Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Nov 23, 2019 3:03:23 GMT -5
Hi All, New here, followed threads for a while before joining. I wanted to share a tumbling project I started a few weeks ago, and hopefully keep y'all updated as I go. I have a 12 lb tumbler and I decided to stick the biggest piece of quartz that I had that would fit into it. I picked a chunk that had mostly convex corners and minimal concave spots in the hopes that it would be a good candidate to come out nice. Now, this is dipping into crazy town. I know it wont tumble properly, but that's okay, just as long as it eventually does. I'm keeping weekly tabs on it, in terms of taking a photo and weighing it, so this should be interesting. Week 0: Pre-tumble. 1655g Week 1: 60/90 SiC. 1604g. Running mass loss 3.1% Week 2: 60/90 SiC. 1555g. Running mass loss 6.0% Hopefully an update in the next day or two when it comes out of another week of rough grinding.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Nov 23, 2019 4:16:26 GMT -5
Cool little project. Looking forward to the rest.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Nov 23, 2019 20:47:36 GMT -5
Week 3: 60/90 SiC. 1520g. Running mass loss 8.2% Kind of interesting. I seem to be getting diminishing returns. Maybe it's just that the sharp edges are mostly gone. Maybe other material in the barrel isn't letting it tumble as much. Maybe too much water... Looking at some of jamesp posts, I'm wondering if the 60/90 is really doing much of anything after a few days, and also that maybe I should drop my water level down a bit.
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EricD
Cave Dweller
High in the Mountains
Member since November 2019
Posts: 1,142
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Post by EricD on Nov 23, 2019 21:46:20 GMT -5
I want to follow this, it should get interesting. More than it already is! I have tumbled some quite large stones, but none this hard and large.
Edit: Welcome to the forum!
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Post by RocksInNJ on Nov 23, 2019 21:54:06 GMT -5
Quartz is a pretty hard rocks. It could take many, many months. Especially with a rock that size. I’ve been experimenting with thickening the slurry with some plain kitty litter. The unscented clay type with no chemicals or anything. Do you have smaller rocks in there with it or ceramic media to help carry the grit and give it something to rub up against?
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Nov 23, 2019 22:13:18 GMT -5
Oh yea, there are a variety of sizes in there, all the way down to pea-sized. I learned with the last big quartz (avatar pic) that I really, really needed to have the smaller stones in there to get in all the nooks and crannies. I'm holding off on ceramics until medium grind.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,169
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Post by RWA3006 on Nov 23, 2019 22:30:30 GMT -5
Fun project. I've been tumbling big stones like yours for the last year and I learned the coarse grit wears out quickly. I start with 36 grit SC and change every 6 days. I can confirm you are correct in needing small stones to carry the grit everywhere, especially if there are concave surfaces or nooks on the large stone.
I also learned that a few minutes of putting the large stone on a supergrinder before starting the tumble can save weeks of tumbling. I focus on smoothing the rough concave surfaces with the supergrinder blade to give the tumbling a head start. Works really well.
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Post by HankRocks on Nov 24, 2019 7:57:09 GMT -5
Good luck with your experiment. Large rocks like this can be polished. Here's one I did a while back, it came in right under 4 pounds. Was not tracking it properly so I forgotten original weight. Fortunately for me it was one of the Rio Grande(South Texas) river agates and it had a decent tumble shape already DSC_0189 by Findrocks, on Flickr As folks here have commented, it will go faster if you add some smalls such as pea gravel and thicken the slurry to help suspend the grit better. You might also check to see how fast the grit is getting used up. That way you will know when to add more. I did not have access to a Super Grinder at the time , that would have helped me eliminate a few of the dimples that remained. Henry
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Wooferhound
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Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
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Post by Wooferhound on Nov 24, 2019 8:45:21 GMT -5
Oh Goodness . . . I would be using 16 or 30 grit with that big ol' stone. Make sure that there is plenty of air space in there for good tumbling action.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Nov 24, 2019 10:12:07 GMT -5
Looks like you are into about a 1655 gram/457 = 3.6 pound rock to tumble Benathema and making progress. That is a nice solid hunk of quartz. It is difficult to find a large chunk of perfect rock for such a project. River worn roundish agates are great candidates but usually have their share of fractures. The biggest I ever did was 2.5 pounds. Henry HankRocks successfully finish polished that 4 pound behemoth above. I used small 7 pound barrels full of 100% smalls up to 1.25 inches in size, and one big rock. The big rocks were usually tough agates or petrified woods ranging from 1.5 to 2 pounds in most cases. Small barrel means less abrasives. That was about as big as I could get in the barrel. I found having the big rocks mixed with other big rocks(rocks over 1.5 inches) caused bruises if even on a small scale. The 3/4 to 1.5 inch rocks shaped quick but abrasive wore out quick too. I used a grinder to pre-shape the big rock every few days for the first 10 days in rotary using SiC 30. If the pre-grinding was done well it only took about 2 weeks to remove the grinder marks. So the total time spent in coarse grind was usually 3 weeks. The big rock WAS NOT shaped by the tumbler. Shaping a big rock without serious grinding is a long project in the tumbler. So what, the rock was out of coarse grind in 3 weeks, not bad. Then the big rock goes 10 days in rotary with SiC 220 and same smalls to prepare the rock for a big vibratory tumbler which made the finish steps easy. Again, even in the vibe the big rock was 100% surrounded by smalls.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Nov 24, 2019 10:13:58 GMT -5
Good luck with your experiment. Large rocks like this can be polished. Here's one I did a while back, it came in right under 4 pounds. Was not tracking it properly so I forgotten original weight. Fortunately for me it was one of the Rio Grande(South Texas) river agates and it had a decent tumble shape already DSC_0189 by Findrocks, on Flickr As folks here have commented, it will go faster if you add some smalls such as pea gravel and thicken the slurry to help suspend the grit better. You might also check to see how fast the grit is getting used up. That way you will know when to add more. I did not have access to a Super Grinder at the time , that would have helped me eliminate a few of the dimples that remained. Henry Did you finish polish this rock in the vibe or the rotary Henry ?
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Post by 1dave on Nov 24, 2019 13:50:06 GMT -5
I think it best to start with desired outcome. Is a polished rock with cracks and pits OK? Is time a factor? May want to consider pre-tumbling preparation. Break or saw off unwanted parts.
Then come all the variables - size of barrel. type and size of motor, speed of tumble, type of grit and polish . . .
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Post by HankRocks on Nov 24, 2019 19:09:07 GMT -5
Good luck with your experiment. Large rocks like this can be polished. Here's one I did a while back, it came in right under 4 pounds. Was not tracking it properly so I forgotten original weight. Fortunately for me it was one of the Rio Grande(South Texas) river agates and it had a decent tumble shape already DSC_0189 by Findrocks, on Flickr As folks here have commented, it will go faster if you add some smalls such as pea gravel and thicken the slurry to help suspend the grit better. You might also check to see how fast the grit is getting used up. That way you will know when to add more. I did not have access to a Super Grinder at the time , that would have helped me eliminate a few of the dimples that remained. Henry Did you finish polish this rock in the vibe or the rotary Henry ? I am pretty sure(suck's to get old!!) I did it in the Rotary as I was afraid it would jam up in the UV-18 with it's donut shape, It probably would have worked in the large UV. I would love to do 3 or 4 rocks about on the 1.5 to 2 pound range at the same time. Keeping them from fighting is the real issue, the remainder of the load needs to be pea gravel and lots of slurry to help cushion and keep the fighters in their respective corners!! I am getting my Super-grinder set back up so I hope to go down the multiple bigs route soon. The dang list of "want-to-do's" and "need-do-do's" keeps getting longer. Tired today and need to go out and get truck unloaded from the Craft Show today. We have company coming for Thanksgiving and Headquarter's has issued a long list of orders to be carried out!! Henry
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Nov 25, 2019 1:21:30 GMT -5
I never polished rocks over 1 pound in the rotary. I always did the finish steps in the vibe on larger rocks. A 1/2 pound rock mixed with a 1.5 pound rock caused deep bruises for me in the rotary with 6" barrel/30 rpm HankRocks. Glass is worse. Pieces bigger than 50 grams in rotary causes bruises. More than one 50 gram rocks in the vibe with glass damages the polish quality on the glass. I try to keep a mixed load of glass and rocks(or all glass) with nothing over 30 grams.
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Post by HankRocks on Nov 25, 2019 7:57:52 GMT -5
I never polished rocks over 1 pound in the rotary. I always did the finish steps in the vibe on larger rocks. A 1/2 pound rock mixed with a 1.5 pound rock caused deep bruises for me in the rotary with 6" barrel/30 rpm HankRocks . Glass is worse. Pieces bigger than 50 grams in rotary causes bruises. More than one 50 gram rocks in the vibe with glass damages the polish quality on the glass. I try to keep a mixed load of glass and rocks(or all glass) with nothing over 30 grams. For the 4 pounder, it was the only rock over 1/2 inch in the load which did not give it anything to bang against. Running multiple big is the issue. If I pack the barrel where there is little movement, there will be no hard collisions, but the grinding will be severely reduced. That should be ok? for all stages except the Coarse(grinding) stage. It does seem that I need to keep the load with no more than 40 percent large with the rest being pea gravel. The large tumbles sell pretty well, the slow one or two rocks per cycle makes it difficult to keep up with the demand. Getting 15 to 20 barrels is not practical. I have several very large rocks that I want to polish but it going to be a while as my tumbling backlog keeps growing. Using river material, thank you Rio Grande, that have been touched up with the Super Grinder will speed up the process . So many rocks, so little time!!!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Nov 25, 2019 9:01:15 GMT -5
I never polished rocks over 1 pound in the rotary. I always did the finish steps in the vibe on larger rocks. A 1/2 pound rock mixed with a 1.5 pound rock caused deep bruises for me in the rotary with 6" barrel/30 rpm HankRocks . Glass is worse. Pieces bigger than 50 grams in rotary causes bruises. More than one 50 gram rocks in the vibe with glass damages the polish quality on the glass. I try to keep a mixed load of glass and rocks(or all glass) with nothing over 30 grams. For the 4 pounder, it was the only rock over 1/2 inch in the load which did not give it anything to bang against. Running multiple big is the issue. If I pack the barrel where there is little movement, there will be no hard collisions, but the grinding will be severely reduced. That should be ok? for all stages except the Coarse(grinding) stage. It does seem that I need to keep the load with no more than 40 percent large with the rest being pea gravel. The large tumbles sell pretty well, the slow one or two rocks per cycle makes it difficult to keep up with the demand. Getting 15 to 20 barrels is not practical. I have several very large rocks that I want to polish but it going to be a while as my tumbling backlog keeps growing. Using river material, thank you Rio Grande, that have been touched up with the Super Grinder will speed up the process . So many rocks, so little time!!! One big rock and mostly small rocks about 1.25 inches worked well for me. Never could avoid bruises with more than one big rock. You may have luck reducing movement by packing barrel fuller. I made five 7 pound barrels out of 6 inch PVC and rolled a big rock usually from the Rio with smalls. He he, spun the barrels at 90 rpm, slurry and nasty bulk SiC. Only one big rock and a bunch of smalls - why not run it lightning fast, there was not going to be any bigger rocks hitting each other ! From the sounds you could tell there was serious grinding going on. With a few minutes on the grinder every few days at the beginning of the roll. It got to where the coarse grind on the big rock was done in 2+ to 3 weeks, not bad. The smalls were re-used for doing 2 big rocks and were totally rounded after 2 big rock runs. The dedicated big rock in the small barrels spinning so fast shaped the smalls the fastest I have ever seen. This method made beautiful rounded small tumbles in a hurry. It helped having the 3/8 inch SiC to slow down the abrasive break down. By far the fastest coarse grinds I ever did on big or small rocks. Small big rock barrels and some big rocks, media in this link: www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/albums/72157672945278964These were the contents of one 7 pound barrel, well shaped smalls after 2 big rock runs:
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,676
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Post by Fossilman on Nov 25, 2019 9:40:58 GMT -5
Nice job.... I tumbled a 3 pound piece of petwood this summer in my 12 pounder... Only took a month and turned out great... It never hurts to try something out, if it works, it works - If it don't, it don't.. No foul play!
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Nov 30, 2019 4:31:37 GMT -5
Week 4: 60/90 SiC. 1471g. Running mass loss 11.1% Coming along. I added slurry and dropped the water level at the start, but didn't recharge the grit. It definitely had an effect on the other rocks in there, they wore down quite a bit. However, I think I'm going to have to separate some of my favorite smaller rocks out from this big guy, he's a little too rough on them. The smaller stuff that has rounded off has done so nicely, but there are several that got busted within the last few days. I think I'll replace them with sacrificial quartz. I'm thinking I'll stick this rough grind out with 60/90 for this guy. I do have some large chunks of rose quartz and tiger's eye that I'd like to do once this guy is all said and polished. Maybe between now and then I'll pick up so coarser SiC so they'll go faster.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Nov 30, 2019 22:42:58 GMT -5
Looking good. Thanks for keeping us updated. Really enjoy seeing the progress.
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Perigrine
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Member since November 2019
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Post by Perigrine on Dec 3, 2019 16:07:07 GMT -5
I'm following this with great interest too!
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