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Post by HankRocks on Jan 8, 2021 18:22:40 GMT -5
Rocket Rockhound. The go ahead and break one up as a test and try tumbling it with a mixture of well rounded rocks, that way you can judge the results. You should find that the rounded ones come out nicer, if they are hard enough for a polish. Be careful breaking rocks, pieces do tend to fly in different directions. Protect your eyes.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 8, 2021 17:39:36 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
I went on a Rockhounding trip on Lake Ontario and some of the rocks are to big for my tumbler. I was wonder if breaking the rocks up into smaller ones would cause a significant amount of fractures in them, making it more of a chore to tumble out cracks and what not. If this is something you’ve done before please let me know how it went.
Also here is a little video of that trip to Lake Ontario
thank you, Fastball Breaking them up will put fractures in them, unless they happen to break along existing fractures. For tumbling purposes, the rounded rocks are most desirable as they will spend less time in the coarse stage. What size tumbler do you have?
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 8, 2021 7:59:19 GMT -5
Watched this Movie the other night and this scene is my favorite among so many great ones. I think several of the extras in this scene were actually people who had fled Europe after the Nazis took over adding some real emotion to it.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 6, 2021 19:48:39 GMT -5
Yes they are, there may be another one for sure and one maybe. Difficult to tell until the coating is off, still about 6 or 7 pounds in the process.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 6, 2021 16:39:31 GMT -5
As for re-tumbling polished stones the only ones I usually do are those that broke or fractured along the way. In the sorting after coarse stage there will always be a few that go in the erosion control bucket for my friends Ranchette.
In my case I have a special plastic shoe box that I put my keepers in. I don't get many of those, maybe 1 or 2 rocks per load. If it appears that a rock is going to be competing for a spot in the special box, then I take a lot more time with him in the first stage. For some of the others I put together 1 and 2 pound bags for sale at the Craft Shows. The rest go in the 3 for 1$ totes for sale at the Shows. In a lot of cases I will tell the kids to take an extra 1 or 2.
I also sort some tumbled stones by type, Petrified Wood, Tigers Eye, Crazy lace, etc. A few of the lesser pieces of those go in the 3 for $1 tote. Haven't decided how to sell those sorted by type rocks and keep them from getting mixed up with the bargain tote rocks. A few of the larger ones get priced by the piece. The priced pieces of Petrified Wood and Tiger's Eye seem to sell well.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 5, 2021 18:00:13 GMT -5
I have been tumbling some very large rocks that can barely fit inside my Lortone C40 40lb barrel. It's 8.5" inside flat-to-flat. I have some rocks that are too big to tumble inside of it. Does anyone know for certain the flat-to-flat distance inside DP 65lb barrel? Someone told me years ago it might be as much as 12.5". If anyone has this tumbler, I would enjoy knowing something. How in the heck do you get wrestle this barrel up onto a workbench to deal with it? I lift the 40lb barrel weekly and do so by it's handle. I'm strong, but it's still touchy and great care is needed. I'm not certain how much it really weighs including the steel barrel and the rubber liner--both of which are quite heavy--and the water and rocks. I think I weighed it a few years back and it was 62lbs! A 65lb barrel would have to be bear-hugged I guess and it would not be fun. I'm going to guess that either 1) people don't lift it, but merely "roll" it off the shafts, tilt it up, and do all the recharge work on the floor which doesn't sound fun, or 2) have a hoisting mechanism of some type such as a block and tackle from a secure overhead attachment point. The barrel would weigh less because it's linerless polyethelyene. I would not want to be any smaller rocks in a 65 pound barrel when there's a 11 inch diameter monster rolling!! Heck! I wouldn't want to be the barrel!! I probably would not mind being your Orthopedic Doctor!! Have you ever considered just buying a big saw and a Vibe Lap, cutting one of those big rocks and flat polishing one surface?
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 5, 2021 8:17:05 GMT -5
My guess is that it's not Palm Wood. It doesn't have the distinctive reed structure. Some pieces of wood can have a structure that resembles Palm.
Nice find, and it was a nice short trip to find it!!
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 5, 2021 8:08:32 GMT -5
About 4 months ago had an opportunity to do some collecting while my wife shopped with her sister, forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/92636/un-expected-collecting-tripSince then I have been slowly tumbling this wood adding a bit at a time to normal loads of agate and jasper in my 1st stage tumbler. Some pieces only did 1 coarse run, some went through two coarse runs. After about 3 months had enough ready for a dedicated load of wood and ran through the next stages through polish. Here's the results. One thing about this petrified wood, most of the original caliche coating was removed. That does leave streaks of "white" in most pieces. Some is very hard, almost chert-like and takes a great polish. Some of the white is caliche-like and does not take a high polish with more of a dull shine. To me it's no matter as the white streaks help to hi-light the grain pattern. Unless the piece is closely inspected the difference in the polish is not easy to detect. One other note, there were almost no smalls in the 220SiC, 600Sic, or in the pre-polish stages. What is shown in the group picture is the makeup of the batch through these 3 stages. It was only at the polish stage that I added about 3 pounds of previously tumbled pea gravel to make up the difference between the 15 pound rotary for the 3 stages and the 18 pound vib run. IMG_2378 by Findrocks, on Flickr closer view of some of the white streaking; IMG_2381 by Findrocks, on Flickr IMG_2382 by Findrocks, on Flickr One of the palm pieces in the middle; IMG_2384 by Findrocks, on Flickr Henry
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 2, 2021 18:09:41 GMT -5
Talk about getting out the gate fast at the start of the year!!!
Another outstanding batch.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 2, 2021 7:47:39 GMT -5
I am never comfortable identifying rocks by pictures so I could be mistaken but that does not have the look of petrified wood. It may well be and it still will be interesting to tumble. Will be curious to see pictures as it progresses.
Henry
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 1, 2021 10:07:23 GMT -5
jamesp One question, Why did you use a sugar slurry in the Garnet load? Cushioning maybe? Or more movement maybe? Henry No good reason Henry. Other than I have bad luck with Borax in my hot Vibrasonic vibe regardless of the type rocks run. The 1/3 hp 3450 rpm motor is trapped in the base section and generates a lot of heat transferred to hopper directly above. Honestly, if you shove your hand in a batch of tumbles shortly after turning the Vibrasonic off on a summer Georgia day the slurry coated rocks will burn your fingers regardless of having gator skin. The slurry is like hot oil when cooking french fries. Borax dries out in a few hours in the Vibrasonic which impacts AO and Borax into the rocks which is a real mess to clean. Benefit of the heat is being able to run the vibe on 20F nights. Using cheap o-rings they often break. On many occasions they have broken on cold nights and the batch is frozen solid by morning. Forcing a thaw. Never seemed to hurt anything. In hot weather I add about 50% more sugar to get the same slurry viscosity as winter. Sugar slurry viscosity like Aunt Jemima's pancake syrup is dependent upon temperature. This vibe eats a lot of electricity, obviously so with a big 1/3 hp 3450 rpm motor. It is an old school industrial grade beast. Remember muscle cars of the late 60's lol. But it easily has the power to shake a load with the thickest of protective slurries. If you ever get a chance to get on I'd go for it. I am going to do a test run with Garnets and 3 or 4 smaller pieces of West Texas Botryoidal in the 4 pound Mini-Sonic hopper. One difference might be that the Garnets I will be using are a bit smaller than the ones you used and that may create some issues with trapped media in the nooks and crannies of the Botryoidal. Have a couple good Dental Picks that have been useful for dis-lodging these hitchhikers. The other test might be to use the garnets from this load on a 1/2 pound piece of Petrified Wood to see if I can put polish on it and preserve the surface character of the piece. The Sonic I have is a 3 - 4pound hopper machine. It allows me run different small loads at the same time. My goal this new year is to take advantage of the machines flexibility.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 1, 2021 9:22:59 GMT -5
Drummond Island Rocks Another fine group. I think I notice that you don't always tumble the cut halves to remove all of the outer surface, just the the cut side with the fine exposed interior. That is my theory, the cut face is the prize, in a lot of cases the rest of the exterior is nothing special so I don't waste a lot of repeat first stages trying to get it perfectly smooth.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 1, 2021 9:11:28 GMT -5
jamesp One question, Why did you use a sugar slurry in the Garnet load? Cushioning maybe? Or more movement maybe? Henry
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 1, 2021 9:07:28 GMT -5
Note pocked surface of flourite to left. No explanation for why some of the fluorite had this defect. Just a guess, but it may be due to orientation of the crystal structure to the surface being polished. Or maybe the presence of impurities.
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Post by HankRocks on Dec 30, 2020 8:12:41 GMT -5
I have about 25 pounds of those garnets. Looks like it might be a way to polish Botryoidal without removing too much material. Might test run it.
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Post by HankRocks on Dec 30, 2020 8:01:52 GMT -5
Did you put enough Onion and Garlic in?
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Post by HankRocks on Dec 30, 2020 7:40:30 GMT -5
Hey people! Got a question about cleaning between tumbling stages. We all are familiar with the standard process, tumble, clean, tumble clean and so on. Do any of you take any additional steps to aid the tumbling process and eliminate the chance of contamination. I’ve had friends that tumble and then in between stages after cleaning and brushing/scrubbing the run the rocks in ivory soap in the tumbler to eliminate any hidden grit. Now we are having the debate about how much of the soap residue must be removed before continuing on to the next grit stage? Some? All? None? Should they be rinsed in cold or hot water? What are you best methods? Two different schools of thought on the frequency of cleaning. I never do a soap run between SiC stages. Not that I think it's wrong, in my mind it's not necessary, a piece of 80 grit gets loose in a 220 it's not a problem as whatever scratches it manages to make before it breaks down will be eliminated by the 220 in the run. Same for 600 SiC run. I usually do a soap run between the last SiC stage(600) and the first AlO stage(80, or 500 in my case). Sometimes I skip that soap run if it's a normal mix of agate, jasper and wood, using it for the Pendant/slab run with all of the smalls. There are a lot more surfaces and places to rinse than the hose can get. The only consistent soap run I do is after Polish stage, for burnishing. Usually add a tablespoon of Borax to this soap run. I depend on a good hose rinse after a soap run to remove any soap residue. For rinse water temp, it's whatever comes out of the driveway faucet, warm in the Summer, cool to cold in the winter. For me I like simple, the less stages and sub-stages the better. This is not an endorsement of my methodology, it's just the way I do it and I am almost always pleased with the polish results. Good luck
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Post by HankRocks on Dec 28, 2020 22:31:25 GMT -5
I bought a piece nice piece of Laguna Lace Agate off eBay. It's 1.75# and too large for my small hobby rock saw at this stage. I tried to break it up with a chisel and pick and 5# hammer with no luck. My question: How the heck do I break this stuff into tumbling-size pieces? res.cloudinary.com/rth/image/upload/v1609210478/IMG_5287_adzeao.jpgIt looks like a killer rock, would hate to see it reduced to tumble material. You don't know anyone with a larger saw? Henry
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Post by HankRocks on Dec 28, 2020 22:27:39 GMT -5
Senator Kennedy ? How would you testify Weather or Knot These People are trying To Subvert our Country The song was funny in 67, sadly it was no longer so in 68.
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Post by HankRocks on Dec 28, 2020 20:42:15 GMT -5
that funny when this song came out I thought RFK was singing it Wild Thing Troggs Are you sure you didn't hear this version?
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