braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on Dec 12, 2019 20:03:08 GMT -5
My first try at tumbling glass and I'm very pleased how they turned out! I've been following Jamesp's glass ventures and thought I'd like to give it a go but was hesitant after reading how soft glass is and the special treatment needed but when rockindad took the time to explain the ins and outs of the UV10 vibe adjustments I had enough confidence to push on and and the results are in the photo. The blue stuff was a vase in it's former life and the green and yellow were kitchen items I got from a thrift store. The brown is from a beer bottle and the clear stuff was a glass thing (drug device?) I picked up on one of my walks. Anyways a whole new world of tumbling just opened up and I look forward to hounding thrift stores and badgering friends and family to give up their colorful glass Dec 2019 Batch by Glen Braaten, on Flickr
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Dec 12, 2019 20:34:59 GMT -5
Very nice. Love that blue. What was your filler material and what percentage did you go with.
Chuck
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Dec 12, 2019 21:03:49 GMT -5
It's all in the vibe adjustments. You guys got it figured out. Once the adjustments are final the rest is gravy. Beautiful polish braat, well done. You may get addicted... Consider getting a small glass kiln. With practice it can melt most glass into pendant like blobs. About all glass melts to 6mm thick with a nice pendant shape, perfect for tumbling.
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on Dec 12, 2019 21:28:20 GMT -5
Very nice. Love that blue. What was your filler material and what percentage did you go with. Chuck Thanks. When I saw the blue vase in the thrift store I knew it was meant for me...blue is my fave color! I used aquarium quartz pea gravel for filler/cushioning ...for my own future reference I weighed the media and glass after my cleanout this morning and it was 2440 grams media and 1430 grams glass so 63 % media which surprises me actually as I had 50% in my mind and loaded the vibe with what looked about 50%. Going forward I think I'll keep the ratio about the same as there was only a couple chips and cracks and a lot of them were very thin at just under 1/8"...
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on Dec 12, 2019 22:12:38 GMT -5
It's all in the vibe adjustments. You guys got it figured out. Once the adjustments are final the rest is gravy. Beautiful polish braat , well done. You may get addicted... Consider getting a small glass kiln. With practice it can melt most glass into pendant like blobs. About all glass melts to 6mm thick with a nice pendant shape, perfect for tumbling. Thanks I appreciate it but truth be told tumblers like yourself, rockindad and others took most of the guesswork out of it which makes success a lot easier! But having said that I did a little experimenting of my own...on my "normal" tumbles I skip the second (220) stage as I didn't see it made any difference. I skipped 220 on this glass tumble and after 4 days of prepolish there was a lot of micro pitting so I backtracked and did 2 days of 220 and another 4 days of prepolish which gave a pit free shine not far from the final shine in the photo. I did 3 days of polish after that. I'm now rethinking my "skip 220" idea and have a batch of rocks in 220 right now that only got to a dull shine before... was it because I skipped 220?...we'll see. And yes if I wasn't already addicted this glass will make it so...I think like Dummond Island Rocks said a ways back you got to change things up to maintain excitement...
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,334
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Post by quartz on Dec 12, 2019 22:52:16 GMT -5
Very nice polish on that, like the colors you chose too.
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Post by miket on Dec 12, 2019 23:24:38 GMT -5
Sweeeeet! Awesome colors, great work.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Dec 12, 2019 23:52:12 GMT -5
It's all in the vibe adjustments. You guys got it figured out. Once the adjustments are final the rest is gravy. Beautiful polish braat , well done. You may get addicted... Consider getting a small glass kiln. With practice it can melt most glass into pendant like blobs. About all glass melts to 6mm thick with a nice pendant shape, perfect for tumbling. What are these adjustments or can you point me to thread about it please?
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Post by RocksInNJ on Dec 12, 2019 23:53:15 GMT -5
Those are amazing looking for your first batch. Great job and hope you have a blast with all your future tumbles.
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on Dec 13, 2019 1:52:25 GMT -5
It's all in the vibe adjustments. You guys got it figured out. Once the adjustments are final the rest is gravy. Beautiful polish braat , well done. You may get addicted... Consider getting a small glass kiln. With practice it can melt most glass into pendant like blobs. About all glass melts to 6mm thick with a nice pendant shape, perfect for tumbling. What are these adjustments or can you point me to thread about it please? forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/88000/first-time-glass
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Post by RocksInNJ on Dec 13, 2019 3:44:52 GMT -5
Thank you kindly sir. There’s some great info there and hope to be able to polish up some fine glass like you all have done some day.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Dec 13, 2019 6:18:47 GMT -5
Funny thing braat. Rockindad mentioned adding more material past the recommended the fill line to calm the motion. In my case I welded up a heavier hopper(but did not think about simply adding more material to increase weight). In both cases it appears adding weight to the hopper makes the vibe run gentler. Analogy would be the stiff suspension on a pick up truck, when empty it rides rough, when loaded to the max it rides smoother. Or in vibration theory adding more mass to a vibratory spring system always softens the sharp reversals of the vibration. I tried the thickest of slurries in the Vibrasonic before modifications to no avail. It still bruised obsidian. After adding weight to the hopper it would polish obsidian even with a thinner slurry. It made the vibe user friendly and more versatile and does Mohs 7 rocks just as well after the mods.
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Post by MsAli on Dec 13, 2019 7:06:06 GMT -5
Really great job on those!
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fishnpinball
Cave Dweller
So much to learn, so little time
Member since March 2017
Posts: 1,491
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Post by fishnpinball on Dec 13, 2019 7:26:23 GMT -5
awesome tumble
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Dec 13, 2019 9:16:30 GMT -5
Dang, being 'pulled' to the dungeon space and cranking up the glass kiln. Wife wants to join in, urrrg.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Dec 13, 2019 11:14:41 GMT -5
Dang, being 'pulled' to the dungeon space and cranking up the glass kiln. Wife wants to join in, urrrg. Oh no, I feel a competition coming on. Lol.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Dec 13, 2019 13:34:44 GMT -5
Dang, being 'pulled' to the dungeon space and cranking up the glass kiln. Wife wants to join in, urrrg. Oh no, I feel a competition coming on. Lol. My gig is melting glass bricks with thin color layers and strategically sawed angles thru the layers and patterns so that tumbling exposes them in interesting ways. The wife likes making 2-dim art motifs in individual pendant melts, and she smokes me with her artistic talent. Venus and Mars is also alive and well in the glass dungeon thankfully. Sure is good to see other members tinkering with tumbling glass. It is a cool medium to tumble.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Dec 13, 2019 14:08:52 GMT -5
I’m hoping to try my hand at some glass soon and only hope I can come somewhat close to what you guys are cranking out,
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on Dec 13, 2019 19:13:37 GMT -5
Funny thing braat . Rockindad mentioned adding more material past the recommended the fill line to calm the motion. In my case I welded up a heavier hopper(but did not think about simply adding more material to increase weight). In both cases it appears adding weight to the hopper makes the vibe run gentler. Analogy would be the stiff suspension on a pick up truck, when empty it rides rough, when loaded to the max it rides smoother. Or in vibration theory adding more mass to a vibratory spring system always softens the sharp reversals of the vibration. I tried the thickest of slurries in the Vibrasonic before modifications to no avail. It still bruised obsidian. After adding weight to the hopper it would polish obsidian even with a thinner slurry. It made the vibe user friendly and more versatile and does Mohs 7 rocks just as well after the mods. For this glass tumble the bowl was full but not overly?...roughly the same total volume and media ratio I use for my "normal" tumbles but I did put in 6 heaping tablespoons of borax (vs "normal" 2) for the 4 days of prepolish and 3 days of polish to thicken things up and slow down the action. I checked the action every 12 hours and on average the action had slowed noticeably...10 squirts from the spray water bottle( set to stream vs mist) I found was enough keep the action going . I thought maybe the thinner under 1/8" pieces would chip/crack/break but only one finished with a crack and one other was chipped on the edge so obviously my educated guesses worked out. Sometime i'm going to try your sugar idea to thicken up the slurry and see how that works out vs the borax...thinking it will be more yard friendly if nothing else...
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Dec 13, 2019 20:38:28 GMT -5
Filling up higher to add weight may help in another way. I made two hoppers, the first one was made of 2 Minisonic barrels and not as heavy as the 2nd all steel hopper, it required 60% media to avoid bruises. The second hopper quite a bit heavier and only required 30% media for bruise control but took a bit longer to break abrasives down.
Never tried changing the amount of sugar/pound of rock. The ratio of sugar in either one was 1.5 tablespoons per 2 pounds of glass and media. Enough water to dissolve the sugar crystals.
After the final polish I fill the hopper with water and add Dawn and let er run an hour or two. Then a final wash in the sink with hot water and spot removing dishwasher soap(it works great to remove spots on tumbles too).
Only about 2 to 3% of vase glass broke, mostly the pieces that had been tumbled too thin in the rotary.
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