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Post by velodromed on Jul 27, 2023 21:05:21 GMT -5
‘Jason’s Prairie Agate’ update. The first thing I did when I got the Prairie agates from Jason is throw 11 or 12 of them, small to large, in the rebel 17 with a bunch of other rocks. Those are still tumbling and looking very good. I keep forgetting to take pictures though. I will during the next clean out here in a week or so. I’m using 6tbs of 30 SiC grit and 10tbs 60 SiC, 9-10 day runs. I also was able to cut a few small slabs on my 7” tile saw. I couldn’t do much with my neck issues at the time, but did get a few good ones. I’ve had 3 neck surgeries since so hopefully will be able to get back on the saw before long. After cutting, I ran them through the rotary tumbler for several weeks to smooth out the heavy saw marks, then spent another month finishing them off on the raytech vibe 5. These prairie agates are so diverse and beautiful! Some are earth toned chert/Jasper mixes, some are agate/Jasper mixes while others are pure chalcedony. Never know what you’re gonna get and we are having so much fun with these. My wife absolutely loves them as well. Thanks again Jason!!    |
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 27, 2023 21:48:12 GMT -5
Lookin' good Velo!!  I'm still amazed at times when I cut into rocks from here. Oftentimes there was no indication there was going to be an entire microcosm going on!! |
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Post by velodromed on Jul 27, 2023 22:03:47 GMT -5
Lookin' good Velo!! I'm still amazed at times when I cut into rocks from here. Oftentimes there was no indication there was going to be an entire microcosm going on!! Thanks!! That last rectangular one I posted is a cut from one that’s solid chalcedony. I left the rest uncut, a rectangular piece about 5” long, and am tumbling it whole. It should be amazing! |
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Post by velodromed on Aug 2, 2023 11:26:40 GMT -5
jasoninsd , look at this beauty! It’s been tumbling non-stop since I got it from you in the high speed rebel 17. It was one of the larger, smoother prairie agates that looked more ‘agate-like’ than ‘chert-like’. It’s ready for stage 2, soon as I figure out how. It definitely won’t fit in the raytech 5 lol. I have a wide 3lb barrel and also a tall 3lb barrel, so hopefully one will work. 
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Post by pebblesky on Aug 2, 2023 11:44:14 GMT -5
That's a gigantic beauty! I doubt it will fit your 3lb barrels in polishing but definitely get us updated!
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Post by Starguy on Aug 2, 2023 11:59:36 GMT -5
What a nice prairie agate.
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Post by jasoninsd on Aug 2, 2023 13:41:18 GMT -5
jasoninsd , look at this beauty! It’s been tumbling non-stop since I got it from you in the high speed rebel 17. It was one of the larger, smoother prairie agates that looked more ‘agate-like’ than ‘chert-like’. It’s ready for stage 2, soon as I figure out how. It definitely won’t fit in the raytech 5 lol. I have a wide 3lb barrel and also a tall 3lb barrel, so hopefully one will work.  So, I'm not an expert...and don't pretend to be!  That being said...I "believe" that is a Jasper. My understanding is Prairie Agates are either Chert, or Jasper...not true Agates. However...I could have completely misunderstood....because that does have an Agate look to it, doesn't it! I really like those kind of Prairie Agates...where the yellow looks like it's paint on the surface! You're doing a fantastic job on that...now comes the hard part of figuring out how to finish it!! LOL |
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Post by velodromed on Aug 2, 2023 17:36:10 GMT -5
jasoninsd , look at this beauty! It’s been tumbling non-stop since I got it from you in the high speed rebel 17. It was one of the larger, smoother prairie agates that looked more ‘agate-like’ than ‘chert-like’. It’s ready for stage 2, soon as I figure out how. It definitely won’t fit in the raytech 5 lol. I have a wide 3lb barrel and also a tall 3lb barrel, so hopefully one will work. So, I'm not an expert...and don't pretend to be! That being said...I "believe" that is a Jasper. My understanding is Prairie Agates are either Chert, or Jasper...not true Agates. However...I could have completely misunderstood....because that does have an Agate look to it, doesn't it! I really like those kind of Prairie Agates...where the yellow looks like it's paint on the surface! You're doing a fantastic job on that...now comes the hard part of figuring out how to finish it!! LOL Much like what we have here, I think it’s a bit of both. This one has quite a bit of chalcedony wrapped throughout, enough to glow like a night light when backed by a flashlight in the dusk. They are all micro and crypto crystalline forms of quartz after all and do intermix. We call the good ones we find around here ‘Jaspagates’ lol. *Yep, they are not technically agates. But so many things we call agates technically are not, such as moss agate and Montana agates... but they’re mainly made from the same thing, chalcedony, just in a slightly different way. |
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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 Aug 2, 2023 19:00:33 GMT -5
jasoninsd , look at this beauty! It’s been tumbling non-stop since I got it from you in the high speed rebel 17. It was one of the larger, smoother prairie agates that looked more ‘agate-like’ than ‘chert-like’. It’s ready for stage 2, soon as I figure out how. It definitely won’t fit in the raytech 5 lol. I have a wide 3lb barrel and also a tall 3lb barrel, so hopefully one will work. Sweet Agate! |
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Post by velodromed on Aug 8, 2023 8:26:27 GMT -5
Ok, a month ago I bought a cheap rock tumbler that came up for sale on Amazon for $30. I came with one of those tall 3 pound barrels, and I needed something for larger odd sized rocks. It’s a piece of crap and I’ll be surprised if it lasts a year… but I’ve had it going for the last month and it’s still holding together. I was looking at it and realize the Prairie Agate would fit. So it is officially tumbling as of last night. That’s the only big rock in there aside from smalls and ceramics. It makes a real nice interesting whoosh wonk sound so it’ll be nice to listen to for the 6 weeks or whatever it takes to finish it. I also managed to get a large fist sized agate that my wife had found, and a large rainbow painted jasper that my kid had found, tumbling in the 3 pound barrels in stage two. We’ve always wanted large, shiny rocks to look at and hold, so this’ll be cool.
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Post by velodromed on Aug 8, 2023 12:32:20 GMT -5
Ok, a month ago I bought a cheap rock tumbler that came up for sale on Amazon for $30. I came with one of those tall 3 pound barrels, and I needed something for larger odd sized rocks. It’s a piece of crap and I’ll be surprised if it lasts a year… but I’ve had it going for the last month and it’s still holding together. I was looking at it and realize the Prairie Agate would fit. So it is officially tumbling as of last night. That’s the only big rock in there aside from smalls and ceramics. It makes a real nice interesting whoosh wonk sound so it’ll be nice to listen to for the 6 weeks or whatever it takes to finish it. I also managed to get a large fist sized agate that my wife had found, and a large rainbow painted jasper that my kid had found, tumbling in the 3 pound barrels in stage two. We’ve always wanted large, shiny rocks to look at and hold, so this’ll be cool. Well that didn’t work. Seized the motor after 36 hours, it was smokin’! Guess it didn’t like running in the 90F+ garage with an overloaded barrel lol. I think I’ll take it apart. I have several left over RC brushed motors that look the same size (540 or 550) as the one in the tumbler, so I’ll see if I can fit one in. |
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Post by pebblesky on Aug 8, 2023 13:25:33 GMT -5
It was great that you are still at home monitoring it.
I did something truly stupid last month that a lamp dropped directly onto my tumbler and pushed the barrel off and the weird movement of whatever eventually ruined the belt. And I was sleeping while all that happened. I was relieved that the motor didn't catch a fire.
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Post by velodromed on Aug 8, 2023 13:43:42 GMT -5
It was great that you are still at home monitoring it. I did something truly stupid last month that a lamp dropped directly onto my tumbler and pushed the barrel off and the weird movement of whatever eventually ruined the belt. And I was sleeping while all that happened. I was relieved that the motor didn't catch a fire. Yup, I was standing next to it lol and got to it before the breaker tripped. I hate when stuff like that happens. Good thing it was only the belt that was ruined and it didn’t seize the motor. I’ve never had a motor catch fire and I’m brutal on them. I’ve had 6cell lipo batteries explode and rc car ESCs blow up though. Usually the motors just spark, seize and short things out. |
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Post by velodromed on Aug 11, 2023 10:42:49 GMT -5
jasoninsd I am cleaning out the rebel 17 to make room for all the petrified wood. Here is that gorgeous chunk of Chalcedony I mentioned. I am wishing I hadn’t cut those small slabs from it now. It’s the only one even vaguely like this amongst that batch that you sent me. Do you remember sending it at all? I am fairly positive it was in the batch that you sent me. It was literally a 6 inch rectangular box shaped rock, smooth with darker swirling color. Have you found others like it before? Please keep an eye out for anything similar during you’re wonderings through the cow fields   .
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Post by velodromed on Aug 11, 2023 10:49:57 GMT -5
I already showed you that one large agate that I’m trying to figure out how to polish. The same one that killed the little Tumbler I’m fixing. Here are the handful of small prairie agates that I threw into the rebel right after I got them from you. You were right, these things are so damn slow to tumble! After several months only one is ready to move on to the next stage lol. They sure are beautiful though. These natural swirling soft colors are some of my wife’s favorites, and it’s really cool finally have a larger agates to hold and play with as opposed to just the small ones.  |
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whodunit
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2023
Posts: 18
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Post by whodunit on Aug 11, 2023 16:54:29 GMT -5
So, please excuse the inexperienced question, but why not just tumble polish the big rock in the Rebel?
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Post by velodromed on Aug 11, 2023 17:21:53 GMT -5
So, please excuse the inexperienced question, but why not just tumble polish the big rock in the Rebel? No worries. It’s not just the sheer size of the thing (would take a long time to build up enough rocks for a polish cycle), but it also has a high speed 40rpm motor for grinding down rocks in the course stage, which would causing bruising and issues during stages 2-polish. |
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whodunit
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2023
Posts: 18
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Post by whodunit on Aug 11, 2023 17:29:25 GMT -5
So, please excuse the inexperienced question, but why not just tumble polish the big rock in the Rebel? No worries. It’s not just the sheer size of the thing (would take a long time to build up enough rocks for a polish cycle), but it also has a high speed 40rpm motor for grinding down rocks in the course stage, which would causing bruising and issues during stages 2-polish. That makes sense. I didn’t think it the taking a while to get enough material for a polish tumble when I chose a rebel 17 as my first tumbler ha ha. |
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Post by velodromed on Aug 11, 2023 18:00:56 GMT -5
No worries. It’s not just the sheer size of the thing (would take a long time to build up enough rocks for a polish cycle), but it also has a high speed 40rpm motor for grinding down rocks in the course stage, which would causing bruising and issues during stages 2-polish. That makes sense. I didn’t think it the taking a while to get enough material for a polish tumble when I chose a rebel 17 as my first tumbler ha ha. It can take months just for stage one so you have plenty of time to pick up a smaller one or a vibe lol. I got a raytech 5 for around 100 bucks and it polishes most of what I want to polish. The rest I’m figuring out as I go. |
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Post by jasoninsd on Aug 12, 2023 8:25:12 GMT -5
I really don't remember that Chalcedony piece...that doesn't mean I didn't send it...because I can't even remember what I had for dinner last night! LOL
That handful of Prairie Agates are really looking great though! Maybe they'll be done by Christmas! LOL
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