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Post by aDave on Aug 26, 2019 14:11:22 GMT -5
The self collected material is primarily from San Jacinto river gravel beds, some other creek gravel and some locally common landscaping rocks labeled as simply Bull Rocks. The gravel beds of San Jacinto river surprisingly have a great assortment of rocks. There is member Txrockhunter here that has posted some amazing finds from there. Actually his threads is what turned me onto there. I had a small collection of rocks from there already but mainly small pieces of pet wood and some agate, jaspers. Hadnt considered cutting them until saw his posts. Now spend lot ot time digging through the gravels. Hmmm...funny you mention Jeremy. I have an unopened MFRB of San Jacinto's from him that have been on my "to do" list for quite a while now. Thanks for the reminder.
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Post by aDave on Aug 26, 2019 10:53:38 GMT -5
Photos look great - and the rocks do too. Nice work.
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Post by aDave on Aug 25, 2019 21:14:21 GMT -5
Hello I’m a rock hound who usually tumbles rocks. I have 3 polishers and enjoy making things shiny. I happened upon a Craigslist ad while searching for a hand held polisher and 40 minutes later I was the happy owner of a cabbing machine and a chop (cleaver style?) rock saw; purchased for a pittance. Now I’m learning about the machine and have to get some copper tubing for the saw. If anyone has any advice on the saw please do let me know! For now I’m polishing thunder eggs on the machine. Thanks to the hosts for maintaining this forum. There’s a lot of info here! Welcome to the forum. If you could provide specifics about the saw you have questions about, that would be extremely helpful (make, model, blade size, etc.). Pics would be even better.
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Post by aDave on Aug 25, 2019 19:24:05 GMT -5
Happy birthday, Mel. Hope you got in that trail ride, BBQ, guns, and rocks.
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Post by aDave on Aug 25, 2019 19:22:20 GMT -5
That is a gorgeous piece of wood. Nice pickup.
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Post by aDave on Aug 25, 2019 19:12:47 GMT -5
Well, I'm cautiously optomistic. Upon a restart of the polish stage, after moving the dowel, things were moving somewhat slowly, but not quite the standstill that I had seen before. As soon as I added polish, the circulation was much faster than I have had in the past. Just to get a baseline, I only added 2 tsp of borax instead of 3 (1 TBSP).
At this point, time will tell.
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Post by aDave on Aug 25, 2019 19:06:51 GMT -5
That's pretty neat. I don't think I've ever seen a double before. Didn't know there was such a thing.
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Post by aDave on Aug 25, 2019 17:03:21 GMT -5
I came across this by accident... I always seemed to over-water by spraying when I first started due to slowing of action. I would unplug, drain with hand over opening, put back in frame, and action would return. Now I turn the barrel. When action slows down, try turning the barrel 90 degrees...without losing contact with the frame. I pick up and pull forward while staying in contact with the front of frame and twist about 90 degrees. I will bet you see better action without adding water. Hope this helps. Jeff A Edit, this is for the Lot-O tumbler... So I have had the issue of movement really slowing down after 24 hours or so In each stage and no matter how much water I add it never gets it going as well as before. But this time after 24 hours or so in 500 stage I unplugged machine, turned barrel 90 degrees and started it back up. To my surprise the action/movement started rolling just like it should without adding a drop of water more. Not sure if it has to do with the direction of the barrel, or if barrel overtime is lowering into the frame more and causing the action to slow. But either way, it appears to have solved my problem so I'm a happy camper! Thanks for the tip!! I tried the 90 degree turn thing, and it really didn't do anything for me. I've got a batch in polish right now where I've been fighting to keep it moving after about 6 hours after the start. I took some short vids of the beginning of the stage with water only, then grit, then borax. It never moves anything like Rob's Jugglerguy when he starts the same stage - for that matter, any of them. With this run, I even went a bit lighter in rocks, and I'm seeing no real improvement. So, as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to do a cleanout and start the stage over. This time, however, I'm going to do one last check of springs and frame welds. If those look good, I'm moving my wood dowel. I informally surveyed a bunch of folks afer I bought my machine, and my dowel is much further away from frame than anyone else I had contact with. When I talked to the Lot-O folks about it, I really didn't get much help, as I was told that each machine is individually tuned with a test barrel - no rocket science, just the judgement of the tester that things look good. Hopefully, I'll end up with some positive results.
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Post by aDave on Aug 24, 2019 16:37:08 GMT -5
Great job on those! I have to admit that I agree with your wife on saving the flowery wraps for plain stones. I just like nicely patterned stones to be shown off.
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Post by aDave on Aug 23, 2019 13:36:57 GMT -5
pizzano Here's an older knife from a maker that's become pretty well known, Jody Muller. Sole authorship, Jody made the Mosaic Damascus and engraved the guard. The handle is Walrus Tooth with a Mammoth Ivory spacer. I know your post wasn't directed at me, but I'd have to say that is my favorite thus far.
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Post by aDave on Aug 23, 2019 11:43:57 GMT -5
I swore by the MK-303 and 301, and on my hand feed, I used the MK-225 because it took more abuse. Started using them 10 years ago. Ones bought in the last year or two, the do not seem to be cutting as well, and need conditioning more often. I cut a lot of jasper and rhyolite, so maybe I'm not inthe cneter of the design space. Anyway, the best blade is one with the right mix of coarseness/aggressiveness, kerf, and lifetime for the kind of rock you want to cut, the speed of your saw's feed, and how pricey your material is. It is hard to make a one size fits all recommendation. Thanks for the heads up. I was using a MK 303 on my tile saw and wore it down to the core. I just received 2 MK 225's yesterday based on the reviews of many. I'm pretty religious about conditioning and swaging (when needed), so it'll be interesting to see how the blades hold up.
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Post by aDave on Aug 22, 2019 20:50:38 GMT -5
I place an order on Monday and it was delivered by UPS today. It helps that they are in the same state. Based on all the crap reviews, maybe you just got lucky. Truth be told, I'll use them again when I need to buy a 25kg bag of 46/70 grit. I previously bought from them in Q. They're close enough where my time spent driving to them will offset having to deal with Kingsley North for the same product. I'm hopeful that the face to face transaction will be a non-issue.
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Post by aDave on Aug 22, 2019 19:30:53 GMT -5
So allow me to tick off all of the cat lovers here... One of the funniest books I ever looked at was this: 101 Uses for a Dead CatDon't shame me. We've had cats.
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Post by aDave on Aug 21, 2019 13:01:09 GMT -5
I was wondering about that. I know absolutely nothing about wheels/pads. But, I'd never put anything in the dishwasher that had any sort of abrasive material/paste/grit on them. I wouildn't want the abrasives to run through the drain pump and (potentially) accelerate any wear. I'd also be concerned about abrasives getting trapped in any seals or the rotating surfaces of the spray arms. Granted, I might be overthinking the issue, but that's just me.
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Post by aDave on Aug 19, 2019 17:41:38 GMT -5
The only other random thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned here is load composition. I generally run ~50% total volume or more small ceramic media depending on the assortment of rock I'm tumbling. The only times I've had impaired movement not due to the load being too wet/dry has been when I had too much rock or too many large rocks. I may not be maximizing my yield but I'm happy with the results. Good point, and that's one of the things on my list to try. Right now I'm at about 30% mixed ceramics. When I get a chance, I was going to fill the barrel with ceramics that have gone all the way through polish to see how those are impacted with water only. Problem is, if the load does turn (as opposed to rocks and ceramics), I don't know if I can make the call yet to say it was exclusively a fill issue, though it will be a start. Thanks for reminding me.
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Post by aDave on Aug 19, 2019 10:46:00 GMT -5
It may be worth checking that your counterweights are aligned in the two fan wheels. They should both be clocked in the same position inside the fans. The fans are a friction fit to the shaft so you can just rotate them to adjust the alignment. FWIW- I use 1 tablespoon Borax in every stage after 120/220 and none in the 120/220 stage. Thanks. That was one of the first things I looked at, and they are still aligned as they should be. I also checked the springs to make sure that none were broken, and they look good. Lastly, I've also checked that none of the welds on the frame were broken.
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Post by aDave on Aug 19, 2019 0:03:51 GMT -5
What I find interesting is that this Wadsworth poem has many references on how he met with Ashinabe (aka Ojibwe, Chippewa, etc.) Tribal members to be sure everything was authentic. Ashinabe did not live in Wigwams. I chalk it up to poetic license and appealing to the masses. I know it's a trivial matter, and I'm not meaning to take away from the thread, but your comment about this group of indians and wigwams didn't seemingly ring true with what I recall from US History classes in college. Tribes from the northeast and those that migrated west to forested areas in the north typically constructed wigwams as domiciles. Bark, saplings, and other forest material lended themselves to the indigiinous who maintainted semi-permanent residences. Plains Indians, on the other hand, which were mainly nomadic, lived in teepees due to their portability. At least that's what I remembered. So, I took a look on the web. There are a significant number of sources on the 'net which indicate that wigwams were a primary type of residence for Anishinaabe indians, with the exception of those who might have ended up in the plains. You are correct in the fact that Longfellow seemingly met with many indians to ensure accuracy with his epic poem, and that's noted significantly in the Wiki article about the poem itself. I think his statement about Hiawatha's wigwam was not just poetic license.
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Post by aDave on Aug 18, 2019 22:52:13 GMT -5
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Post by aDave on Aug 18, 2019 22:33:12 GMT -5
Rob, is there a typo in your time? Not sure what you wanted me to see, but I watched the start of your polish stage, and there is no discernible difference from your startup to adding stuff to it. I wish my machine rolled like yours does. Absent a phone call, maybe it's time to start thinking again about moving the dowel. Next time I start a batch, which might be a couple weeks, I'll take some short vids and let you take a look at them for reference.
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Post by aDave on Aug 18, 2019 22:03:53 GMT -5
I don't see anything that you're doing wrong. If you suspect that your machine is running slower than normal, I would suspect that is the problem. My polish stage runs just like the other stages. I use 1 TBSP of borax, but I don't remember noticing it running slower than normal before adding borax. Mine definitely doesn’t run well until I add borax or grit or polish. It helps grip the rocks somehow. Thanks Grant. Nice to see I'm not the only one.
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