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Post by pauls on Nov 7, 2021 16:34:35 GMT -5
I found a Zircon crystal about the size of my clenched fist, it was covered in Calcite but had a small chip off one corner so I could see the beautiful orange Zircon inside. I didn't take a photo, "I will wait till I clean this up before taking a picture" brought it home and soaked it in some dilute hydrochloric acid to remove the Calcite coating, lots of fizzing happening, I came out the next morning and found the whole thing had been held together with the Calcite, it had been a mass of fractures with Calcite in them, I was left with a pile of pieces of nice orange Zircon for cutting but no specimen.
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Post by pauls on Nov 2, 2021 16:20:32 GMT -5
Those are cool. I've never heard of sunstone. Does it have another name? Can you show what the rough looks like? They are a type of Feldspar Rob.
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Post by pauls on Oct 30, 2021 16:57:42 GMT -5
Running on autopilot, I think we all do that. Spend ages looking for something you know is at the back of the shelf, give up and come back later and notice it was always right in front and you were looking past it. People compliment me on how neat and organised my shed is, it's because I spend ages cleaning up looking for tools or parts that I have put down somewhere. Often a good clean up doesn't locate the said tool either, it will turn up weeks later on top of a post in my garden. What? How did you get there?
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Post by pauls on Oct 30, 2021 16:42:31 GMT -5
Obsidian! there are a few threads on here about getting the best polish on Obsidian, it might pay to have a bit of a read as it can be a real challenge.
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Post by pauls on Oct 29, 2021 18:00:36 GMT -5
Yep, that stuff is Calcite, if you can find a way to polish it I am listening, I have a pile of it in my garden slowly vanishing underground as the worms do their thing.
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Post by pauls on Oct 9, 2021 23:27:05 GMT -5
I use Epoxy 330 as well, fantastic stuff, but I don't think it will cut it with this piece. I like mud's thought of casting it in Epoxy resin, that would work and hold it all together nicely. The other way if you really want to go with gluing it is to glue the whole thing to some thin glass, glass like you get in picture frames would do. You could glue it between 2 pieces perhaps, just thinking out loud here.
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Post by pauls on Oct 6, 2021 16:57:53 GMT -5
well as far as wheels exploding I been front of lots of wheels in sharpening shops all kinds of size and shapes different types of high grinders, ect... I've never had one explode and I know of no one who as not sure why? but glad not to hah anyway good work if ya can get it ! To quote the donkey in Shrek, "Me me Pick me." I have had it twice, My father was an Turner and Fitter basically a Lathe and machine operator, he always told me to step aside when switching on a grinder because the wheels can explode, Yep it happened.I think a slow water leak had soaked the bottom of the wheel putting it badly off balance. I also had a 10 inch blade on an angle grinder do it, I always always wear goggles, this particular day the goggles were dirty so I grabbed the full face shield, turned the angle grinder on and almost instantly a large chunk of cut off wheel lodged itself in my face shield, would have seriously injured or blinded me if I just had the normal goggles on. If you can afford it go Diamond wheels, if you can afford it really lash out and go for sintered wheels, you will never regret it.
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Post by pauls on Oct 5, 2021 1:00:46 GMT -5
[/quote]MONTHS? ? Won't my stones grind away? Am I supposed to use very large pieces to start? And you can saw rocks? ??[/quote] They wont grind away if you are using suitably hard rocks, Agate Petrified wood etc. Yes you can saw rocks, I'm not sure if you are asking if you can saw rocks for tumbling, or at all, so I will guess you didn't know about Diamond saws, They are a thing, have you ever seen people cutting tiles or concrete or bricks, all are diamond saws. We have specialised Diamond saws for Lapidary for cutting rocks, they are great for making rocks smaller for tumbling as they don't fill rocks with lots of cracks. Your Rutilated Quartz is actually Tourmaline.
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Post by pauls on Oct 4, 2021 19:28:58 GMT -5
Nope, you didn't kill anything. As long as you haven't ground your rocks away to sludge then you still have rocks that you can polish. If you have ground rocks away to sludge then they were too soft to be in a tumbler anyway. The National Geographic tumblers set you up to fail, The instructions are not exactly truthful and they don't even include a polish so at best you will get a hazy sort of none polish. Forget about a week in all stages, first stage in my tumblers is usually months, and even then I take the rocks out occasionally and cull stuff that will never make it, some fractures and holes are so deep that tumbling them to remove the fracture would mean removing most of the rock, others are sawed along fractures, holes ground out, edges tidied up, then back for some more time in coarse. Subsequent grits can be around a week but usually I like to keep them in for a couple of weeks. Polish, you will need to buy yourself some polish (Aluminium Oxide) from the rock shed, have your barrel 3/4 full, never less or you will end up with bruising, also remove any chipped or broken rocks, rocks that are broken will scratch other rocks so you will struggle to get a polish.
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Post by pauls on Sept 30, 2021 18:37:43 GMT -5
I use old school backpacks, they are reasonably rugged are padded to stop books digging into kids backs, (that works for rocks as well) and cheap from the thrift shop. Also Jason"s method of filling pockets then transferring to backpack. I have seen a couple of blokes at Agate creek who used a hessian wheat sack, cut a neck hole in the middle of the sack, stitch up both ends and wear the sack like a poncho, with rocks in the sack ends evenly distributed between front and back. They swore it was the only way to do it.
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Post by pauls on Aug 23, 2021 19:15:14 GMT -5
I can possibly help, I am a facetor.
Is this a one off or are you thinking of getting into faceting?
If it's a one off try a local club, they might be able to get you started. Membership is going to be cheaper than buying a machine. It's also worth having a look at someone actually doing it if you are thinking of taking it up as a hobby.
A decent faceting machine could set you back a few thousand dollars easily, then laps and accessories start to add up on top of that. One of those cheap faceting arms and handpieces could get you out of trouble if you aren't particularly looking for accuracy for a couple of faceted top only stones. If you are thinking of having a go at faceting they will be an endless source of frustration and will quickly kill your enthusiasm.
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Post by pauls on Aug 10, 2021 23:32:22 GMT -5
Here in Australia Al Oxide is really expensive and hard to get hold of,so I always use Tin Oxide in my Ultravibe and it works a treat. The rocks need to be just damp, so after you have washed them after the prepolish drain the water off, and add about half a teaspoon of Tin Oxide. Set it going and after 24 hours everything should be pretty shiny, if not just keep them in there until they are. Please post some photos, there are a few things that could be happening that we can help sort out.
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Post by pauls on Aug 10, 2021 3:35:32 GMT -5
Faceting is a peculiar hobby and it takes a special breed of person to enjoy it. If you have endless patience are meticulous and a perfectionist then you will really enjoy it, if for example you spent hours gluing plastic planes together and painting them when you were a kid it will be good for you, If you get bored with things quickly then faceting will be a nightmare. I taught faceting at my club until recently and some people were just naturals, instantly got it and were soon turning out brilliant stuff. Others struggled and gave up before they even finished one stone.
A couple of things to think about for your first stone, they will probably try and get you cutting a piece of TV screen glass or a piece of Quartz, you will be thinking fantastic I am going to cut the Cullinan Diamond, it will be a huge stone. Don't. If you cut a piece of glass when you have spent 12 hours or so cutting your first all you will have at the end is a fancy piece of glass. Quartz can be a pain to cut, it just is. Buy yourself a nice piece of gem, Topaz is fairly cheap Cubic Zirconia is cheap and is stunning. Same with being a hero and cutting a huge stone, don't, the bigger you go the bigger your mistakes will be. Cut a stone no bigger than say 6 or 7mm for your first, the facets are smaller, they cut and polish quicker and are small enough that the inevitable mistakes are small too. Enjoy yourself, you will be absolutely blown away by the sense of achievement when you finish your first gem.
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Post by pauls on Aug 6, 2021 23:08:26 GMT -5
An early Australian faceting machine used a AC brushed motor(sewing machine motor) with a light dimmer for a speed controller, It worked OK but they were noisy and very tiring to use because of the whine. Later models came out with a DC motor.
My faceting machine uses a Baldor DC motor AP233021. That is a 130V 1800RPM motor so there must be a bit of electronics in the control box to do the magic.
If it was me I would be taking the whole thing to a Electric motor specialist and seeing what they can do.
As far as speed goes I am not sure, 100 RPM tops, adjustable to zero. That's a guestimate, there's no way it's turning at 1800RPM even before the pulleys step it down.
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Post by pauls on Jul 24, 2021 21:10:42 GMT -5
Usually new wheels come with these bushes.
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Post by pauls on Jul 24, 2021 21:08:49 GMT -5
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Post by pauls on Jul 8, 2021 18:53:10 GMT -5
I wouldn't skip any stages, they look round but are also bashed around in the surf, you need to remove the chips and dings from the surface of the rocks to get a good result
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Post by pauls on Jul 6, 2021 21:18:56 GMT -5
Tile saws are good. A couple of tricks to stop you getting soaked, (this is presuming it's a table type saw) Tip 1: Turn the saw around and pull the rock towards you, all the spray is heading away from you. Tip 2: Drill a small hole in the guard and feed a plastic tube through so it trickles water onto the blade, remove the bung from the sump so the water goes straight through into a bucket.
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Post by pauls on Jul 5, 2021 17:32:14 GMT -5
I have had a barrel full of stones sitting untouched for six months, the start of the heat in our Aussie summer around Christmas I turned it off and then I have been away to Agate Creek for two months, finally got it going a couple of days ago, It took maybe ten minutes rolling to get back to a normal sound, opened it up late yesterday and there was no sign of it having been sitting. I have trays of stones that need treatment sitting for months at a time, any holes or cracks get removed so I don't care if sludge sets hard in them. My rule is anything with a crack or hole never makes it to polish, the hole gets removed or the stone gets tossed.
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Post by pauls on Jul 5, 2021 17:14:39 GMT -5
I think you are on the right track, even running the Garnet by itself would probably work. I used the small garnets as filler in my barrels with other rocks, I used it in all stages except polish and it was really good, I took it out before polish because I thought some of it was still a bit rough and might ruin the polish. They went in by themselves and polished up really nicely.
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