sendstone
off to a rocking start
Member since December 2021
Posts: 16
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Post by sendstone on Jun 26, 2022 19:09:12 GMT -5
I’m putting my first batch through a second polish. The first one I didn’t use any ceramic media and my stones didn’t come out very shiny. Bought some ceramic and am now running that batch again. My question is, does anybody re-charge polish through this stage or do just seal it up and set and forget. I think I potentially took them out a little early as well, let them run for about 8 days.
For reference I’m using a 3lb rotary barrel with 1200 aluminum oxide and plan to run them for upwards of 15 days this time.
Thanks for any input
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nursetumbler
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2022
Posts: 946
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Post by nursetumbler on Jun 26, 2022 20:42:37 GMT -5
I’m putting my first batch through a second polish. The first one I didn’t use any ceramic media and my stones didn’t come out very shiny. Bought some ceramic and am now running that batch again. My question is, does anybody re-charge polish through this stage or do just seal it up and set and forget. I think I potentially took them out a little early as well, let them run for about 8 days. For reference I’m using a 3lb rotary barrel with 1200 aluminum oxide and plan to run them for upwards of 15 days this time. Thanks for any input sendstoneWhere did you get your polish from? If you bought ceramic media you should tumble it for a bit in 60/90 to grind off the sharp edges or they could scratch your rocks. If you live near a beach, beach rocks are great as littles in your tumbles
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sendstone
off to a rocking start
Member since December 2021
Posts: 16
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Post by sendstone on Jun 26, 2022 20:56:06 GMT -5
Polish from the rock shed, ceramics have been run in 60/90 to wear them down a little.
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Post by pauls on Jun 27, 2022 0:25:57 GMT -5
It depends what happened in your first go in polish that stopped the rocks from shining. If they bruised from rattling around too much then you need to take them back a couple of stages and rerun through the stages. Same if you had a cracked rock that scratched things up. You shouldn't need to recharge with polish, just let it go.
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Post by aDave on Jun 27, 2022 0:50:10 GMT -5
I’m putting my first batch through a second polish. The first one I didn’t use any ceramic media and my stones didn’t come out very shiny. Bought some ceramic and am now running that batch again. My question is, does anybody re-charge polish through this stage or do just seal it up and set and forget. I think I potentially took them out a little early as well, let them run for about 8 days. For reference I’m using a 3lb rotary barrel with 1200 aluminum oxide and plan to run them for upwards of 15 days this time. Thanks for any input I'm a bit confused. On one hand, you mention using 1200 AO, and then on the other, you mentioned getting polish from the Rock Shed. Are you using the 1200 as your polish, and you got that from the Rock Shed, or is 1200 your pre-polish and you're actually using Rock Shed's AO polish for your final finish? I ask as there is a distinct difference between the two. If you are using 1200 as your polish, that's not fine enough, and you will be left with less than satisfactory results. If you are using Rock Shed's AO polish, that is approximately 13,000 and is more than adequate to produce a nice polish. If you're using the 13,000 product, and your stuff didn't come out shiny, there is (probably) one of two things going on. Your rocks are too soft, and/or you're dealing with a contamination issue. FWIW, when I was using a rotary in all stages, my polish stage with Rock Shed's AO polish was run for three weeks straight. There was no recharge at all, and I simply let the batch roll untill I pulled it. I'll let you be the judge with what that AO polish can do in a total rotary tumble: I'm not posting this photo to beat my chest at all, but I'm merely trying to point out that great results can be had with an all rotary tumble, but patience is clearly an issue. These rocks were part of a batch that was run with Rock Shed's AO polish, so I know good results can be had. Double check your work and grits and go from there. If it means rerunning after the coarse stage, then so be it. Good luck.
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sendstone
off to a rocking start
Member since December 2021
Posts: 16
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Post by sendstone on Jun 27, 2022 13:28:14 GMT -5
I’m putting my first batch through a second polish. The first one I didn’t use any ceramic media and my stones didn’t come out very shiny. Bought some ceramic and am now running that batch again. My question is, does anybody re-charge polish through this stage or do just seal it up and set and forget. I think I potentially took them out a little early as well, let them run for about 8 days. For reference I’m using a 3lb rotary barrel with 1200 aluminum oxide and plan to run them for upwards of 15 days this time. Thanks for any input I'm a bit confused. On one hand, you mention using 1200 AO, and then on the other, you mentioned getting polish from the Rock Shed. Are you using the 1200 as your polish, and you got that from the Rock Shed, or is 1200 your pre-polish and you're actually using Rock Shed's AO polish for your final finish? I ask as there is a distinct difference between the two. If you are using 1200 as your polish, that's not fine enough, and you will be left with less than satisfactory results. If you are using Rock Shed's AO polish, that is approximately 13,000 and is more than adequate to produce a nice polish. If you're using the 13,000 product, and your stuff didn't come out shiny, there is (probably) one of two things going on. Your rocks are too soft, and/or you're dealing with a contamination issue. FWIW, when I was using a rotary in all stages, my polish stage with Rock Shed's AO polish was run for three weeks straight. There was no recharge at all, and I simply let the batch roll untill I pulled it. I'll let you be the judge with what that AO polish can do in a total rotary tumble: I'm not posting this photo to beat my chest at all, but I'm merely trying to point out that great results can be had with an all rotary tumble, but patience is clearly an issue. These rocks were part of a batch that was run with Rock Shed's AO polish, so I know good results can be had. Double check your work and grits and go from there. If it means rerunning after the coarse stage, then so be it. Good luck. Thank you for the detailed response. This helped me track down my problem. I bought quite a bit of 60/90 Silicon carbide from the rock shed, but after reinspecting my other grits/polishes I found that my polish is from mjr tumblers and is indeed only 1200 AO. I bought some actual polish from rock shed this morning that claims to be in the ballpark of 8000 grit AO. So I guess now my question is, should I let my rocks keep going in their current 1200 AO for a bit or just do a clean out and start the polish stage over with the better polish?
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Post by aDave on Jun 27, 2022 14:09:20 GMT -5
Thank you for the detailed response. This helped me track down my problem. I bought quite a bit of 60/90 Silicon carbide from the rock shed, but after reinspecting my other grits/polishes I found that my polish is from mjr tumblers and is indeed only 1200 AO. I bought some actual polish from rock shed this morning that claims to be in the ballpark of 8000 grit AO. So I guess now my question is, should I let my rocks keep going in their current 1200 AO for a bit or just do a clean out and start the polish stage over with the better polish? Okay, that explains it. You're not the first to come here and ask why their polish stage didn't go well, only to find out that their "polish" was actually somewhere near 1200 like yours. This pops up a lot with the prepackaged grit sets with some tumblers, and the "polish" is really nowhere near being a true polish. You should be fine with the 8000, but that would be the lowest I would personally go. If the Rock Shed is now selling that as their polish, they must have changed suppliers, as it used to be around 13000 according to the owner when I last asked him about it. As far as letting things continue in 1200, it's not necessarily going to hurt anything, as you can consider that a pre-polish stage. Some folks use 1000 AO between the 500 and polish stage, so that's totally up to you. I never used a true pre-polish stage, though I did run my 500 AO stage for two weeks straight to let the grit break down further and kind of do the same thing as a dedicated pre-polish stage. Did it work? I don't know, but it's just something I did, as it seemed logical to me. Glad you were able to figure out what happened. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that with the new polish, you'll be much happier with your results. Good luck.
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sendstone
off to a rocking start
Member since December 2021
Posts: 16
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Post by sendstone on Jul 7, 2022 12:18:45 GMT -5
Thank you for the detailed response. This helped me track down my problem. I bought quite a bit of 60/90 Silicon carbide from the rock shed, but after reinspecting my other grits/polishes I found that my polish is from mjr tumblers and is indeed only 1200 AO. I bought some actual polish from rock shed this morning that claims to be in the ballpark of 8000 grit AO. So I guess now my question is, should I let my rocks keep going in their current 1200 AO for a bit or just do a clean out and start the polish stage over with the better polish? Okay, that explains it. You're not the first to come here and ask why their polish stage didn't go well, only to find out that their "polish" was actually somewhere near 1200 like yours. This pops up a lot with the prepackaged grit sets with some tumblers, and the "polish" is really nowhere near being a true polish. You should be fine with the 8000, but that would be the lowest I would personally go. If the Rock Shed is now selling that as their polish, they must have changed suppliers, as it used to be around 13000 according to the owner when I last asked him about it. As far as letting things continue in 1200, it's not necessarily going to hurt anything, as you can consider that a pre-polish stage. Some folks use 1000 AO between the 500 and polish stage, so that's totally up to you. I never used a true pre-polish stage, though I did run my 500 AO stage for two weeks straight to let the grit break down further and kind of do the same thing as a dedicated pre-polish stage. Did it work? I don't know, but it's just something I did, as it seemed logical to me. Glad you were able to figure out what happened. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that with the new polish, you'll be much happier with your results. Good luck. Took the current batch out after 7 days to see the progress…. They’re polishing nicely!!!!! Getting better polish was all I really needed. Thanks for helping me pin down the problem I’ll post some pics when they’re all done.
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