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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2023 18:22:28 GMT -5
Here's a glimpse at my weekly rock sorting. Two 12 pound barrels of stage one rocks shown in the trays to the left. Every rock gets inspected and sorted into the proper trays to the right. This same procedure has been happening every Saturday for the last 12 years. Anywhere between 24 and 60 pounds each week. I tried to show a decent photo of what a handful of rocks look like in each category including a picture after sawing/grinding bad spots out. I did not photo rocks that go back in stage one but that is everything that is not ready for stage 2 or got put in the discard pile. These rocks should be as flaw free as you expect them to be after polish. Do not plan on more material being removed after stage one. A couple have healed fractures that do not catch a thumb nail when ran across them. If they pose a problem or open up in the next stage I'll cut them. These rocks will areas ground off on a diamond grinding wheel or cut off with a diamond blade saw to save several weeks of stage one These rocks either have too many flaws or are just not worthy of continuing to tumble. This show the rocks that I cut and or ground on. These will go back in stage one for another week or two then be ready to move on. Chuck
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 5, 2023 18:30:34 GMT -5
Chuck, this is a great visual for beginning tumblers who want to achieve the flawless tumbled stones that you do. Thank you for doing this!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2023 19:19:43 GMT -5
Chuck, this is a great visual for beginning tumblers who want to achieve the flawless tumbled stones that you do. Thank you for doing this! Thanks! Figured a few behind the scenes posts would be good. Chuck
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Post by jasoninsd on Feb 5, 2023 19:41:59 GMT -5
Chuck, this is a great visual for beginning tumblers who want to achieve the flawless tumbled stones that you do. Thank you for doing this!
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dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,622
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Post by dillonf on Feb 5, 2023 20:52:00 GMT -5
Hi Chuck, I have been tumbling for about a year and this was a great visual for me! I realized I keep quite a few Discard rocks, and I need to start grinding out imperfections! This is a very cool post! How long do you spend on this process every Saturday?
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chapslv
having dreams about rocks
Member since June 2020
Posts: 56
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Post by chapslv on Feb 6, 2023 8:19:48 GMT -5
Thank you for the impressive visual. I have been tumbling for several years now and I always learn something from the people on this forum. Your process is helpful.
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 6, 2023 8:57:45 GMT -5
I'm sending this link to my daughter. I believe she's still running her first stage one batch. Great post!
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rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2022
Posts: 1,368
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Post by rocknewb101 on Feb 6, 2023 9:20:20 GMT -5
thank you so much for sharing your set up! It's great inspiration - I started cleaning up my basement this weekend and hope to have myself set up by this coming - For the pieces you have labeled "saw/grind" do you just cut out the trouble spots and reintroduce to stage 1?
** oh lort - I just saw your comment on the second image of saw/grind - sorry...pre coffee lol**
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allbetzoff
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since November 2020
Posts: 77
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Post by allbetzoff on Feb 6, 2023 10:32:14 GMT -5
Hi Chuck, I have been tumbling for about a year and this was a great visual for me! I realized I keep quite a few Discard rocks, and I need to start grinding out imperfections! This is a very cool post! How long do you spend on this process every Saturday? Same question here. How much time do you spend each Saturday? I'm curious because I would love to say to my family, "really good tumblers spend X hours a week doing this". Maybe they will see the necessity of spending so much time in the basement. 😂
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 6, 2023 11:08:24 GMT -5
dillonf @ allbetzoffAll depends on how many barrels I have rolling in stage one. This week was two 12 pound barrels so probably a solid hour just in the sorting process. The grind and saw step is kind of a crap shoot depending on how many stones and how much work they need. I only showed a small portion of what I pulled out to fix. I grind a lot more then I saw because I like to maintain natural shapes vs flat faces when possible. I would guess that I "fixed" about 3 pounds of rock in a little over an hour. I do cheat though. I have an arbor set up for tumble work that has two 8" sintered wheels in 30 and 60 grit. These wheels are absolute beasts and remove material from agate and jaspers really fast. I got lucky and snagged mine off ebay a few years back. I don't think I could stomach spending $1,200 for two wheels! cuttingedgesupply.store/products/8in-sintered-diamond-wheels?variant=32738828910691Chuck
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Post by pebblesky on Feb 6, 2023 12:26:49 GMT -5
Very nice setup! I think I would need to remodel my garage...
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Feb 6, 2023 17:23:34 GMT -5
Sorry to say you are WAY too organized! Great "behind" the scenes glimpse!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 7, 2023 11:18:52 GMT -5
Sorry to say you are WAY too organized! Great "behind" the scenes glimpse! I would call it organized chaos, lol Chuck
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Post by Starguy on Feb 7, 2023 21:10:41 GMT -5
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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 9, 2023 0:01:24 GMT -5
Great setup.
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