. I am not fully on the clay and kitty liter band wagon but I do think for those type of rocks a slurry additive in stage one would help. My Bots and Brazilians had them after stage one and did not get any worse in the loto so I think the rotary is where it happens. I would like to try mine again but I have no idea how deep the damage is or how long I would need to run stage one to remove those crescents. Chuck They’re not obvious to the naked eye, so I’m not too upset. I have noticed the marks in mine also and wonder how many of them were there originally. The "skin" on the Brazilians can hide some of them and the coarse grit exposes them. I pretty sure those have a pretty rough trip from agate field to our tumblers. Was the Chert always run in the small tumbler with smaller media? if yes, it does not seem like it could have gotten any dings without another larger rock to fight with. Henry
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 9, 2019 20:06:16 GMT -5
They’re not obvious to the naked eye, so I’m not too upset. I have noticed the marks in mine also and wonder how many of them were there originally. The "skin" on the Brazilians can hide some of them and the coarse grit exposes them. I pretty sure those have a pretty rough trip from agate field to our tumblers. Was the Chert always run in the small tumbler with smaller media? if yes, it does not seem like it could have gotten any dings without another larger rock to fight with. Henry No, it spent months in coarse in a twelve pound barrel with other rocks, but no media. I took off quite a bit of rock in that time, so I'm sure those weren't there originally.
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Post by TheRock on Nov 9, 2019 23:57:13 GMT -5
Great Video and that Chert tuned out really nice.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Nov 10, 2019 15:23:53 GMT -5
Looks like a high grade polish Flint!
Super cool
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 10, 2019 16:00:28 GMT -5
That is pretty crazy looking, almost like Polish Flint ! Looks like a high grade polish Flint! Super cool I hadn't heard of Polish flint until you two mentioned it. I just looked at some pictures, and I have to agree that they look very similar. That's pretty cool.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Nov 10, 2019 19:04:34 GMT -5
That is pretty crazy looking, almost like Polish Flint ! Looks like a high grade polish Flint! Super cool I hadn't heard of Polish flint until you two mentioned it. I just looked at some pictures, and I have to agree that they look very similar. That's pretty cool. It's trippy stuff for sure
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ontherocks
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2017
Posts: 76
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Post by ontherocks on Nov 10, 2019 19:54:48 GMT -5
That looks really cool.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Nov 10, 2019 23:40:09 GMT -5
Wow love the banding and pattern on that. Great job sir. I just started experimenting with the kitty litter myself. Just started using it in my stage one runs for softer rocks, but I have to find the time to search through the forums here to see if I should use it in the other stages as well, along with how much for a 6lb barrel.
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,546
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Post by tkvancil on Nov 21, 2019 11:44:56 GMT -5
Nice piece Jugglerguy , the good pieces of chert are rare-ish down here in the flat lands also. As to the crescent marks ... I think the larger the rock the more likely this occurs. Had a batch of agates once with a like 3/4 fist size Montana. It had a ton of the marks. Upon inspecting the rest I noticed that smallish 3/4" Montanas had no marks. Sizes in between had various amounts but the larger the most. I have tried thicker slurries but still get the crescents. I'm with Drummond Island Rocks in not being on the clay band wagon but have considered trying. The originator of this uses large diameter smooth sided homemade barrels. Larger commercial barrels are multi sided. As I understand the clay process less volume is required. So if it truly is faster it's still less material at once. Also as I understand the clay process grit is added more than once per week. I read an old lapidary article about speeding up the rough grind. The "secret" was fresh coarse grit at 2 to 3 day intervals as opposed to 7 day intervals. Fresh coarse grit does far more cutting than broken down grit ...
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conifer
off to a rocking start
Member since May 2018
Posts: 19
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Post by conifer on Nov 21, 2019 18:24:57 GMT -5
Beautiful rock!
I’ve noticed the same crescents when my rough barrel isn’t full enough.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Nov 22, 2019 11:42:38 GMT -5
Very beautiful rock, Rob. I love the large ones. And yours will make a nice paperweight on the desk. I have not seen any Cherts which look like this. Not even close. And the shine is amazing! It looks like glass.
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