lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on May 10, 2017 19:27:01 GMT -5
Hello from Colorado! That quartz will tumble nicely n 2 things I recently learned are important is to cut as much cracks out (the little cracking inside the quartz is ok but the less is better) and use a lot of plastic filler to help reduce cracks from tumbling. You can buy plastic pellets or ceramic type stuff, I recently got the idea to try cutting up some leftover milk jugs (distilled water is actually what the jugs were for so they were clean) here's a pic of my first 500 grit (third stage) to actually look good n all stones were self collected- flic.kr/s/aHskWh1LsVInteresting! And thank you! I was planning on using a bunch quartz I have laying around- do you suggest using pellets for the first step anyway?
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on May 4, 2017 15:39:25 GMT -5
very helpful thank you again! Much appreciated
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on May 4, 2017 12:43:34 GMT -5
OK THANK YOU!
One last question-maybe a silly one- will the polish that's on the rocks affect the other raw rocks in the same tumble?
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on May 4, 2017 11:36:38 GMT -5
thats great news!
Should they go back in at pre polish or second round of softer grit?
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on May 4, 2017 11:00:39 GMT -5
Hello!
I have a few pieces that came out of polish stage with some cracks and some not so perfect. Can they be put back into an earlier stage along with the same rocks?
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on May 4, 2017 10:36:34 GMT -5
Looks pretty good! Took the polish well. The ones off to the right have cracks that came from the polish stage. I'll have to work on that: over all pretty happy!
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Apr 27, 2017 0:13:10 GMT -5
I'm only on my fourth run ever so I am still learning the ropes
I've bought rough from Rockshed and enjoyed what I received.
Are there any sites or eBay sellers you would recommend to buy rough and grit from?
Thank you!
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Apr 19, 2017 19:49:27 GMT -5
those look great!
I just started with this hobby after 25 years of wanted too.......I'm having a tough time myself so this post is inspiring to me!
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Apr 19, 2017 19:40:34 GMT -5
Are there any advantages to using ceramic pieces over plastic pellets on the last stage- the polishing stage?
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Mar 24, 2017 23:29:40 GMT -5
Thanks Dave- very helpful. I think as a starter to this hobby I will stick with harder rocks in the 7 range until I really get a hang of it all. I do have a barrel of Sodalite in now that I will peek at Sunday
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Mar 24, 2017 20:58:58 GMT -5
Thank you everyone for the responses- I have looked over this site throtoughly and it looks like there are newbie posts often and I thank you for the help! You mentioned that you improved your second batch by running the first stage for three weeks instead of one week. That's great! If you want to take it a step further, don't run the whole batch for a set number of weeks in the first stage. I clean out my barrels once a week. I dump everything in a colander= and rinse it all off, catching the slurry in a bucket so it doesn't clog my drain. Then I inspect all the rocks one at a time. When a rock is flawless (no holes or cracks), it gets set aside. The rest of the rocks go back for another week. I add fresh, rough rocks to the barrel to bring the volume back up to about 3/4. Each week I do this and eventually I have set aside enough rocks to fill the barrel for the next stage. So some rocks will be in the rough grinding stage for three weeks, others four weeks, and some might take 12 weeks. My rough grinding barrels just keep up this process forever. This is remarkably interesting to me. Again forgive the ignorance here- If I run a batch for let's say 10 days- I can pull some out and then put raw rocks in with some rocks that have been tumbled for a few weeks and they will not effect the smoother, tumbled rocks? From what I have read things like fluorite (mohs 4) should be started with 220. They need to be checked every day or two as they lose mass very quickly even in 220. Recently I put a piece of howlite in with some agates. It was about 2" around and 3" long. At the end of a week it was a little piece about 1/2" around and 1" long. If it were me, with your softer stones, I'd run them together starting with the 220 grit checking often. The rocks should tell you soon enough what they do well with. Great info! If I do start softer stones with 220 grit- will they shape and smooth as well or will the softer stones simply shape and still hold some rough areas? A couple of things. If you are using plastic in the rotary use dedicated plastic. Don't move it from step to step. The grit embeds in the plastic so becomes a scratch maker in finer steps. Secondly, if quiet is a must the MT vibes have no motors to overheat. You can place them on a scrap of carpet to deaden the sound.  John- Thank you for this- both are very helpful.  I have not yet moved pellets to different stages but I would have if I had not seen this post!  As for the MT vibrating I'm researching thoroughly (I live in a row home and have my set up in the basement)
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Mar 18, 2017 0:58:36 GMT -5
Uncle- tow follow up questions here and one may seem a little ignorant- if I do a batch in course grit-can I remove the rocks and re-use the same slurry over and over again? And secondly are vibrating tumbler loud?
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lancemountain
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2017
Posts: 214
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Post by lancemountain on Mar 17, 2017 17:49:44 GMT -5
Hello! I purchased my first tumbler last summer and just getting around to using it- it's a lotrone dual 3lb tumbler.
The first round went fairly well- one side had banded amethyst and the other side had mixed agates and whatnot (I bought the tumbler and all the grit/rocks from the Rock Shed so it was a mixture)
I did a week for each stage and they came out great- I started lurking this board and the internet in general and I do realize some of my mistakes (some of the rocks weren't completely done after the 60/90 stage- small cavities and harder surfaces. Also I did not use the plastic pellets that was in my kit)
This second round I am in now I have learned a few lessons- one side is Apache tears which I made sure they were ready after the first round and I used the pellets. They are currently in the polish stage so fingers crossed. The second barrel has Tiger's Eye which thanks to searching this board I kept them in the rough grit stage for three weeks and I'm glad I did as I can really see the difference.
Soo, I'm learning my way and already have "the bug" and may look into a second tumbler if anyone has suggestions.
My main question is this- I found one of those websites that sells gems and crystals and healing stones and whatnot and they had a pretty good list of tumbled products-I used this gallery to choose rough to buy off ebay (another question-any recommendations to buy rough?)
Some of the bags of rough I bought have very low Mohs scale hardiness- I didn't think to look. I have Serpentinite, Lepidolite, carmine calcite??? and sodalite.
(I also got various jaspers and agates) So my main question really is how do I tumble these softer rocks? Do I skip right to the second finer grit? Does the first round of grit, the 60/90 stage just get shortened? Do I put the pellets in right away?
My apache tears are coming out sunday so I would like to start a batch of one of these, so any help is welcome!
Thank you all!
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