Weird things just happen and we have to get used to it
Nov 21, 2022 18:08:40 GMT -5
rockjunquie, electrocutus, and 3 more like this
Post by Bob on Nov 21, 2022 18:08:40 GMT -5
Two weeks or so ago, I opened a 6lb barrel that had completed week 1 of polish. OMG, something really went wrong. It was mostly amazonite, aventurine, sodalite and rutilated quartz. Every single piece was messed up on edges so badly that it had be taken back to 600, one week in 1,000 would not have fixed it. After doing this a few years though, you no longer obsess on things like this but just have to move on. I can't think of any explanation to cause it. I have tumbled these together for a long time and it's worked just fine.
Now, it (randomness) swings in the opposite direction. I opened a 6lb barrel that had completed a week in 1,000. It was immediately apparent that something was off. The color of the slurry was odd, and there was a small bit of frothiness to it. So after that other, I feared the worst.
OMG, it was the most successful tumble of touchy material before polish ever. It was sodalite, amazonite, aventurine, lapis, amethyst, unakite, and petalite. To get these materials to go well on any day is lucky. But, that's not all. There were 4-5 pieces of labradorite which came out PERFECT as did the petalite. It was the first perfect labradorite tumble in my almost decade of trying. And the petalite is so touchy I only threw that in because I have a few pieces that kept getting ruined in polish so I tried again. Every single piece of all that material was flawless, having before done 1 week in 600. That isn't possible, but it happened.
In trying to figure out what in the world happened, I realized what might have done it. I ran low on plastic pellets used in 1,000 grit, so I used some that had been used in polish. Sometimes those beads are pretty clean from rinsing, but sometimes not and who cares because they are only used in polish. But, apparently the small amount of tin ox polish on the beads had altered the slurry in some way, and caused a slight frothing, that made these tricky materials do great. I do remember they were a bit whitish having some polish residue on them.
Does anyone have any experience that sheds any light on this? If just a slight amount of frothiness was the blessing, perhaps making some kind of cushioning in the slurry, I'm tempted to try it again such as a tiny amount of soap next time.
I had decided to not take the labradorite and petalite to polish again, but to get them as good as I could in 1,000, then do a week in 1,200 and call it quits. Both look and feel pretty nice as they are.
Now, it (randomness) swings in the opposite direction. I opened a 6lb barrel that had completed a week in 1,000. It was immediately apparent that something was off. The color of the slurry was odd, and there was a small bit of frothiness to it. So after that other, I feared the worst.
OMG, it was the most successful tumble of touchy material before polish ever. It was sodalite, amazonite, aventurine, lapis, amethyst, unakite, and petalite. To get these materials to go well on any day is lucky. But, that's not all. There were 4-5 pieces of labradorite which came out PERFECT as did the petalite. It was the first perfect labradorite tumble in my almost decade of trying. And the petalite is so touchy I only threw that in because I have a few pieces that kept getting ruined in polish so I tried again. Every single piece of all that material was flawless, having before done 1 week in 600. That isn't possible, but it happened.
In trying to figure out what in the world happened, I realized what might have done it. I ran low on plastic pellets used in 1,000 grit, so I used some that had been used in polish. Sometimes those beads are pretty clean from rinsing, but sometimes not and who cares because they are only used in polish. But, apparently the small amount of tin ox polish on the beads had altered the slurry in some way, and caused a slight frothing, that made these tricky materials do great. I do remember they were a bit whitish having some polish residue on them.
Does anyone have any experience that sheds any light on this? If just a slight amount of frothiness was the blessing, perhaps making some kind of cushioning in the slurry, I'm tempted to try it again such as a tiny amount of soap next time.
I had decided to not take the labradorite and petalite to polish again, but to get them as good as I could in 1,000, then do a week in 1,200 and call it quits. Both look and feel pretty nice as they are.