juliet8487
off to a rocking start
Member since September 2022
Posts: 2
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Post by juliet8487 on Sept 8, 2022 9:57:37 GMT -5
I collect rocks from a stream, so for the most part they are already fairly rounded when I pick them up.
I’m working on an idea I had for a piece of art and have collected a fair amount of tiny round rocks of various colors. By tiny I mean maybe the size of peppercorn.
I’d like to give them a shine, but obviously rough grit would probably make them microscopic. I’m curious if anyone had tried to tumble small rocks and if so, what alterations have you made to the normal tumbling schedule?
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howgneiss
starting to shine!
Member since May 2022
Posts: 25
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Post by howgneiss on Sept 8, 2022 11:39:17 GMT -5
This is a great question and I have been wondering the same thing!
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nursetumbler
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2022
Posts: 914
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Post by nursetumbler on Sept 8, 2022 11:43:52 GMT -5
juliet8487You could try starting with pre-polish and let them run longer seeings how they are alreaby preformed Stage 1 basically shapes, stage 2 gets stage 1 scratches out. Maybe stage 3 but there are more experienced tumblers that may help better
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markb
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2022
Posts: 472
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Post by markb on Sept 8, 2022 13:05:12 GMT -5
From what limited experience I have, I wouldn't use any sort of Silicone grit on them and just stick to Aluminum Oxide. I run Sic in stages 1 (rotary), and 2 (vibe), but go to AO for 3 (vibe) and 4 (vibe polish). When I'm starting with naturally tumbled/polished river rocks, I tend to stay away from stage 1 all together, and start them instead in stage 2 (vibe), but check them more frequently depending on the type of rock. What you are wanting to know will most likely be learned through trial and error. markb
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jimmie
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2021
Posts: 229
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Post by jimmie on Sept 8, 2022 14:01:16 GMT -5
I use small lake supior agates in my vibs, even the tiny ones are way cool. Just don’t start with coarse, go to the second stage. Shiny rocks coming up!
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LazerFlash
Cave Dweller
The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the toilet.
Member since September 2021
Posts: 548
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Post by LazerFlash on Sept 8, 2022 16:01:49 GMT -5
I am also intrigued by what my be kindly called "micro-tumbling". Since I started tumbling last year, I've ended up with about a pound or so of stuff like you describe, certainly nothing larger than a lima bean in size. I do have a small one pound tumbler that I got for nothing from Free-cycle last year. It's not the kind of tool that anyone other than a kid might use long-term, so I used it for small loads of Stage 1 with smallish rough stones to ultimately use to top off Stage 2 runs. It worked well for this, but ultimately the combination of grit and rough started to wear the plastic barrel out, so I put it up on the shelf. I might need to patch said holes and give the small stuff a run at Stage 2 or 3 on up.
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dshanpnw
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since December 2020
Posts: 846
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Post by dshanpnw on Sept 11, 2022 17:14:24 GMT -5
I've tumbled Oregon sunstones and they are a 6 on the Mohs hardness scale and they were pretty small to start, about the size of a pinky fingernail. I used plenty of media to help prevent them from being disintegrated, and lots of checking, daily or every other day.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 17:27:46 GMT -5
juliet8487I’ve tumbled garnet sand. It’s probably smaller than what you have. I just put the garnet sand in by itself with water, without grit. The garnets are like hardness 7.5. After one week there was nothing but garnet left in the tumbler. I never tried to polish the material. It kind of got a semi-gloss polish after awhile.
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Post by Bob on Sept 22, 2022 9:28:06 GMT -5
When I get batches of rocks done, I filter them through 3 different levels of hardware cloth to separate out the smalls. 1/2", 3/8", and 1/4". I love the small bottles I have of the smallest ones that fall through the 1/4"! They are so colorful together, especially when there are many different types. They pour almost like liquid.
Back when I did a lot of hammering on large rocks (bigger than grapefruit) to make them smaller, and lots of fragments were created, I would just toss all the fragments into the tumblers knowing it would produce a lot of tiny polished rocks and also be good grinding filler. But, I also learned that they get made every year even w/o doing that, as rocks get smaller and sometimes break in processing in just normal tumbling. So the quantity I have in bottles of these tiny rocks just continues to grow.
I used no different methods in tumbling for them than for any other material.
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vance71975
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since September 2022
Posts: 760
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Post by vance71975 on Sept 22, 2022 11:12:45 GMT -5
I collect rocks from a stream, so for the most part they are already fairly rounded when I pick them up. I’m working on an idea I had for a piece of art and have collected a fair amount of tiny round rocks of various colors. By tiny I mean maybe the size of peppercorn. I’d like to give them a shine, but obviously rough grit would probably make them microscopic. I’m curious if anyone had tried to tumble small rocks and if so, what alterations have you made to the normal tumbling schedule? I would start them in either 220 SiC or 500 SiC if I was going to do it, if they are already fairly round you dont really need to do much cutting from what I gather. But I am a noob so i hope someone with more exp chimes in
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Post by vegasjames on Sept 22, 2022 15:22:15 GMT -5
When I break up rocks to throw in the tumbler I throw the chips in for filler and the sharp edges help to clean out the nooks and crannies of the larger rocks. You will see in my other post though that I do not use grit or polish. When I am done the small chips are nicely polished and I separate them out and put in to vials like this or save them fro crafts.
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LazerFlash
Cave Dweller
The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the toilet.
Member since September 2021
Posts: 548
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Post by LazerFlash on Sept 24, 2022 15:29:59 GMT -5
When I am done the small chips are nicely polished and I separate them out and put in to vials like this or save them fro crafts. I noticed that the jasper on the left is in water, but it looks like the others are not...?
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Post by vegasjames on Sept 24, 2022 18:12:50 GMT -5
When I am done the small chips are nicely polished and I separate them out and put in to vials like this or save them fro crafts. I noticed that the jasper on the left is in water, but it looks like the others are not...?That is not jasper, it is red common opal. It does not really need to be in water, it is stable. I was just thinking about adding water to all the vials to help enhance color, especially on the copper-silver ore as it does not polish when tumbling, then thought a friend could sell them as souvenirs as Nevada stones in her shop in Virginia City, Nevada.
So the vials from left to right are red opal, copper-silver ore, candy rhyolite and common chalcedonies.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Oct 1, 2022 22:19:35 GMT -5
If someone wants to tumble say Mohs 7 agate chips that are small it helps to put a couple of 2 inch agates in with them. To get good rounded shapes, coarse grit(step 1) is needed. It depends on the size of course. Just start with chips or small rocks that will wear down to your target small size.
100% small Mohs 7 rocks don't wear/shape quickly even in coarse grit, they don't have much grinding force without larger rocks to apply grinding pressure.(the mix of sizes rule).
Or just add 50% smaller rocks in regular mixed size tumbles.
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Post by Bob on Oct 3, 2022 13:41:39 GMT -5
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 374
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Post by hplcman on Oct 4, 2022 0:08:12 GMT -5
Hey! I don’t know if it’s ok to post photos on another’s post, but I love tumbling tiny rocks and I thought I would share. I collect tiny rocks at the beach and often add a handful or two when I tumble larger rocks. They kinda take the place of adding ceramics. As they are already rounded from the sand and stuff I’ll usually start them off with stage 2 or so. They loose some of their size, but they turn out nice.
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Post by Bob on Oct 4, 2022 9:12:44 GMT -5
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