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Post by rmf on Mar 27, 2024 18:03:47 GMT -5
Diamond wheels are great until they are not. When I polish (Agates and Jaspers and obsidian) I take them down to 3000 grit via diamond Nova wheels. I have and 8000 and a 14000 diamond but Then it becomes about speed of finishing. So I go to conventional polish. I have used Tin Oxide(SnO) for 50 years and have not had good results with cerium. However, some on here use a much higher grade of cerium than I have tried. That said the SnO I add about 3oz of Linde A with the tin to speed my work. I use to polish on leather with a spray bottle. When the end plate leather failed they nolonger carried the good glue so I just used my muslin wheels. I polish almost everything on Muslin with SnO+ linde A and get a great polish. The key whether Leather or muslin is to start wet with the polish and work to dry. Especially quartz, glass, and opals are heat sensitive so I use a mister to keep the heat down as well and use the fine fibers on the edge to lightly polish the heat sensitive part after I have worked the wet on more of the center of the buffer.
Other rocks that are softer like travertine I go to 8000 Nova wheel. I discovered that Lapis polishes best on a diamond cloth belt, not a resin wheel.
Polishing happens in two steps wet does some cutting and dry finishes the polish but the work you do while it is wet is key.
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Post by rmf on Mar 24, 2024 13:27:53 GMT -5
Possible stones: it is semi translucent so it it could be calcite, fluorite, talc/soapstone, alabaster though it is usually more orange to white. If it is talc or soapstone the mohs hardness should be 1 for talc and maybe a little harder for soapstone but both should be less than 2. that means if you can find a place that does not show much then you should be able to scratch it with your fingernail. Your fingernail has a mohs hardness of about 2.5. If it is calcite which has a hardness of 3 you should be able to scratch it with a copper penny that is pre 1982. If the copper penny leaves a copper streak on the carving it is fluorite which has a mohs hardness of 4. That should be sufficient diagnostics to determine the mineral. Also, talc and soapstone should feel slick on you fingers like soap after rubbing with your fingers. That is why it is called soapstone. Let us know what you learn. enquiring minds want to know
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Post by rmf on Mar 18, 2024 19:57:49 GMT -5
rolleyholeman1 looked at you images. #1, 2, and 4 are not what I would call TN Agate (a.k.a Paintrock Agate) They have agate and quartz but do not match the typical material. Image #3 is calfkiller agate. the top stone on image 5 is a chert with fossil bits the dark color from organic carbon. The lower two I would put in the chert category but may also be calfkiller agate.
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Post by rmf on Mar 11, 2024 19:30:29 GMT -5
BTW the Highland Park Templates come in plastic and there is another set available in stainless steel. The stainless set has 10 templates and the plastic has 8 templates
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Post by rmf on Mar 11, 2024 19:24:25 GMT -5
If you have the drums the 3x1.5# is the same frame that they use for the 33B which takes two 3A drums.
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Post by rmf on Mar 6, 2024 13:16:17 GMT -5
oolitic agate from WY
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Post by rmf on Mar 5, 2024 16:51:08 GMT -5
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Post by rmf on Mar 1, 2024 18:53:40 GMT -5
Bullet brass is light (typically tumbled in walnut shells or corn cobs) and so the tumbler is not as well built as a rock vib tumbler. Get the rock Tumbler, then tumbling brass or metal parts in it is not a problem.
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Post by rmf on Feb 23, 2024 9:20:54 GMT -5
realrockhound My question is, the lighting is it correct? The top looks brownish, the bottom dark greenish with not a lot of translucence. most mtorolite I have seen has more translucence. If you draw a vertical line down from the tip of your thumb and a horizontal line from where the two curved conchoidal fractures meeet on the right. Where these two lines meet there is a spot that looks like green tree agate. The indian Green moss agate and green tree agate are part of the same material just different coloring within the same deposit. I am thinking this is some of that agate just with a slightly different mix of color. I am 100% sure maybe
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Post by rmf on Feb 23, 2024 9:07:51 GMT -5
I would argue that it is not a grit limitation but a coarse rock limitation. I have a couple of mini sonics from the Geosonic days so they are old. the issue for coarse grit when the rocks are freshly broken they do not tumble well. this is because the angular stones do not easily slip by one another. I would recommend for most cases to rough tumble coarse in a rotary until the stones are rounded to you liking and then 220 to polish in the mini sonic. That's good advice & observations rmf . Would you consider rocks that are fresh out of the 60/90 stage and going into the 120/220 stage to be too coarse for the vibe? Honestly I've been running my 120/220 stage in my Lot-O on a regular basis. Now that I have a little more rotary capacity maybe I should do that stage in a rotary as well? Leave the vibes for 500 and finer grits/polishes? I'm always feeling like I'm doing something wrong. Mark What I like for coarse is 46/70 split. very coarse and aggressive then move to 220 I have also used 120/220 split when I need to. If you get them rounded to your liking in coarse what ever grit. It is OK to go to the next grit in the mini-sonic. Once the freshly crushed rocks are rough ground in a rotary tumbler (coarse grit), the sharp corners can't interlock and slow the tumbling action. the tumbling action on the mini-sonic should be optimal with the medium grit does not grind the tub like the coarse grit does so it is a win win
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Post by rmf on Feb 21, 2024 19:41:01 GMT -5
I would argue that it is not a grit limitation but a coarse rock limitation. I have a couple of mini sonics from the Geosonic days so they are old. the issue for coarse grit when the rocks are freshly broken they do not tumble well. this is because the angular stones do not easily slip by one another. I would recommend for most cases to rough tumble coarse in a rotary until the stones are rounded to you liking and then 220 to polish in the mini sonic.
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Post by rmf on Feb 21, 2024 19:33:18 GMT -5
image 1 Bacculites on the top concretions on the bottom image 2 scaphalites image 3-6 unk image 7 prairie agate remaining concretions??
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Post by rmf on Feb 21, 2024 19:28:01 GMT -5
rocknewb101 If in doubt don't do it for your own conscience sake. Though I understand your dilemma it can create a whole problem of existence. For example why the kids just in Africa? How about the contaminated applesauce from South America that killed 6 in the US because someone chose to increase the weight by adding lead to get the weight up. Or the largest market for human traffic'd people in the world Yep USA. There is someone in every town or county that is so greedy they are into something illegal. Dope, prostitution, corruption. we all know it, we are not in a position to prove it and to know who is being paid off. You can spend all day every day researching rocks and how they are mined but we have enough mess in our own back yards . That does not mean we should just buy without regard but at then end of the day you trust and hope that the rock you buy was not stolen from someones property or mined by kids or a million other possibilities just like the apple sauce you feed your baby that you bought at Walmart was not packaged by someone willing to kill to make 2 grams more weight on a product. I have watched family members be so greedy over a few family trinkets they will steal from their brothers and sisters. If that is what we do to family we don't have much hope for how we treat strangers. This is an important question to ask. If in doubt choose to live with a clean conscience.
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Post by rmf on Feb 21, 2024 18:34:18 GMT -5
The small belt though not "necessary" eliminates the problem of only having one drive shaft. With one drive shaft the barrel has a greater chance of slippage with the drum. replace the belt. it is a cheap fix for a common tumbler problem.
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Post by rmf on Feb 9, 2024 21:29:48 GMT -5
@roqhound as you can see above opinions are like arm pits you have more than one and they usually stink. There are many ways to slice the apple. If I were just starting out I would select 80 & 220 hard wheels 280 600 1200 3000 soft wheels. Get some practice and by the time you have work out the 280 grit wheel you may wish to change the configuration. from the 3000 soft I would use conventional polish but I would also get a 8000 soft wheel. I do not use the 8000 much so don't run out an buy one right off but on some stones they do a good job. For softer material I like the 8000 eastwind it is not a nova type wheel but a fiber belt on a wheel which does an outstanding job in lapis, turquoise and dolomites/petoskey stone.
I own a Diamond Pacific Titan, It was the best machine at the time. Now I would choose an arbor with a motor driving the wheels by belt. Then if the motor dies you get a new motor not a whole new unit. That is just me, see the opinion is already starting to stink!
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Post by rmf on Feb 8, 2024 19:03:52 GMT -5
#2 could be smithsonite #3 is quartz crystals #4 looks like fluorite octohedrons on there
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Post by rmf on Feb 7, 2024 19:38:00 GMT -5
You are pushing the limits of my old eyes need closer look at the boxes. But the one at 09:00 is Turtle poop from Washington. 17:00 looks like sphalerite with calcite, 13:00 possibly wavelite, center phrenite what does the card say
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Post by rmf on Feb 7, 2024 17:19:01 GMT -5
not knowing if there is Rose Quartz in CA. I would lean toward Iron stained quartz. It should tumble as others have stated.
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Post by rmf on Feb 7, 2024 14:16:17 GMT -5
I hope to have some new info to contribute on this thread in about 6 months but it is too cool in my basement to time my cabbing. It will have to wait for warmer weather. It should be noted in the above that Hefty 's contribution is true on cabs as well as facet stones however it is more obvious on faceted stones than on cabs. I also grind with a heavy hand and for hogging material I like a 30 grit sintered Baltic Abrasive(BA) wheel. This leaves scratches about equal to a Diamond Pacific(DP) 60 grit plated hex wheel. The BA 30 Grit cuts about 11% faster than the DP 60 grit hex wheel. (from my testing the DP wheel was broken in, not new. In my experience the breaking process for the DP 60 grit and 80 grit plated wheels is about 100 - 150, 40x30 size agate cabochons. The 30 Grit sintered wheel from BA I ran about 250 cabs through the wheel to "break it in" before I started timing my grinding. I have now roughed out over 500 stones on the wheel and have found the break in time to be zero. One oddity the right half of the wheel has less chipping that the Left half. Chipping on the 30 grit is about equal to chipping from a new plated 60 grit wheel. I hog material from the top and grind only material where chipping wont matter. I then finish the rough out on a worn 80 grit hex plated wheel from DP. I purchased a 60 grit sintered wheel from BA as well and though it works well it is too slow for roughout work. I have used it with great success to take the dopped rough ground cabs and remove scratches from the 80 grit. the 60 Grit gets only a light touch unless i need to reduce the height of the cab more. I have had no chipping problems from the 60 grit sintered wheel. Yeah I though about a 30 grit but I think I'd need a different bench setup for that reason as I'll work agate and soft stuff (I like soft stuff lol) How does the 60 grit compare to the 80 grit in terms of scratch depth and time differences? It might still be ok to go from 60 to 1000 since the 1000 can take away a surprising amount of material. OK to answer your question: There were 10 different cabs sizes and shapes in my test. The total weight of preforms in group 80PL is 210.39g (grams) the total weight in group 60PL is 212.79g. It took 168.02' to grind cutout preform to roughed out ready to dop cabs (group 80PL) on the DP 80grit Hex wheel (Used wheel probably 750 stones done on it). For group 60PL the process was a little different since my goal is to have preformed cabs ready to dop of the same size, weight and quality. that means I start grinding on the 60 grit wheel then finish on the 80 grit wheel. Make the preforms as close to exactly the same as possible. So Group 60PL took a combined time of 111.30'. So grinding on the 60 grit wheel saved me 56.72' of grinding time for the same shape, close to the same weight of rocks and using both the 60 grit and the 80 grit wheels. This made the combo of the two wheels about 33% faster than grinding on the 80 grit alone. Also note the rocks for the test are all Brazilian Agate and within the groups I tried to balance the weight as much as possible. And a an additional point of info the average material recovered was 63.2% for the 60PL group and 65.5% for the 80PL group. The 60PL group was faster grinding and the cabs lost more weight by about 4 grams than the 80PL group.
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Post by rmf on Feb 6, 2024 14:23:13 GMT -5
I think they have been in the water too long they are all rusted:)
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