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Post by Jugglerguy on May 4, 2019 20:03:50 GMT -5
Those look awesome, Grant. I've thought about buying some of those black skin agates, this might push me over the edge. Great pictures, too.
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 4, 2019 6:59:31 GMT -5
Happy birthday, Connrock, we miss you here.
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 4, 2019 6:58:23 GMT -5
Hi Snooks, welcome from Michigan!
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 2, 2019 13:50:45 GMT -5
Nice day for a beach walk, - except maybe that 40° stuff - thanks for taking us along. Hope you got some help carrying that pudding stone in the house! Very cool rock at the 17:40 mark. Hope to see what you get from it someday. Good on ya for picking up all that rubbish washed up on the beach. It was almost 50 by the time I got back. That's about as warm as it's been this spring, a little warmer, but not much. After a winter of freezing temperatures, 50 feels pretty good. At the end of the summer, 50 feels colder.
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 2, 2019 13:49:05 GMT -5
Great video Rob thanks for taking us along! I felt like I was right there with you getting my feet wet You should have had your waders on!
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 2, 2019 9:56:29 GMT -5
I went rock hunting on Lake Huron on Sunday. I only came home with four little rocks, two horn corals, another coral fossil and a tiny puddingstone. That might seem disappointing, but it was a great day on the beach. I don't go to Rockport much because I haven't found much there, so it was fun to explore farther than I've gone before.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 30, 2019 14:10:45 GMT -5
Those are some really pretty rocks. Nice shine too, for soft rocks. You've really come a long way since you started. I'd try tumbling them in corn cob media. Check out this thread on how I tumbled soft Petoskey stone this way. Petoskey stones are the same way, they do fine with coarse grit, it's the 500 and finer that ruins them.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 27, 2019 17:57:05 GMT -5
Those are great, Grant, and the photos are really good too. I find obsidian hard to photograph.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 26, 2019 17:30:57 GMT -5
I'd take some (ONLY SOME) of that heat from you- we are supposed to get some snow Sunday morning Al Same here, chance of snow tonight and a high of 44 tomorrow. I’m hoping to hit the beach in the morning. I can’t help with that tumbler problem. My tumblers are in the basement where it doesn’t get much over 60 at any time of the year.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 26, 2019 17:24:05 GMT -5
Those look great! They always come out with some texture using that method. I don’t think the texture looks bad, and I don’t know how you could avoid it. If you really don’t like the texture, use a combination of tumbling and hand polishing. You could also do them on a cab machine or flat lap after tumbling. If I was going to hand polish, I’d only run them through 220 or 500 before going to sandpaper.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 25, 2019 19:42:07 GMT -5
Unakite is Virginia's state stone. Plenty of it here. Your unakite looks very different that the Michigan stuff. Almost like a different rock.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 20, 2019 19:31:12 GMT -5
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I think it varies according to the hardness of the material that you’re tumbling. Softer rocks won’t break the grit down as fast as harder materials. There are probably other variables too. So I don’t think there probably is a single answer. I think jamesp is probably the best guy to answer your question. I’m interested to see what you come up with after your experiment. Agreed.....jamesp has extensive knowledge in this area. Suggest the OP click on his username, there are several threads and topic conversations James has helped many of us with related to grit and media breakdown.
Silly me, I was under the impression the OP was on a quest for knowledge with purpose and reason.........my bad...!
I don’t understand why you’re so offended by Rockindad’s question. I’ve wondered the exact same thing. I thought it was a reasonable question asked in a non-confrontational way.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 20, 2019 17:59:44 GMT -5
With a vibe, I see no reason to bother reusing polish. I use 1/2 teaspoon in my Lot-O. Even if I used really expensive polish, it wouldn’t be worth the hassle.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 20, 2019 16:28:56 GMT -5
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I think it varies according to the hardness of the material that you’re tumbling. Softer rocks won’t break the grit down as fast as harder materials. There are probably other variables too. So I don’t think there probably is a single answer. I think jamesp is probably the best guy to answer your question. I’m interested to see what you come up with after your experiment.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 19, 2019 16:27:47 GMT -5
The heart looks great so I guess it’s working out fine. Thanks for the picture.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 19, 2019 9:41:03 GMT -5
I love unakite. I used to collect a bunch of it from Lake Superior and tumble it. If you’re tumbling, the best the stuff that looks smeared or swirly. The type that looks more speckled, like granite undercuts like granite. I never have a problem with the epidote (green), but the feldspar (red) can sometimes be a problem in the tumbler.
It’s also fun to slice up.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 18, 2019 16:15:12 GMT -5
Enough about the eye (glad it's ok), let's talk about the heart. I assume you only have a rotary tumbler. If you have a vibe, though, that would be a better place to polish your heart. Rotary tumblers do a really good job of changing the shape of rocks. That's why they're used for the first stages of tumbling. They take jagged, sharp rocks and change them into more rounded rocks. Vibratory tumblers, on the other hand, do a better job of retaining the original shape and just put a shine on the rock.
That's a really nicely shaped heart, by the way.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 18, 2019 16:04:00 GMT -5
The rough ones may or may not polish. There's a lot of quality difference in Petoskey Stones. I'm assuming you don't have lapidary equipment. If not, you can start working on a really rough Petoskey with a file. Just don't use a file that you really care about. Stone probably isn't really good for it, but Petoskey is soft, so it will work for a long time on Petoskey Stones. Then you can go to wet/dry sand paper and work your way from coarse sandpaper to finer sand papers. To get a really good shine, finish up with aluminum oxide on a cloth. Aluminum oxide can be ordered from a lapidary supply place. The Rock Shed is a good place to buy from if you get serious about this stuff. Here's a video if you want to see more about polishing Petoskey Stones.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 18, 2019 14:11:19 GMT -5
I'm really not into fossils that much. Personally, I don't bring them home any more because they just end up in a box in my basement. If it's a Petoskey stone I'll take it home because I can polish it up or make something out of it. Fossilman might be able to give you better advice about cleaning up a specimen. Another place that has a lot of really good fossil experts is The Fossil Forum. I've found people to be really helpful there.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Apr 17, 2019 21:36:51 GMT -5
Are you asking for identification? I’m no fossil expert, but I know a few common ones. In your first post with pictures, the fourth one is a coral of some sort. In the very last picture of the second picture post, there’s a brachiopod. Brachiopods look like little seashells.
What part of the state are you from? I’m from Alpena. We have tons (literally) of fossils here. You might enjoy this video I made recently.
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