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Post by rockpickerforever on Jan 22, 2020 10:17:20 GMT -5
Corn Starch being an organic material might present some issues. On the other hand you might be making some killer Sour Mash!!! Besides being a thickener in chow mein, it is also useful for making a mess in your kitchen, lol. What goes up, must come down...
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Jan 22, 2020 14:18:31 GMT -5
I save a lot of money on silicon carbide by buying a raw form used in melting with steel. It is like giant grit from 3/8" and smaller. I manually screen it with a 60, 30 and 10 grit screen. This is the 10 grit. It is heavy and requires both higher rotation speeds and thicker heavier slurry to get it to distribute in the rocks/glass. It is only 90% pure but only costs 45 cents per pound. Has a bit of quartz and rat bones mixed in but works great for chopping rocks up fast. It will also eat some tumbling barrels. A product of the mighty Washington Mills. Cleans intestines. jamesp How'd you end up getting the SiC shipped? How much did you have to buy at one time? What was your total cost/lb? Why the Carbolon MA vs. Carborex?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Jan 22, 2020 14:53:46 GMT -5
I picked it up in a heavy industrial district south of Birmingham. I believe it was a foundry supply company. It was 45 cents per pound and I bought $450 worth so it must have been 1000 pounds or twenty 50 pound bags. I don't know if they ship bags. I have to make trips to Birmingham for business so I got it then. I'm not sure what Carborex is. I think I researched Washington Mills product line and found the cheapest SiC they had. They told me where the distributors are. Maybe one out west, one in PA and one in AL.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Jan 22, 2020 23:33:58 GMT -5
Well my experiment with nothing more than water and a little salt to prevent freezing is over. It wasn’t to bad actually for the softer rocks I used, but it did stall out. I finally received and broke down and added some 46/70 to finish the job. Definitely much quicker and no stalling out.
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Post by Starguy on Jan 23, 2020 15:22:53 GMT -5
RocksInNJ I have never tried to thicken the slurry. When I use the correct mix of stone sizes, water and grit, the slurry kind of takes care of itself. Too much water, not enough grit or a tumbler full of similar size stones can lead to a thin slurry after one week.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Jan 23, 2020 23:07:56 GMT -5
RocksInNJ I have never tried to thicken the slurry. When I use the correct mix of stone sizes, water and grit, the slurry kind of takes care of itself. Too much water, not enough grit or a tumbler full of similar size stones can lead to a thin slurry after one week. Thanks for the reply. I’m using 46/70 now for the first time. I’ll know on Saturday how well it traveled, by seeing how well it broke down after 7 days, and see how thick the slurry is as well. I do use a mix of different size rocks and water just below the top level of rocks. I’m also using like 6-7 Tbsp of grit in a 6lb Lortone barrel. Wish me luck. I’m pretty excited. I’ve got a few pieces of jasper that roy sent me and a few pieces of amethyst in there as well from knave. Hopefully they do better than my soft New Jersey rocks. It’ll be fun to see the difference.
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whyofquartz
spending too much on rocks
So, Africa is smaller than I expected...
Member since December 2019
Posts: 316
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Post by whyofquartz on Mar 2, 2020 18:30:08 GMT -5
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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 3, 2020 11:19:04 GMT -5
It’s going. It’s near impossible to keep up with the UV-10, but think I’ve finally narrowed down my rotary recipe. I think there may be a QT-12 added in the distant future. Funny you asked. I have the rocks you sent, along with some from Knave and EricD in the rotary now. Really looking forward to the results.
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Mar 3, 2020 12:26:35 GMT -5
Why not get a QT66 instead? It seems like it would offer more flexibility, although maybe 2x the cleanouts...
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Post by knave on Mar 3, 2020 12:31:19 GMT -5
I want to try barn lime.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 3, 2020 14:20:50 GMT -5
Why not get a QT66 instead? It seems like it would offer more flexibility, although maybe 2x the cleanouts... Already have a QT-66.
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Mar 3, 2020 14:43:43 GMT -5
Why not get a QT66 instead? It seems like it would offer more flexibility, although maybe 2x the cleanouts... Already have a QT-66. Well, then at least it wasn't a bad idea. I'm thinking of adding a QT6 6# barrel to my homebuilt setup. I've got 2x12#'s already, but having a slightly smaller one might be nice, and I think I have room.
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ingawh
starting to spend too much on rocks
The rock wants to shine, I just help it get there
Member since February 2011
Posts: 194
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Post by ingawh on Mar 15, 2020 5:00:28 GMT -5
I tried psyllium husk powder once. It almost instantly turned into dough and was a royal pain to clean out / clean up. I will not do that again. I take it the psyllium you guys have used is a lot different from the husk powder As a law student, my chances to check back in with this board are rare, so sorry this is slow, but I still wanted to respond when I read your experience with psyllium. I just use Metamucil, actually, in which psyllium is the main ingredient. It has worked so well for me, but the trick is to only use a tiny bit - like a quarter tsp or less in a Lot-O batch. Also, my slurry is more hand soap than water, which also keeps it slick and rolling. The reason I like psyllium so much is exactly BECAUSE, it makes a thin dough. What happens for me is that it captures the grit, and when I wash up, NO grit is left in any tiny cracks or pockets, because it pops out with the psyllium slurry - it would rather stay in the slurry than cling to the rock, actually making clean up much easier than without it. I remember the first time I posted to this group, I was laughed out of the forum for my ideas. So I went silent for years, then came back with photos to verify my results. Now much of what I do has become standard practice, and other others have built on it and, I'm sure, greatly developed and improved on my original ideas. If you find something better than psyllium, go for it! But if you're not getting my results, take another look at my recipe and see if you find a kernel of wisdom that you can turn in to your best batch yet.
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Post by knave on Mar 15, 2020 8:18:46 GMT -5
ingawhI hope your law school is going well, we could use some law and order these days. Your methods have become fairly hard to extract from the site, any chance you could donate some time out of your busy schedule during this scare, and post a concise theory, or recipe? Thanks.
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faodail
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by faodail on Apr 21, 2020 20:24:27 GMT -5
I keep some of my old slurry in a bucket with a lid and add it as needed. Being Scottish, I really don't want to spend any money unless I absolutely need to :-)
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Apr 22, 2020 10:33:28 GMT -5
Can you post some of your 2 step obsidian ingawh ? By the way you are missed !
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Post by knave on Apr 22, 2020 18:29:16 GMT -5
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Apr 22, 2020 19:20:17 GMT -5
Wow , great tut. Kis tumble
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ingawh
starting to spend too much on rocks
The rock wants to shine, I just help it get there
Member since February 2011
Posts: 194
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Post by ingawh on Apr 22, 2020 23:33:36 GMT -5
Can you post some of your 2 step obsidian ingawh ? By the way you are missed ! Thank you, jamesp, for the kind shout-out. I see that my generic handout on using the Lot-o, was re-posted. (looks like pages 2 & 3 were transposed, but anyone interested will figure that out. ) Its not really geared to obsidian, though, so..... Knave - if it helps, here are the only two changes I make just for obsidian: 1) Proportionately more small agate/quartz media, and ONLY the best pieces, hand sorted to be sure there are no rough edges to scratch the obsidian. The photo that I guess you found shows the actual contents of one entire load, so you can see the proportion of media used, compared to obsidian. 2) I run the the load for 48 hours rather than the 24 used for a 7 mohs batch. That's it really. The biggest thing I had to learn was to completely give up on the instructions that came with the machine. The Lot-O is awesome, but I don't think it's inventors had actually mastered it yet. Along with throwing out the instructions, I had to violate the rock-tumbler's 1st Commandment, "Thou shalt not mix mohs in the same batch." I never got the level of shine I was looking for until I started using the highly polished quartz/agate 7 mohs media. People's eyes popped out when I said I use 7 mohs stones as my filler-media with 5 mohs obsidian, but as long as you're willing to take the time to hand-sort and select only perfectly pre-polished pieces, there is no better polishing aid. NOTE: This means you need to use them with other 7 mohs loads first so that the media stones get highly polished before they can be used to polish the obsidian. I know other people like ceramic media, but I see a difference, and never quite get the liquid shine I'm after on obsidian with the ceramics. So go to Petco (wear your mask! ) and pick up a bag of the large, round, aquarium gravel, composed largely of quartz, agate and jasper. Sort out the good stuff, and run that through from rough to polish with a 7 mohs batch before it can graduate to doing obsidian. I also strongly recommend against other buffers (like plastic pellets or denim strips or walnut shells, etc.). They make a horrible mess, get in the way of the polishing process, and really just indicate you haven't gotten the slurry consistency working right yet. It may take some practice to get the right balance of psyllium (Metamucil) to liquid soap and water, but once you get the feel for it, the process really works. I also tried lots of other thickeners, but hit the sweet-spot only with the Metamucil. The fact that it creates an ever-so-slightly doughy slurry helps it clean completely out of cracks and pits. If it does clean away easily, you likely used too much psyllium. Sadly, I must get back to studying the Rules of Evidence, and Constitutional Law. This is much for fun, but I'm just procrastinating. Good night, good luck, and best wishes, Inga
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Post by knave on Apr 22, 2020 23:50:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the clarification. I will try to unscramble the post above. ETA: done.
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