pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 18, 2022 20:34:55 GMT -5
I haven't been taking pictures of my Bahia agate because of the rain and other errands. This weekend is sunny so there is eventually some before and after: 11/20 12/18
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 18, 2022 20:45:16 GMT -5
Some random pulls from step 1. Theses are still going to stay in step 1: These have graduated: The Lovelock jasper on the top-left corner has a white line that looks like undercut but it feels really smooth and keeps looking like that since a month ago. We will see if it will undercut in later stages. Different types of rhyolites - still need more work: The Swazi agates that have been tumbled for 1~3 weeks - there is still a LONG way to go: A small agate that I want to get rid of the black fracture line but not sure how deep the line actually is: These have been waiting to go though step 2 etc in the vibe. I have probably accumulated enough for one batch if I add my ceramic fillers, but since the Raytech is so noisy I want to run as few batches as possible so I am still waiting.
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Dec 25, 2022 20:48:47 GMT -5
Yesterday when I came back from my vacation, I realized the tumbler stopped working and apparently it had a blowout at some point of time during my 2-day trip and the solidification of the mud prevented something from working. It was not a big blowout and all slur was contained in the tumbler's original cardboard box. Still it took me around two hours to take off the cover of the tumbler and do a thorough cleanup and check everything and refill grits for my batch and make sure the tumbler run as usual. I was in a hurry so no picture for this week's progress. That made me think, since it was a Christmas eve, maybe it is time to pull the trigger and get a Rebel 17. For those who own Rebel 17: do you need to burp it from time to time?
Today when I checked my Lortone 3A it still sounded a bit more noisy than normal, but after I randomly poked the machine it seems to go back to its normal noise level. In the future I might need to burp more frequently than before, maybe once every two days.
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Jan 1, 2023 20:41:02 GMT -5
It seems my Rebel 17 won't be delivered in time. Here are some before and afters from Lortone 3A: 12/18/2022 12/31/2022 12/18/2022 12/31/2022 The journey will continue in Rebel 17. My Lortone 3A will be dedicated to tumbling soft rocks or rocks that are very close to be ready.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jan 1, 2023 23:23:52 GMT -5
Yesterday when I came back from my vacation, I realized the tumbler stopped working and apparently it had a blowout at some point of time during my 2-day trip and the solidification of the mud prevented something from working. It was not a big blowout and all slur was contained in the tumbler's original cardboard box. Still it took me around two hours to take off the cover of the tumbler and do a thorough cleanup and check everything and refill grits for my batch and make sure the tumbler run as usual. I was in a hurry so no picture for this week's progress. That made me think, since it was a Christmas eve, maybe it is time to pull the trigger and get a Rebel 17. For those who own Rebel 17: do you need to burp it from time to time? Today when I checked my Lortone 3A it still sounded a bit more noisy than normal, but after I randomly poked the machine it seems to go back to its normal noise level. In the future I might need to burp more frequently than before, maybe once every two days. OUCH! That's not the kind of thing you want to come back to! And the delay on the Rebel...well...apparently it's rebelling early!
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Jan 2, 2023 2:05:50 GMT -5
Yesterday when I came back from my vacation, I realized the tumbler stopped working and apparently it had a blowout at some point of time during my 2-day trip and the solidification of the mud prevented something from working. It was not a big blowout and all slur was contained in the tumbler's original cardboard box. Still it took me around two hours to take off the cover of the tumbler and do a thorough cleanup and check everything and refill grits for my batch and make sure the tumbler run as usual. I was in a hurry so no picture for this week's progress. That made me think, since it was a Christmas eve, maybe it is time to pull the trigger and get a Rebel 17. For those who own Rebel 17: do you need to burp it from time to time? Today when I checked my Lortone 3A it still sounded a bit more noisy than normal, but after I randomly poked the machine it seems to go back to its normal noise level. In the future I might need to burp more frequently than before, maybe once every two days. OUCH! That's not the kind of thing you want to come back to! And the delay on the Rebel...well...apparently it's rebelling early! I don't feel my Lortone is as compliant as I have hoped. I have high expectation for this rebellious new member...
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Feb 23, 2023 2:20:24 GMT -5
Finally had something to update since I just finished the pre-polish of my first batch. Some of they are pretty shiny already although I have one last step to do. I only picked a few. Some of these have been in the tumbler since the start, while some others (such as picture jasper/stone) would normally take no more than two weeks to shape nicely. I have been tumbling this for very long, seeing it getting smaller and smaller. Eventually I accepted the fact that the undercut between bands would never completely go away.
The small fillings are also charming. In general I am very excited about how they look. For some rocks, more undercuts were revealed on the soft areas after 120/220 and 500 steps, which I kind of expected. While Mexican Crazy Lace is among my favorites, almost all of them they are tricky to tumble if you are very picky (inevitable, after seeing all these wonderful tumbles on RTH). So far the most glossy tumbles after pre-polish are candy rhyolites, and they also seem to be more flawless than the others. I will give them a good rinse before moving on to the polish step. Recent attempts to decrease the noises from my Raytech TV5 ended up nowhere but I will keep trying different options.
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choochoorocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Rock hounding
Member since April 2020
Posts: 148
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Post by choochoorocks on Feb 25, 2023 20:33:47 GMT -5
Nice mix of rocks and the pre polish definitely looks great! I really like the white rock with banding in the upper right of the first picture. What is it?
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Post by susand24224 on Feb 25, 2023 23:59:49 GMT -5
Great job! Your patience really shows in the results. I am especially impressed since you have mixed quite a variety, and all are faring well.
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Feb 26, 2023 0:15:43 GMT -5
Nice mix of rocks and the pre polish definitely looks great! I really like the white rock with banding in the upper right of the first picture. What is it? You mean the porcelain jasper, the same one on the left-top corner of the picture below? I love how they look but they are relatively fragile in step 1. I should probably tumble them alone with more small fillers in the future. In the same picture are some lake Michigan rocks (top middle and top right) gifted from Son Of Beach I am making slow progress... Thank you again!
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Feb 26, 2023 0:20:25 GMT -5
Great job! Your patience really shows in the results. I am especially impressed since you have mixed quite a variety, and all are faring well. I should probably not have mixed rocks like that but I can not resist to a very colorful batch I don't know if you still remember the biggest agate on the left column of this picture. That was gifted from you, and it looks almost perfect from front to back. I believe it will be shinier after polish and will do it justice by taking some closeups. The front with a white "eye" and the back with "seagrasses" are amazing!
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Feb 26, 2023 0:22:07 GMT -5
Oh I also have a picture with backlit:
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dirtsifter
Cave Dweller
Co to za kamyczek?
Member since September 2022
Posts: 402
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Post by dirtsifter on Feb 26, 2023 2:15:56 GMT -5
pebblesky. Looking great. I got a similar mix (two 5lb bags) from the rock shed with the purchase of a QT12. I gave one bag to one of my sons who is learning to tumble. The porcelain jasper just did not shine up like the other jaspers for me. Rob at Michigan Rocks just posted a new tutorial on tumbling and his porcelain jasper didn't shine up terrific either. I'll have to research that stuff to see if another technique will do better. Someone on the forum probably already knows what to do LOL. I have a problem with watching larger rocks get so small trying to get all the faults out and have come to the conclusion that if I want larger stones, with some stones, I'm going to have to live with some faults unless someone has a better idea. It is so satisfying seeing the shine on the rocks from rough.
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Feb 27, 2023 14:30:30 GMT -5
pebblesky . Looking great. I got a similar mix (two 5lb bags) from the rock shed with the purchase of a QT12. I gave one bag to one of my sons who is learning to tumble. The porcelain jasper just did not shine up like the other jaspers for me. Rob at Michigan Rocks just posted a new tutorial on tumbling and his porcelain jasper didn't shine up terrific either. I'll have to research that stuff to see if another technique will do better. Someone on the forum probably already knows what to do LOL. I have a problem with watching larger rocks get so small trying to get all the faults out and have come to the conclusion that if I want larger stones, with some stones, I'm going to have to live with some faults unless someone has a better idea. It is so satisfying seeing the shine on the rocks from rough. I also watched Rob's new instruction video yesterday. I didn't expect the porcelain jasper to be super shiny but what bothered me was how they started to show new pits and dents during grinding (even on my relatively slow Lortone 3A). I have seen a lot of my Mexican crazy laces getting smaller and smaller and still not done and will probably tumble to nothing if I don't trim one side (with deep pits) with a saw, but they serve a noble purpose as my learning cost
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Post by jasoninsd on Feb 27, 2023 19:11:45 GMT -5
pebblesky . Looking great. I got a similar mix (two 5lb bags) from the rock shed with the purchase of a QT12. I gave one bag to one of my sons who is learning to tumble. The porcelain jasper just did not shine up like the other jaspers for me. Rob at Michigan Rocks just posted a new tutorial on tumbling and his porcelain jasper didn't shine up terrific either. I'll have to research that stuff to see if another technique will do better. Someone on the forum probably already knows what to do LOL. I have a problem with watching larger rocks get so small trying to get all the faults out and have come to the conclusion that if I want larger stones, with some stones, I'm going to have to live with some faults unless someone has a better idea. It is so satisfying seeing the shine on the rocks from rough. I also watched Rob's new instruction video yesterday. I didn't expect the porcelain jasper to be super shiny but what bothered me was how they started to show new pits and dents during grinding (even on my relatively slow Lortone 3A). I have seen a lot of my Mexican crazy laces getting smaller and smaller and still not done and will probably tumble to nothing if I don't trim one side (with deep pits) with a saw, but they serve a noble purpose as my learning cost One thing I noticed about that Porcelain Jasper (aka Exotica aka Sci-Fi Jasper) is it has some variation of hardness in the different areas. The cream colored (off white) seems to be the hardest and polishes the best...but there's several other areas that don't want to polish as well...and seem to be a lot softer.
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Mar 13, 2023 10:54:30 GMT -5
It's a lot of work to clean and sort the small fillers, but also a lot of fun to have my son to pick his favorites to fill the tiny box to give to his friends. The box is just a bit over an inch wide, but kids have better vision...
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Post by jasoninsd on Mar 13, 2023 12:51:32 GMT -5
That little box is an awesome idea PS!! The "mini" tumbles look great!
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Apr 15, 2023 0:42:51 GMT -5
The picture was taken on Sep 24 2022 with their raw forms: The one in the red circle eventually came out like this:
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Apr 15, 2023 0:52:21 GMT -5
And this one in the red circle:
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dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,595
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Post by dillonf on Apr 15, 2023 8:20:15 GMT -5
Amazing job!! I am envious of you beautiful pictures and videos! Your careful documentation is great! Really enjoyed reading you post!
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