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Post by pauls on Sept 22, 2016 20:24:44 GMT -5
I would not skip first stage. Even though the shape is right the rock may have surface dings from rolling around in the river, a Quick tour of duty in first stage will remove a lot of those dings and you will get a much better end result.
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Post by pauls on Sept 16, 2016 16:03:36 GMT -5
I love looking at your work Rockjunquie, you really have those out of the ordinary shapes spot on. Great choice of material and workmanship as well.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Sept 13, 2016 22:18:14 GMT -5
I also have a piece of one of these bricks cut into a step, work placed on the step gets extra heat reflected back from the verticle piece behind it. Another with a couple of slots to hold rings. Also great for dopping cabochons, hold the gas torch on the brick until it's hot and then place your cab on the hot spot, it gently heats your cab to just the right temperature. You can do this on any surface as no heat gets through the brick.
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Post by pauls on Sept 12, 2016 18:11:34 GMT -5
My guess would be Pyrite too.
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Post by pauls on Sept 12, 2016 16:33:49 GMT -5
I think I have discovered what Gamma polish is. Apparently its Aluminium Oxide, which is a good polish on some stones. There are different grades of Al Oxide though and I havent been able to find out what grade Gamma is.
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Post by pauls on Sept 12, 2016 16:21:43 GMT -5
Kerosene does horrible things to rubber, turns it to mush. When you are cleaning the mess out use disposable gloves, the black mess will stain your hands, get a box of gloves because they fall to pieces quickly with the kero.
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Post by pauls on Sept 12, 2016 0:19:53 GMT -5
When you wash your hands try a dash of vinegar on them then rinse off. I always use vinegar when concreting to neutralise the lime and it really helps. I have no idea if it will work with rock slurry though.
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Post by pauls on Sept 6, 2016 4:50:48 GMT -5
I let mine settle, just drain it into a drum a leave it. Having said that I am researching building a centrifugal oil cleaner like the waste vegetable oil diesel people use. search oil centrifuge, It shouldn't be a particularly difficult build, I am thinking of using a LP gas Tank for the outside casing and I am looking around for something to use for the inside part that spins, it might be another smaller gas tank but I am not sure I am going to get it balanced well enough for the speed it spins at, a nice spun aluminium bottle of some sort would be ideal but still searching.
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Post by pauls on Sept 2, 2016 6:02:21 GMT -5
Hi Mate.
Most Rhodonite comes from Northern NSW. The Imperial Pink which I think this piece is comes from around Armidale from memory, devilishly hard to get a decent polish on as the graininess keeps exposing pits by pulling out grains, I have found that a really long time sanding on 600 grit removes the pits without removing too many sandy grains (more pits) you will probably never get a wet look shine on it though.
The bloodstone depends a lot on the piece. I had given up on it completely and smashed a lump of it into tumbling material a while back, I just pulled it out two days back and its stunning, finished with a fantastic water wet look, I had a rummage around in my garden this morning to see if I could find any of the pieces I threw out early on because I thought they were a waste of time.
The unknown green one could be another from northern NSW, or it could be an oldie from Moonlight Head.
The Corop Jasper is close to home so there's lots of it at the club, some of it spactacularly good, grading to spectacularly awful, I have seen some really nice pieces with bands of Agate through it. Its on the Mt Pleasant Range all the way down to near Heathcote.
Your workflow seems pretty right, though I reckon I would be using a 220 grit as well to remove the scratches quickly, dont move off the 220 grit until you have the stone completely free of scratches and shaped exactly how you want it. Do this wet but allow the paper to dry out every so often so you can see if you are winning with the scratches, the powdery dust stays in the scratches and makes them easy to see with the stone dry, dont wipe it dry or you will wipe the dust out of the scratches. Don't breathe the dust though, Silicosis is apparently pretty horrible.
I presume you are using wet and dry paper, how are you sticking it on the foam? Spray contact adhesive is OK. but if you have a Rural store see if you can get a bottle of the glue the shearers use, Its a white smelly Latex glue, sticks well and peels off easily. Foam Backing? High density foam hiking mats are good for backing if you can pick up a used one cheaply at the Op shop or garage sale, even better is an old wetsuit with the cloth side out for gluing on.
If a large town near you has an auto paint shop get your wet and dry from them, way cheaper than Bunnings.
Polish. What is Gamma polish? I thought I had come across everything. If your felt is contaminated you can sometimes rescue it by hosing it with high pressure water, hose at an angle so you are forcing anything out rather than further in. Cerium Oxide is great for Opals and Glass, Obsidian etc. I have a lot of different buffs with different polishes, if one thing doesn't work I give something else a go, Tin Oxide on felt is usually my go to polish, though I also use Chrome oxide, Aluminium Oxide Cerium Oxide and Diamond. When polishing keep your buff (felt, leather, whatever) damp, not wet and not dry, apply the polish sparingly. Too much water and too much polish your stone is skating on a layer of wet polish and not much will happen. You should get a glassy finish in a very short time. When you have finished cover your buffs with a supermarket bag but leave it a bit open for a while to allow air to dry it so it doesn't go mouldy.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Aug 31, 2016 14:55:18 GMT -5
Toothpaste is/or used to be made from finely ground Feldspar hardness around 6 so probably won't do anything to most rocks, I imagine these days that toothpaste would mostly be made from plastic microbeads so even less wearing on rocks and teeth.
As others have said most metal polishes are formulated to chemically alter or remove the metal oxide tarnish.
Mail order is the way to go, get the right proven grits and polishes and save yourself some trouble.
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Post by pauls on Aug 30, 2016 21:49:08 GMT -5
What size is that barrel?
10TB is 10 tablespoons, not teaspoons, is that right? Whats that about a pound of grit?
10 Table spoons seems and looks like way too much grit. You need enough grit to start getting a slurry going, or do as jamesp does and add clay to make a slurry. I would be cleaning it out, save your grit its perfectly OK and start with 2TB for example. just enough to lightly coat your rocks, when your slurry gets going after a week put a bit more in.
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Post by pauls on Aug 30, 2016 19:31:26 GMT -5
As a bloke that enjoys a bit of an engineering challenge I can tell you that making a toddler proof tumbler is impossible, belt shrouds are not easy to build and attach and whatever you do you are still going to have that barrel rolling around on the shafts. I think you would probably be best to do what Mark suggested and build a cage, weld a big box up out of 1" square tube and attach fine mesh or perforated metal, a gate on one side with a lock that only you have the key to and you will be in business again.
Good luck and enjoy your youngster, they grow up to be cranky teenagers too quickly.
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Post by pauls on Aug 30, 2016 17:45:34 GMT -5
Good work.
I always teach new cabbers to do standard shapes first, its just easier to teach as it gives them a guide, but after the first couple of cabs with me looking over their shoulder its whatever goes and often they turn out horrible misshapen lumps, I don't tell them that but generally they know it and next time are looking at getting something more aesthetically pleasing. What I do always highlight is if they have left scratches and tried to polish them out, it never works. A quick trip back to coarse sander and the scratches will be gone and then a quick trip up through the stages and they will have a perfect polish in just a few minutes.
What are you using to polish these? What sanding stages are you using? Please, please take this as constructive criticism, But I am seeing a slight orange peel effect in your polish. Its probably just a minor technical thing that can be ironed out easily so don't take it as a put down.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Aug 30, 2016 17:17:25 GMT -5
That 36000Km one was the trip of a lifetime, completely around Australia, Camping in tents and travelling dirt roads wherever possible. I allow about 300Km per day average when planning a travelling trip like that. Sometimes more when its just highway with bitumen and white lines but often we stop for days at a time so it averages out.
Anyway that wife jumped the fence to what she thought was greener pastures.
Next wife came along and she wanted to see things, so a few small (by my standards) trips when I had my annual leave. Then I was made redundant, 57 and couldn't get a job because I was too old. So we packed the tents in the 4WD and started some big trips, on one of these we were heading to an outback national park and stopped for lunch at Georgetown in Queensland. They have a really nice little museum that houses a superb rock and mineral collection. My wife was blown away with the Agates and asked "where do these come from"? Me, "Oh just down the road a bit" so we were off to Agate creek. I just happened to stumble on the find of a lifetime, a 46Kg Agate and she was hooked.
We are now getting a bit old for doing the camping in tents and sleeping on the ground bit so I just built a small camper rig that jacks on and off the back of my Toyota truck. We hate the bitumen highways and keep away from tourist spots as much as we can, but we see some beautiful country. The trip this year apart from camping in designated camping areas at the fossicking places we didn't pay for accomodation or camp sites at all, so really our only expenses are fuel and food. We always try to find a camp well away from towns and highways and apart from Salt Water Crocodiles in the tropics there's nothing here that bothers us. Salties really are scary and they travel hundreds of Kms up rivers, so we keep away from rivers and beaches in the tropics.
Those travel shows like to show the outback of Australia as a great flat place but in reality its not, there's always something happening in the landscape and the best thing about rock hunting is it gets you out into the real landscape and its stunningly beautiful.
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Post by pauls on Aug 29, 2016 21:42:31 GMT -5
A big rock rumbling around can smash and chip other rocks so make sure everything you put in there is tough.
Mostly tumbling big rocks in a rotary is usually not a problem, don't do it in a vibe though as they can sit in the one spot and chew through the barrel.
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Post by pauls on Aug 29, 2016 18:49:36 GMT -5
My grandkids have great fun finding pretty rocks in my garden, and there's stacks of them, rocks that is not grandkids, though there's a couple more due soon, grandkids this time not rocks there's always rocks on the go. They can have any amount of finished rocks but I guess they are a bit like me and enjoy finding them themselves. I would love taking them to my favourite spots but the most recent trip to Agate creek in Queensland Australia was 13800 Kilometers, so probably a bit much for the grand kids, though I did do it with my own kids when they were little and they had a ball, six months correspondence schooling, an hour or two doing lessons and then the rest of the day to themselves, that trip was 36000Kms.
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Post by pauls on Aug 29, 2016 0:10:03 GMT -5
I second 1dave on that www.Quartzpage.de The guy is a complete Silica fanatic, Quartz in all its forms, Agate, Flint, Jasper, Sard, Carnelian, Onyx and more, plus the crystalline varieties Rose, Smokey, Tiger eye etc etc etc. Beautiful photos, great descriptions and diagrams, a wealth of good information.
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Post by pauls on Aug 28, 2016 16:05:25 GMT -5
Prehnite? ?
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Post by pauls on Aug 27, 2016 18:32:05 GMT -5
Quick answer to bump your question up. A saw is a wonderful tool for exposing Leaverite and most of those look like it, probably Quartz or Quartzite, maybe something in that red one but you wont know until its cut.
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Post by pauls on Aug 23, 2016 19:22:03 GMT -5
Hi ketbd, welcome to RTH
I have never tumbled Staurolite and really doubt the results would be all that good, but hey, don't let me rain on your parade, give it a go and post a picture or two. Staurolite cut across the crystal and cut into a cabochon does make an interesting stone, so try cutting a crystal into slices and tumbling those.
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