julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Dec 9, 2009 0:53:25 GMT -5
Hi Rick, welcome to the greatest tumbling site in the world! Looks like i will be back up in prineville in early january/ Thomas
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 27, 2009 1:19:22 GMT -5
Hi Gang, Well, I still havn't gotten a new bowl for the polish cycle, so I just ran them thru a tripoli cycle, then a polish cycle for 6 days. I took a bunch of photos of the finished stuff, so I put them in a slideshow format over on photo bucket. The all of these pics are of the various rocks that comprised the 8lbs of preforms, pebbles and beach agates. click on the link below and It should take you straight to the slideshow. If not, leave me a message and I will post all the pics separately on this thread. happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for all the help on my new tumbling adventure!! s17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/ThomasClark/11-26%20tumble/?albumview=slideshow
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 9, 2009 18:59:53 GMT -5
proper exploring attire with early rockhounding helmet.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 8, 2009 1:04:41 GMT -5
The water in and out thing worked like a charm. I washed out the 600 grind this evening, and the slurry was still nice before the washout, and the rocks are all satiny smooth. I did a borax and ivory cycle after I washed the rocks and equipment, and then started a tripoli prepolish cycle with an added pint or so of plastic pellets, and a teaspoon of lusterlite 2. I will run this for 2 days, and then I have to wash out and set things aside for a week. Julie and I are going rockhounding, and I decided not to push the envelope, leaving things running. I picked up two lortone 33 barrels at the rockshop, and will rig them up to run my polish cycles on the good cab preforms. Ive decided to buy a burnishing bowl, from raytech. these are lighter construction than the tv-10 bowls and were intended to use on a tv5 tumbler, as a dry burnisher bowl. I will just be doing well cushioned final polish in it so it should hold up well, and I love the low price, and lack of a drain to clog up with polish.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 6, 2009 15:22:41 GMT -5
Yep, you guys were right of course! its starting to get a bit sticky in there at the 35 hour mark. Im gonna go do the cup of water thing tht randy suggested.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 6, 2009 0:12:58 GMT -5
OK, I will run on till 72. Thanks Randy!
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 5, 2009 19:36:11 GMT -5
Thanks Guys!!!, it stayed fairly wet, and good motion this morning after the all night run. I did about 6 spritzes with my spray bottle, and its been running all day. I guess the 600g should run for a full 48hrs?
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 4, 2009 23:54:10 GMT -5
HI Gang, Id love to hear from you all, on this second stage tumble-vibe. Does it look about right? Any and all input is most wecome!!! I graded out all the rough and pitted stones from the 220g grind, and ended up with 8lbs of smoothies. I added 4 oz of 600g which is a jello pudding cup worth. This has been running for about 5-10 minutes so the slurry hasn't built up much. Click on the picture to see the short video clip.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 4, 2009 23:33:57 GMT -5
Ok, Im off to the races, for a 48hr 600g vibe. I weighed the cabs and pebbles, and it's right at 8 lbs, which looks like it could push to 9-10 lbs if I really loaded it. With the 8 lb batch, I added a jello pudding cup full of 600g, which is right in around 3.9oz of grit. I'll check it again about every hour, to make sure it doesnt dry out. I'll get a little video of the startup posted in a moment.
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 4, 2009 23:04:53 GMT -5
Hi Randy! coupla questions on the TV-10. do you stop at 10 pounds total rock and media? What kind of grit measure are you using on the various grits? I think I read 20tblspoons of coarse grit per 12lbs of rock. 16Tbsp = 1 cup.
I want to run 120-220, then 600, then tripoli for pre polish, I dont think I have any AO1000.
Hope to hear back from you soon. For now I will use the Thumblers UV-18 instructions below, and pro-rate back to my 10-12lb load.
Last question, Is Ivory Snow with a little boraxo a suitable inter grit vibe mix for cleaning? Or should I be using Ivory Dishwashing detergent???
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Nov 1, 2009 0:07:23 GMT -5
Ive never accidentally polished anything, that I can recall. Speaking of polishing, I have an extra Richardson's ranch polisher, if somebody wanted to buy one. Picked it up in a horse trade....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 22:55:35 GMT -5
I started wrapping with a free-hand style, and trying to avoid pliers and such. I start with forming and cinching the bail, with 3 long tails hanging down, and just an inch or so of left over bail wrap for final decorations or tie-in as needed. Then I just form the wraps by working the wire against itself in a series of graduated french curves. No crimps or square wires, just a ton of trial and error wraps. If I mess it up, I just drag the wires over a corner block of wood, to re-straighten them for another go. This actually helps harden the wire for a springy-er wrap. This Opal is done in fairly heavy gauge 14K gold wire, The opal is a 12ct Brazilian that just Rocks in person. the pendant is about 1 3/4" tall, and It's in my wife's collection now.... this is a Coober Pedy Opal with just a band of nice pinfire showing on the face. again this is a freehand wrap, with heavy ga clear coated copper wire, procured from an electronics supply house. It's well coated, and it is 16ga transformer wire, thus the nice clear coating. This pendant is more like 2 inches tall. I haven't done any wrapping since I started gold-smithing back around 1992....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 19:00:57 GMT -5
Yep that's the good stuff! $5-$25 a carat for slabs. wahoo!!! I recently gave Emory a good price for a 50ct stone, and Im thrilled to have it. It lives in the safe now.....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 18:42:28 GMT -5
I just accidently loaded my TV-10 with 220 diamond, and its cutting really fast. It was about 6-7 tablespoons graded diamond grit, from my flat lap supplies. go check out the little video: this is after 2 hours of run time.....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 18:38:20 GMT -5
OK, here's the 220g diamond slurry after about 2 hours, Id say it's cutting pretty dang fast.....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 18:34:27 GMT -5
Here's a quick video of the TV-10 starting up with 220g graded, after I removed the damaged cabs. I think this is going to be an expensive batch, I accidently used diamond grit, from my faceting lap supplies. 6-7 tablespoons worth. Should be interesting....
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 16:25:51 GMT -5
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 14:23:34 GMT -5
ARRGH! Lesson learned. dont put your good preforms in 60-90, Its way to agressive. I want to remove the morrisonite cabs too, esp the ones with an artistic ammount of host rock remaining around the edges. Sheesh... Im doing a rock scrub right now with laundry soap, rotten-stone and baking soda, in a pretty wet slurry inside the tumble-vibe. Ive got a coupla ounces of graded 220g and I'll go back at it with that, in an hour or so, after I sort out the destroyed cabs from the happy ones. I did get nice rounding and smoothing on the backs of those preforms that survived tho.
I really should have heeded Randy and Mel's advise. Thomas "Cab-wrecker" Clark
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 3:06:37 GMT -5
BTW, as has been mentioned on other posts, the tire tumbler will do a good job shaping your rocks, but you cant get the full use out of your grit before the sludge gets too milkshakey, and the stones get a bit rounded. After that the big stones would rather slide back down the well of the tire, than roll down in the desired manner. after 2 days or so, you have to muck it all out, rinse out your grit, and start over, after removing all the smooth tumbled stones, that are ready to move on to 60-90 in the next tumbler. Could you imagine storing a set of these tires, one for each phase of tumbling? Also the sealed bearings in my pillow blocks tend to get polish contaminated and wear out fairly rapidly. This is due to the slurry that seeps out of my tire during tumbling. This tumbler generates so much heat, that its like a sauna in that little soundproof room after an overnite tumble. No problems running this system in the dead of winter......
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julietom
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2009
Posts: 57
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Post by julietom on Oct 31, 2009 2:52:27 GMT -5
Oh, I have a lot of rocks laying around to be sure! With the monster tire tumbler, I mostly just ran big rough cobbles in #10 grit, which cuts really fast, and skins the oxidation off rocks in a hurry!! This is expecially important with west coast jaspers, which tend to be rusty looking, and hard to read, until they have spent a nite in the tire tumbler. Ive never run anything bigger than about 20lb cobbles in it. I guess football sized or so. Mostly from there, I slab up the pretty cobbles, for cabbing, and the rest just kinda make their way to the various rock gardens around the house. I also have a 65T tumbler from diamond pacific, which can handle most rocks, but Ive only taken stones out to a satin finish in that thing. I need to get a good batch of smoothies to justify the purchase of a second 65T barrel, which is fairly pricey... I want to use a proper media to cushion the polish cycle in the 65t barrel, its too heavy to roll properly if you fill it with agates for your tumbling media, and if you dont fill it up, its too rough on the stones, and they get dinged up instead of polishing. Ive been cracking walnuts, to get a nice load of walnut shells to cushion the stones.... LOL
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