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Post by tims on Jun 30, 2023 21:13:09 GMT -5
Do you have a saw big enough to "shave" off some of the bottom (the pitted part)? Don't think my 10" would do it, or if it did it would be a serious chore. Been raining so much and so often haven't been able to set up wheels or saw in the yard yet anyway ><
Do you know anyone in the area who cuts for cash? Both rock shed and the shop in Custer who used to cut say they've given up cutting for customers.
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Post by tims on Jun 30, 2023 18:14:48 GMT -5
Yep ... Nope.
Went just over 1/2 full with pea gravel (including the rock) and it does roll but it's uneven enough to bounce the barrel a bit each revolution and i believe it would eat my qt12 before it ate enough of that rock. Nothing violent and if i had an old beater tumbler i'd be tempted to let it go, but after an hour i'm calling this a fail for me. I think a rounder / more oval stone this size might do fine.
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Post by tims on Jun 30, 2023 15:08:58 GMT -5
Good suggestions guys, thank you all. Experimentation it is.
Been having trouble filling the 12# lately and it's just sitting there. Hungry and sad. Will use lots of small ceramics and / or pea gravel if i can find decent pea gravel around here. I roll indoors and should be able to monitor it pretty well. Will update.
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Post by tims on Jun 30, 2023 12:42:32 GMT -5
I have a large waterline agate (i think) found in the Black Hills that i want to tumble but am not sure it's possible. It has room to roll as long as it doesn't turn endwise, then it might wedge in place. Was wondering if anyone else had rolled lunkers that could convince me that this is / isn't a fine idea to try
All opinions welcome and thanks for looking.
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Post by tims on Jun 11, 2023 23:55:41 GMT -5
Very beautiful.
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Post by tims on Jun 1, 2023 17:56:34 GMT -5
From yesterday, some more pieces and a strange chunk that looks like green common opal with masses of red fortifications.
This is going in the tumbler, not sure how the quartz crystals will hold up: This is the strange agatey common opal, hoping to slice it:
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Post by tims on Jun 1, 2023 15:55:55 GMT -5
Cloudinary tutorial is posted here.
I've also had issues with what appears to be white residue left in cracks / fractures after ivory burnish and then a short roll in clean water. Seems like the polish works its way into tiny cracks that water can't enter to rinse. I'm curious to see what you mean by "powdery" if you put up pics.
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Post by tims on May 26, 2023 15:52:32 GMT -5
Awesome finds buddy.... Love Baculite fossils .. I have one Baculite that is completely hollow with inner crystal formation on the walls . Nice, thanks Fossilman. I'm really starting to enjoy the hollow ones where you can see the shape of the internal chambers, but the vast majority i see are completely filled in.
Hey, do you do anything special to preserve nacre that still has nice colors? I've been trying to keep mine out of the sun so they won't dry out but wonder if just exposure to air is enough to make them fade over time. Guess i could just bury them again lol.
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Post by tims on May 19, 2023 16:17:58 GMT -5
Hey, if everybody goes home with a fairburn in their pocket that's a great trip! Thanks for telling the story Jason and really hope Rob enjoyed the area ... a few days is enough to get a taste for the hills and hopefully they'll get a chance to come back for more.
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Post by tims on May 18, 2023 13:50:08 GMT -5
Some more pieces from Tuesday, just broken pieces mostly but the first one is getting cut. Looks like several small faces in it and it's solid so maybe i'll finally have something worth turning into a cab, fingers crossed.
Saw fodder
Might work this one on the wheels
Maybe possibly workable piece, it's pretty thin
The orange fortification goes all the way around, might give it an acid soak to see what's going on
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Post by tims on May 18, 2023 13:34:42 GMT -5
Is there a chance that the vein was Rose Quartz but had faded with exposure to sunlight? just curious. Henry Great question! I don't think it was. The quartz was just starting to poke through the surface in most places. I did dig a bunch of pieces up, and it was pure white through and through... If only there was an easy way to follow a seam down >< There are several historic gold mines NW of Custer so who knows what quartz might lead to. Heck, just good white quartz is getting scarce enough i wouldn't mind hauling a bucketful home with me.
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Post by tims on May 18, 2023 13:28:55 GMT -5
Amazing stuff! Any theories about how they formed? Could use a professional opinion if you're ever in the Black Hills! I assume there was massive volcanic or tectonic activity to lift the hills (would have been mountains) up out of the interior sea, but i have no knowledge of how or why. Finding coral and shells at 5000 feet elevation is confounding. The proliferation of gold in the hills makes quartz seams sound very interesting.
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Post by tims on May 17, 2023 13:17:20 GMT -5
Heck yeah, nice specimen!! Rob and I were just around the corner from you! We went down FR288 trying to find some Rose Quartz. We kind of flipped a coin on Teepee or Quartz. We got skunked on finding the Rose Quartz...and it looks like we should have gone to Teepee!! Nice find today!! That's funny, I went with a couple girls wanting pink rocks (one is 4) and almost went over there, but when i told them Tepee just opened they opted for agates lol. If you're hunting where i think, right near the garnet area up the first hill near an old mine, there used to be lots of pink quartz in the tailings there but it's been picked prety clean. Rose quartz used to be so common people would leave it lay but those days are gone.
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Post by tims on May 16, 2023 21:42:14 GMT -5
A pretty specimen from today
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Post by tims on May 15, 2023 20:18:27 GMT -5
FWIW Sawmill Springs gate is open but Tepee gate is still closed as of 5/15.
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Post by tims on May 12, 2023 16:32:19 GMT -5
My guess is that at some point you'd get quite a bit of grit on grit action vs grit on rock, where your grit is breaking down by grinding against other grit instead of contact with the rocks. The standards for grit usage are always estimates but i assume over time they've been adopted for efficiency as well as efficacy, so going heavier on grit might get you faster grinding action at the cost of using much more grit, and i'd say give it a try if you don't mind burning through extra abrasive to test the theory. I'd also guess that using the "normal" amount of grit and just keeping it fresh would work faster than overloading grit, but this is just me pondering while being slightly distracted by the phrase grit on grit action.
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Post by tims on May 11, 2023 19:45:16 GMT -5
I'm pondering going up on Sunday. I know you said the roads don't open until the 15th, but I go in the backway, which doesn't have a gate! Oh...it's raining cats and dogs here right now...which means RR Buttes is getting hit hard as well... Thanks for the weather update ... hoping it dries out for a look next week.
Not sure how you get in a back way to Tepee except for the cutacross from Mud Springs Rd., but if that's the one you mean it is gated (until the same date i believe). Still, not hard to walk in to good spots from the Sawmill Spgs or TP gates. Wouldn't be surprised if it's rainy in the hills all weekend but the roads stay pretty decent in most spots. Hope you find some good ones
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Post by tims on May 11, 2023 18:56:48 GMT -5
Those are some nice little morsels! LOL - Is that group from this year already?? Yeah, 2 days worth. About 6 hours of hiking and searching. Not sure if i'm going blind or if that whole area's been picked clean.
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Post by tims on May 11, 2023 14:56:19 GMT -5
Some baculite pieces, individual segments that have undergone replacement (barite, calcite, maybe some agatization). Oh, right-click and open in new window for full size.
Here's some of the standalone crystal found in the area; selenite, barite
tan calcite? Usually the baculite body chambers are filled solid, but found a couple embedded in mudstone with the hollow chambers intact. Was only able to extract one small piece, the mudstone has a couple pieces in it still but they're like eggshell and too delicate for me to try to break them out some detail of pieces An oddball piece of coral ... not sure i've seen coral out there before here's a pretty ammonite that had almost completely weathered out of the mudstone before breaking off, both pieces as found
And another ammy i'll work on setting loose
Wyoming's ancient seabed was a lively place and is fun to explore if you're ever passing through.
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Post by tims on May 10, 2023 15:30:48 GMT -5
Just a handful of bits and pieces.
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