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Post by pauls on Aug 23, 2016 16:41:13 GMT -5
Hi Cassie, welcome to RTH
You have there a nice collection of Quartz. Some of the colors may just be Iron stain on the outside and Iron in cracks.
Have a look around where you live, if you have lumps like this you might be able to find some nice crystals.
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Post by pauls on Aug 23, 2016 16:32:20 GMT -5
I give away heaps of rocks to kids and love Huskerics idea of a nice little present. As to the kids losing them in 5 minutes, well, yep some of them will, but others will make up nice little display boxes and proudly bring them out and show to anyone that visits.
Its how I started 60 years ago.
Anything that encourages kids and opens their minds to getting out and doing something with rocks is great, it also ensures our hobby will be in good hands in the future.
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Post by pauls on Aug 21, 2016 23:49:40 GMT -5
Sheep shearers use a latex glue to hold their sanding disks (for sharpening their shear blades) Its great stuff, easy to apply, with the consistency and look of milk, sticks like crazy but is easy to peel off, any remaining bits just rub with your finger and they quickly ball up. Its reasonably cheap if you have a rural store nearby that caters for sheep, alpaca, mohair farmers.
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Post by pauls on Aug 21, 2016 3:32:42 GMT -5
An oven rotisserie motor. They are generally a small shaded pole induction motor with a decent gearbox attached. Here's a link just to illustrate. www.motors-biz.com/item/790377/Heavy-Duty-Rotisserie-motor.htmlIt should be easily scroungeable if you know an electrician who replaces old domestic electric ovens. Newer ovens don't seem to come with rotisseries, not surprising really, a chicken cooked like that in your domestic oven made a hell of a greasy mess.
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Post by pauls on Aug 20, 2016 2:19:20 GMT -5
If you have largish rocks then you need to get them to a usable size, you can belt them with a hammer or cut them with a saw, either way works but the hammer can be pretty wasteful and fill your rock with cracks. JamesP has a way of cracking petrified coral which is essentially knapping, like making flint arrow heads, his way the crack leaves you with a nice shard which is ideal for tumbling, James has a video on a thread here recently. If your rock already has visible cracks try squeezing it in a bench vice, a bit of gentle pressure will split your rock on those existing cracks. As to the way you tumble them thats entirely your choice.
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Post by pauls on Aug 17, 2016 5:52:11 GMT -5
Speaking of wheels. I have been told that Go Kart tyres are great for tumbler barrels. They must be racing tyres. Ordinary ones are too soft on the sidewalls. Get two plumbing plungers and feed a bolt through the bit where the handle goes and bolt them in place over the wheel rim hole.
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Post by pauls on Aug 14, 2016 22:11:17 GMT -5
Don't attach the ground to that spare bolt. Attach it to somewhere on the case of the motor, one of the bolts that holds the motor together would do but there's usually a screw (or in the case of an old motor a threaded hole) somewhere close especially for the earth, often take the earth wire out that little port hole just showing at the top of your picture. failing that the cover screws would do but would foul up getting into the cover, not really a good option.
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Post by pauls on Aug 12, 2016 16:28:42 GMT -5
Good work on those cabs. If I'd known you were into cabbing I would have thrown a couple of slabs in to that tumbling lot. Don't worry about old second hand equipment either, its a great way to get started, though I would be buying Diamond wheels when your Silicon Carbide wheels wear out.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Aug 12, 2016 16:09:27 GMT -5
Good one Rivarat. These are Agates from Agate Creek in Queensland Australia, one of the premier Agate collecting places. Anywhere.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Aug 7, 2016 16:57:50 GMT -5
The idler pulley is just there to get the speed down without using a tiny pulley on the motor driving a large pulley on the drum. Interesting arrangement and certainly looks like a solid unit.
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Post by pauls on Aug 5, 2016 17:40:00 GMT -5
I would toss the first, or you could try hitting it with a hammer to split along the crack, The piece of quartz I would saw along those cracks, if you dont have a saw try a cold chisel and hammer it apart, it looks good stuff. The others just throw them in, see how they look after a week or two in coarse. Your idea of throwing them in and then assessing them is spot on, but be ruthless when you check them.
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Post by pauls on Aug 2, 2016 19:55:16 GMT -5
Hi Rivarat Gippsland material? You have a whole bunch of quartz type material there so all the same hardness which is good, hardness around 7, you also have a lot of cracks and fractures with sharp edges so these will be working against your polishing process, hardness 7 sharp edges will scratch hardness 7 polished surfaces. Worse, grit caught in those cracks coming out in the polishing stage will mess up a whole batch easily. I run all my rocks for a couple of weeks to clean them up then go through and any with serious cracks and holes I will either saw or grind the bad bit off, anything porous or badly fractured gets flicked into the garden. I then run them again (often for months)until they are nice and smooth and then go through them again, only (hopefully) flawless stones ever get past the coarse grind stage. I say hopefully because often cracks aren't obvious while the stone is wet and has a frosty exterior.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Jul 30, 2016 2:32:15 GMT -5
Careful cutting Pyrite. A friend slabbed a lump of Pyrite and then didn't use his saw for several weeks, when he came back the Sulfur in the Pyrite had reacted with the cutting oil and produced what I guess was Sulfuric Acid, it completely dissolved the part of his blade sitting in the oil and was well on the way to eating right through the sump of his saw.
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Post by pauls on Jul 28, 2016 18:14:33 GMT -5
Buying a second hand machine is good if you get one that has been looked after and comes with everything you need to get started. Don't underestimate the value of a machine that comes with laps, different index wheels and a good selection of dops. Bits and pieces like that can end up costing you a fortune if you have to buy them all to get started. Other things that might sway you are, dopping glue and faceting dopping wax, a transfer jig (a must have). diamond powders, used machines aften come with a collection of rough.
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Post by pauls on Jul 28, 2016 2:26:23 GMT -5
I agree with Quartz. I don't think you are doing anything wrong apart from tumbling rocks that are full of cracks and holes. That Jasper is nice and could make a reasonable rock by grinding (or sawing) the pitted end away.
Paul
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Post by pauls on Jul 22, 2016 21:25:32 GMT -5
If the material you are cutting is low value then just buy the cheap (thick) tile saw blades. If the thickness of the cut means you are wasting valuable material then pay more for a thin kerf lapidary blade. Or buy both and swap them over as needed.
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Post by pauls on Jul 22, 2016 1:37:56 GMT -5
I feed water over the blade from the top and just hang the front of the saw over the edge of the bench so the drain goes straight into a bucket. Easy to do just drill a small hole in the plastic guard and push some small (say quarter inch) plastic tube through, I have an old half gallon plastic container with a tap hanging up nearby and just gravity feed the water. Saves getting thoroughly drenched every time you use it. Mine's the same saw, different brand bought in Australia and it has cut lots of rocks (and tiles).
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Post by pauls on Jul 19, 2016 18:16:20 GMT -5
I'm a great believer in Murphy's Law, "anything that can go wrong will go wrong" so I turn mine off when I am away. Bearings have been known to sieze up, and motors burn out, so I don't take a chance. If you have your house insurance paid up then let them roll.
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Post by pauls on Jul 15, 2016 2:27:49 GMT -5
When I was using PVC pipe for barrels I would put the heat gun on a spot till it was soft and just push it in so I would have a series of tennis ball sized lumps that worked as kickers, Gave up on that because the lumps were the first thing to wear through.
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Post by pauls on Jul 11, 2016 17:29:13 GMT -5
You can buy diamond sphere forming cups from Richon tools in China. Not a recommendation and I have never used them, just to let you know they are there.
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