|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 16, 2022 16:31:58 GMT -5
Some of my favorites from this batch.
The only non lake finds are the "Christmas Jasper" which amygdule told me is some kind of flame agate I forgot and two wildly different pieces of pet-wood on the bottom right
That unakite flavored one on the bottom has all the different minerals running parallel to each other.
Does anyone know the name of the effect in the quartz piece?
I put them (on the left) up against some other keepers (on the right) from past batches to see if the shine is noticeable...dunno
They seemed to have more shine, but it's hard to tell with such different materials.
|
|
|
Post by pebblesky on Oct 16, 2022 17:07:38 GMT -5
Beautiful rocks with nice polishes. I can not tell from the second picture if the left or right half has more shine, but they are all lovely!
|
|
|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 16, 2022 17:52:17 GMT -5
Beautiful rocks with nice polishes. I can not tell from the second picture if the left or right half has more shine, but they are all lovely! Thanks, I can't really tell either. Maybe after a few more batches I'll put all my unakite together.
|
|
|
Post by jasoninsd on Oct 17, 2022 17:52:01 GMT -5
Hard to tell if there's a differential between the TO and the AO. I think the tumble and polish look great though!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2022 22:33:54 GMT -5
Son Of BeachAwesome batch Chad! There’s something special about those lakers!
|
|
markb
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2022
Posts: 472
|
Post by markb on Oct 17, 2022 23:57:24 GMT -5
Son Of Beach Awesome batch Chad! There’s something special about those lakers! Poor guy, trying to show us his tumbles and ashley is makin' jokes about basketball teams!
|
|
nursetumbler
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2022
Posts: 983
|
Post by nursetumbler on Oct 18, 2022 3:38:45 GMT -5
Son Of Beach Awesome batch Chad! There’s something special about those lakers! Poor guy, trying to show us his tumbles and ashley is makin' jokes about basketball teams! markbLMBBO.
|
|
dshanpnw
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2020
Posts: 1,078
|
Post by dshanpnw on Oct 18, 2022 6:59:14 GMT -5
The thing I like the most about this batch, chad is that you found them all. Nice finds, great work on shaping them, they are perfect! Do you have a vibratory tumbler? If you are using rotary only, do you have separate barrels for the finer stages, especially for the polish stage? What type of media do use, ceramic or plastic beads? I do not notice much of a difference between the tin oxide and AO. One thing you could try is run them in tin oxide for a week, if using a rotary, then with AO for a week, or vice versa. In other words, polish them with both tin oxide and AO and see if that produces a better shine. I always love seeing your locally collected batches.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2022 8:04:30 GMT -5
Son Of Beach Awesome batch Chad! There’s something special about those lakers! Poor guy, trying to show us his tumbles and ashley is makin' jokes about basketball teams! Lol, your funny Mark! 🤣 Though I would never say there is something special about any sports team. I know I might irritate some with my statement but I abhor professional sports and the entertainment industry. Why in the world do we pay people millions of dollars to play sports or sing or pretend in a movie?? All to entertain us? I would say some of us are entertained to death, but I think that is how the lowercase p, powers that be would have it. But I digress, let me end before it becomes a cave conversation!
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,564
|
Post by jamesp on Oct 18, 2022 8:45:27 GMT -5
Part of da pride/idol plan ashley. Nice stones Chad. Nice color texture mix too. Not sure why quartz has those bands, find it here in Georgia with stripes. It would seem that any type polish would work if it's Mohs rating is higher than your targets. AO and SiC cuts Mohs 7 agates well at Mohs 9, two Mohs points harder than the rocks. Alumina tumbling ceramics is Mohs 9, it wears slowly in SiC and AO. Diatomaceous earth is Mohs 6 and it doesn't cut agate but it will cut Mohs 5 glass but very slowly. Sharp quartz sand is Mohs 7 and it too cuts Mohs 5 glass slowly. Internets says tin oxide is Mohs 4 to 6.5. Either that is wrong or it seems soft for cutting ~Mohs 6 Unakite or quartz. Most abrasive oxides vary greatly in hardness/toughness and density with varying composition so it is not cut and dry. "Geologic Occurrence of Cassiterite(a form of natural tin oxide at Mohs 7) - Primary deposits of cassiterite worth mining are almost always found in high-temperature hydrothermal veins that accompany granitic intrusions. There, cassiterite can be associated with tourmaline, topaz, fluorite, and apatite." Ha, with a specific gravity of 7 your 4 pound Lot-O barrel would hold 7/2.8 = 10 pounds of Cassiterite instead of 4 pounds of less dense (sp 2.8) quartz ! Garnet can/is be used for abrasives(sand paper). This is some hard silicified coral vibe tumbled in only hard gem grade almandine garnets(Mohs 8). Polish was nice considering it was never rotary tumbled first: These are the abrasive grade 4 grit almandine garnets(I bought a 50 bag of these at and industrial junkyard for $25 ! Mined from Emerald Creek Idaho. Garnet is dense too, the 14 pound hopper weighed 20 pounds when full of garnets and a few coral tumbles. High density ceramics make vibes grind/polish much quicker.(see zirconium oxide tumbling ceramics)
|
|
|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 18, 2022 14:27:20 GMT -5
The thing I like the most about this batch, chad is that you found them all. Nice finds, great work on shaping them, they are perfect! Do you have a vibratory tumbler? If you are using rotary only, do you have separate barrels for the finer stages, especially for the polish stage? What type of media do use, ceramic or plastic beads? I do not notice much of a difference between the tin oxide and AO. One thing you could try is run them in tin oxide for a week, if using a rotary, then with AO for a week, or vice versa. In other words, polish them with both tin oxide and AO and see if that produces a better shine. I always love seeing your locally collected batches. I do the standard set up of coarse 80 SC in rotary, 220 SC, 600 SC and then polish in my Lot-O vibe using ceramics thru the entire vibratory stages. I use the same vibe barrel and do through cleanings and usually a burnish run in between for the hard to get cracks and residual mess that I can't spray off.
That's a good idea on trying the different polishes. I think in my next batch for the vibe, I'll throw in some older tumbles and see how they look afterwards. Have to try and get the picture setup the same to be sure.
And thank you, I really love my lake finds. I have a top 50 for stones I haven't found and they don't hold anywhere near the same meaning to me, just very pretty rocks.
jamesp , I was basing my decision to try it off of Bob work with his comparison tests. The TO was a clear winner in almost every run. I really don't know how or why, maybe it's defying logic in this case, but in my test run, it was certainly no worse than what I was using before.
|
|
dshanpnw
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2020
Posts: 1,078
|
Post by dshanpnw on Oct 18, 2022 19:55:29 GMT -5
The thing I like the most about this batch, chad is that you found them all. Nice finds, great work on shaping them, they are perfect! Do you have a vibratory tumbler? If you are using rotary only, do you have separate barrels for the finer stages, especially for the polish stage? What type of media do use, ceramic or plastic beads? I do not notice much of a difference between the tin oxide and AO. One thing you could try is run them in tin oxide for a week, if using a rotary, then with AO for a week, or vice versa. In other words, polish them with both tin oxide and AO and see if that produces a better shine. I always love seeing your locally collected batches. I do the standard set up of coarse 80 SC in rotary, 220 SC, 600 SC and then polish in my Lot-O vibe using ceramics thru the entire vibratory stages. I use the same vibe barrel and do through cleanings and usually a burnish run in between for the hard to get cracks and residual mess that I can't spray off.
That's a good idea on trying the different polishes. I think in my next batch for the vibe, I'll throw in some older tumbles and see how they look afterwards. Have to try and get the picture setup the same to be sure.
And thank you, I really love my lake finds. I have a top 50 for stones I haven't found and they don't hold anywhere near the same meaning to me, just very pretty rocks.
jamesp , I was basing my decision to try it off of Bob work with his comparison tests. The TO was a clear winner in almost every run. I really don't know how or why, maybe it's defying logic in this case, but in my test run, it was certainly no worse than what I was using before. Your recipe is the same as mine. Just one more question, do you two runs of 220 in the vibe for a total of 4 days? Thanks
|
|
|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 18, 2022 21:00:00 GMT -5
dshanpnw I've always done 2 days in 220, 3 days in 600. How bout you?
|
|
dshanpnw
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2020
Posts: 1,078
|
Post by dshanpnw on Oct 19, 2022 8:43:44 GMT -5
dshanpnw I've always done 2 days in 220, 3 days in 600. How bout you? I do four days in 220, two days then clean out, then recharge with 220 for two more days for a total of four days in 220, then onto 600 for two days. I think your recipe should work fine. I follow Randy's recipe. On a side note, I am polishing some local finds from here in Washington that will be done next week. I will post photos of them. They are brecciated jasper with hematite that I really like. I think you find similar ones where you are.
|
|
markb
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2022
Posts: 472
|
Post by markb on Oct 20, 2022 14:35:52 GMT -5
dshanpnwSon Of BeachFor some reason I can't seem to determine just what the 220 Sic accomplishes in a Vibe. Thought I read somewhere it was supposed to grind out scratches and small pits, but it seems that anything I put into that Stage does very little on my mohs 7 rocks. Just recently I increased the amount of time I allow in the 220 from 2 days to 3, but I still don't see much improvement. So, I've moved all the rocks with issues that went through w/o improvement back for a redo in Stage 1 (11-70 Sic rotary). Any enlightenment you have for me would be appreciated. markb
|
|
|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 20, 2022 16:13:43 GMT -5
markb I don't think it's intended to get out anything but the small microscopic scratches left behind by the coarse stage, definitely not pits. Use the coarse stage for all the imperfections if that's your goal and use 220 and pre-polish as a step stool to your finished product.
|
|
rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2022
Posts: 1,368
|
Post by rocknewb101 on Oct 21, 2022 10:29:23 GMT -5
Beautiful rocks! Love the different patterns. Is that snowflake obsidian in the bottom photo? I have a couple pieces coming from Kinesava rocks that I'm excited to receive.
|
|
|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 22, 2022 8:31:28 GMT -5
Beautiful rocks! Love the different patterns. Is that snowflake obsidian in the bottom photo? I have a couple pieces coming from Kinesava rocks that I'm excited to receive. Thank you.
I think it's Syringopora, but not entirely sure
|
|
|
Post by Starguy on Oct 22, 2022 12:02:15 GMT -5
So Chad Son Of BeachWhat’s your opinion about the tin oxide? Are you going to cough up the extra cash every time you need polish? My opinion is that tin oxide is the best all around polish. I’ve been using it for years jamesp . It’s kind of fun rolling other rocks in garnet sand. I found that after a week or two, the garnet had ground up all the impurities leaving nearly pure garnet sand. I got a matte polish on the rocks tumbled in garnet but never achieved a really vitreous shine.
|
|
|
Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 22, 2022 12:51:31 GMT -5
So Chad Son Of Beach What’s your opinion about the tin oxide? Are you going to cough up the extra cash every time you need polish? My opinion is that tin oxide is the best all around polish. I’ve been using it for years jamesp . It’s kind of fun rolling other rocks in garnet sand. I found that after a week or two, the garnet had ground up all the impurities leaving nearly pure garnet sand. I got a matte polish on the rocks tumbled in garnet but never achieved a really vitreous shine. Too soon to tell honestly. I'm just starting my second vibe batch and threw some old tumbles in there to see if it's makes a significant difference.
Even with the 15 bucks I spent, I'll probably get a year or two out it. Polish doesn't move with the amount of rocks I'm tumbling
|
|