|
Post by pauls on Jul 3, 2021 16:59:12 GMT -5
It looks like it has been bashed up, any stage where the stones are hitting each other hard will do this, you will need to take it right back and run it through the stages again.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Jun 30, 2021 23:17:46 GMT -5
Yep it's Quartzite for sure. Quartzite is a metamorphic rock that was originally sandstone before being squashed under a lot of earth. Not all Quartzite is pitted it just depends on how much pressure and heat it was squished under.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Jun 29, 2021 3:39:26 GMT -5
If you put your item in pickle to remove scale it probably removed zinc as well, Pickle is Hydrochloric acid, (Muriatic)and will vigorously dissolve zinc. Another thing is heat, zinc boils off at a fairly low temperature, the fumes are nasty as any welder will tell you.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Jun 26, 2021 5:18:12 GMT -5
Does anyone know if I can get a few different index gears for my Sapphire Faceting Machine V.2? I only have one chuck handle with only 96 tooth gear. 3D printed index gears are apparently the way to go, I say apparently because I haven't tried it myself, but I know some people in Australia that have and are happy with the results. Failing that a decent engineering machine shop should be able to do it.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Apr 8, 2021 2:29:57 GMT -5
I use Tin Oxide on a hard felt pad for just about everything. I get a great shine using 50K diamond then hit the Tin Oxide for a couple of seconds for a fantastic polish. Things people do wrong with Tin Oxide: Too much, I have seen wheels at my club painted with a thick coat of tin Oxide, this is useless as it just lubricates the stone and nothing happens until most of it has flung off and hit the walls and ceiling, too wet, same problem. The sweet spot is a very thin coating on the buff and only just damp. Using a squirty bottle mix up a thin milky mixture and spray this on the buff until damp, then apply your stone until you feel it grabbing, that's it. Don't let it dry out friction can heat stones quickly and crack them. This works for most stones except some Jaspers and Jade, the secret ingredient for those is Chrome Oxide.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Mar 26, 2021 18:19:17 GMT -5
For motors if you are in a rural area check out the junk shops for old water pumps, Pressure pumps for drinking water and swimming pool pumps are all good.There will be a reason they were thrown out, often a capacitor, sometimes bearings, but usually easy to fix.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Mar 26, 2021 18:12:34 GMT -5
Welcome from Australia. We all have to start somewhere so no questions are off limits. Stones that are a mixture of hard and soft don't go well in the tumbler, especially if you know right from the start that the soft is obviously soft, it will just grind away and leave bad undercutting. Even stones that are hard can suffer from this. Agate and Quartz are both the same mineral so the same hardness, right, nope, Agate is much tougher and more resistant to grinding than Quartz so when you tumble them the Quartz will undercut, often not a problem but it can mess up some otherwise nice stones. Don't overthink things at the start, have a go, you will learn a lot from observing what is happening.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Mar 22, 2021 16:02:10 GMT -5
Opal, not boulder Opal, I don't like that much at all. A good deep apple green Chrysoprase, Mookaite, not all of it some is rubbish but occasionally a piece turns up with swirling reds, yellows and whites spectacular and sooo nice to work. Queensland Agate, Of coarse, not all of it, some of it is badly flawed but some of it is just magic.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Feb 13, 2021 16:10:50 GMT -5
I have Hans sintered wheels and they are good, really good. I have a 60 grit that really gets a hammering but keeps on keeping on, I would have worn out dozens of plated wheels doing the same things. I had a problem with a 50000 belt for my expanding drums that was contaminated . They replaced it no problems.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Feb 5, 2021 22:32:03 GMT -5
Nice Mike, Is that one you got from Ali?
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Feb 5, 2021 22:27:48 GMT -5
Crystalline Quartz, Amethyst, smokey, Clear etc. can be difficult to polish as they tend to bash against each other in polish and frost on the edges. The solution is to stop them bashing each other, fill the barrel 3/4 or more, add extra padding such as beads and small rocks.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Feb 4, 2021 19:22:49 GMT -5
Jason they are really good.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Feb 4, 2021 19:08:34 GMT -5
Labradorite is a bit softer than the Agates, so you could try putting it in closer to the end of stage 1, Stage 1 could be anything up to several months for some of the tougher agates. Also be aware that Feldspar has perfect cleavage and likes to break in nice flat planes, it's a really nice way of identifying Feldspar but it is a real pain in the tumbler when those cleavage planes let go. Fluorite, nah, forget it, much too soft. You could try a batch of just Fluorite but you would need a lot more experience first, it would need really special treatment.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Jan 26, 2021 0:07:33 GMT -5
Agate is strange stuff for sure. Talking Aussie Agate Creek Agates here, Oranges are quite soft and easily fractured, so much so that it's difficult to get a decent cuttable piece, Blues and purple are hard but saw and cut easily, The hardest is yellows and yellow greens, these are so tough that it's difficult to cut a full slab in one go, half way through the saw stops cutting and needs to be sharpened. Most pinks are quite soft, I believe they are chemically altered which makes them softer. By altered I mean weathered or maybe some chemical magic happening while forming, I know I have inadvertently made pink Agate by bathing other colours in hot highly caustic solutions attempting to fill cracks.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Jan 23, 2021 15:51:29 GMT -5
I have some Trachyte lava that is very similar to that, all the swirly stuff happening.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Jan 11, 2021 0:59:53 GMT -5
Your flaking problem could possibly just be the stone. Feldspar has a very pronounced cleavage that can result in flakes falling off.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Dec 26, 2020 18:21:12 GMT -5
Some one should be able to help with that, lots of Lortone users here.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Dec 20, 2020 0:58:01 GMT -5
Sintered grinding wheels are eye watering expensive, they do have a lot of diamond though. They can't really be used on a standard bench grinder because they need to be run wet. Really the cheapest and quickest would be the tile saw, just one of the ones where the blade sticks up through the table of the saw, not one of the fancy ones. Blades are cheap and they do a decent job. I drilled a hole in the guard on mine and feed water in from a tube down onto the blade, if you use it like a tile saw with the sump full of water you will be saturated in minutes, just leave the bung out and run the water into a bucket.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Dec 19, 2020 17:05:23 GMT -5
As always a superb bunch of rocks.
|
|
|
Post by pauls on Dec 19, 2020 17:03:06 GMT -5
I think 5300 RPM is too fast, but what size blade. The important thing is surface feet per minute, you should be able to get the information from the blade manufacturer.
A flat lap is not really the best option for trimming up stuff for tumbling, a lot of people use a tile saw, some use a tile saw with a tuckpoint blade to remove material fast. I use a sintered 60 grit diamond grinding wheel. All these options should be done wet because of the danger of silicosis.
|
|