madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jun 27, 2023 3:53:46 GMT -5
Trying to tumble Fluorites. Watched all the You tube videos. Started with 20oz of stones. 1 day grit No2- lost 4ozs. Went to grit No 3, 1 day lost another 4ozs. Went onto grit No4. 1 day lost another 4ozs. What is left looks terrible. What am I doing wrong. So disappointed and lost a lot of money. Please advise.
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dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
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Post by dillonf on Jun 27, 2023 5:15:38 GMT -5
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rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 27, 2023 6:37:41 GMT -5
Did you happen to use any ceramic or plastic media in your rotary? This helps to cushion, especially with the softer stones such as fluorite. The first thing I ever tumbled was moonstone, which is harder than fluorite on the mohs scale but was such a major fail. I had no idea about cushioning and my moonstone came out all bruised and dull looking. Not a lovely flash in sight. Fluorite is a harder stone to work with because it's softer on the mohs and is more susceptible to getting banged up. I did put my moonstone back through about a year later and they did much better. Still cracked/shattered looking, but there is flash there now. It's frustrating when they don't turn out how you expected. Grab a mix bag of agates and jaspers and start there - much easier to work with. Then when you feel more comfortable, bring the fluorite back out and try again. Sorry you didn't get the results you were looking for. It's definitely frustrating. If you post pics folks may be able to confirm what happened.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jun 27, 2023 7:39:51 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum from South Dakota, USA! Couple bits of great advice already posted...
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jun 27, 2023 8:16:56 GMT -5
Thank you so much. It appears I made a few basic mistakes. Mixed the varieties of stones, although tried to stay even on the Mohs scale. Not enough media to cushion the tumbling. When polishing used way too many stones and not enough corn cob. Trying again.
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jun 27, 2023 8:20:08 GMT -5
Did you happen to use any ceramic or plastic media in your rotary? This helps to cushion, especially with the softer stones such as fluorite. The first thing I ever tumbled was moonstone, which is harder than fluorite on the mohs scale but was such a major fail. I had no idea about cushioning and my moonstone came out all bruised and dull looking. Not a lovely flash in sight. Fluorite is a harder stone to work with because it's softer on the mohs and is more susceptible to getting banged up. I did put my moonstone back through about a year later and they did much better. Still cracked/shattered looking, but there is flash there now. It's frustrating when they don't turn out how you expected. Grab a mix bag of agates and jaspers and start there - much easier to work with. Then when you feel more comfortable, bring the fluorite back out and try again. Sorry you didn't get the results you were looking for. It's definitely frustrating. If you post pics folks may be able to confirm what happened. Thank you. Yes I've definitely made some big mistakes. I have to get hold of more ceramic media. So expensive here in UK, makes tumbling an expensive luxury and way cheaper just to buy finished stones.
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rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 27, 2023 8:41:08 GMT -5
Yeah, I've heard that from others living in the UK. Not sure why it's not as big of a hobby there and access to materials is limited. Don't give up! You'll get it in time. I've never considered myself a patient person, but this hobby teaches anything (outside of rocks) it's learning patience with the process. Good luck and look forward to seeing your progress!
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Post by jasoninsd on Jun 27, 2023 9:02:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I've heard that from others living in the UK. Not sure why it's not as big of a hobby there and access to materials is limited. Don't give up! You'll get it in time. I've never considered myself a patient person, but this hobby teaches anything (outside of rocks) it's learning patience with the process. Good luck and look forward to seeing your progress!
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rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2022
Posts: 1,368
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 27, 2023 9:20:38 GMT -5
Yeah, I've heard that from others living in the UK. Not sure why it's not as big of a hobby there and access to materials is limited. Don't give up! You'll get it in time. I've never considered myself a patient person, but this hobby teaches anything (outside of rocks) it's learning patience with the process. Good luck and look forward to seeing your progress! LMAO!! For sure!
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waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 386
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Post by waterboysh on Jun 27, 2023 10:27:23 GMT -5
I'll preface this by saying I have never tumbled fluorite, though it's on my list. Are you using a rotary for all the stages? I've seen people on Reddit have really good luck using small ceramic balls as the media. Something like this. Skip the coarse grit. Start with medium. Use standard amount of normal ceramic media. Check it every couple of days. After you move out of medium, switch to the ceramic spheres for pre-polish and polish. You want a higher ratio of ceramic to rock than normal with something this soft. I don't think the small ceramic balls work well in a vibe, but I'm not sure.
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Post by Lazy Perfectionist on Jun 27, 2023 10:30:44 GMT -5
Did you happen to use any ceramic or plastic media in your rotary? This helps to cushion, especially with the softer stones such as fluorite. The first thing I ever tumbled was moonstone, which is harder than fluorite on the mohs scale but was such a major fail. I had no idea about cushioning and my moonstone came out all bruised and dull looking. Not a lovely flash in sight. Fluorite is a harder stone to work with because it's softer on the mohs and is more susceptible to getting banged up. I did put my moonstone back through about a year later and they did much better. Still cracked/shattered looking, but there is flash there now. It's frustrating when they don't turn out how you expected. Grab a mix bag of agates and jaspers and start there - much easier to work with. Then when you feel more comfortable, bring the fluorite back out and try again. Sorry you didn't get the results you were looking for. It's definitely frustrating. If you post pics folks may be able to confirm what happened. Thank you. Yes I've definitely made some big mistakes. I have to get hold of more ceramic media. So expensive here in UK, makes tumbling an expensive luxury and way cheaper just to buy finished stones.
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Post by Starguy on Jun 27, 2023 11:11:14 GMT -5
Thank you. Yes I've definitely made some big mistakes. I have to get hold of more ceramic media. So expensive here in UK, makes tumbling an expensive luxury and way cheaper just to buy finished stones. Not sure if you intended to say something here but your “bear hiding behind tree” avatar is cracking me up.
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jun 28, 2023 7:52:44 GMT -5
I'll preface this by saying I have never tumbled fluorite, though it's on my list. Are you using a rotary for all the stages? I've seen people on Reddit have really good luck using small ceramic balls as the media. Something like this. Skip the coarse grit. Start with medium. Use standard amount of normal ceramic media. Check it every couple of days. After you move out of medium, switch to the ceramic spheres for pre-polish and polish. You want a higher ratio of ceramic to rock than normal with something this soft. I don't think the small ceramic balls work well in a vibe, but I'm not sure. I looked at a vibrating machine as many tutorials on Youtube use one for final 2 stages. Unfortunately here in UK a basic vibrating machine is a weeks wages, way out of my pocket on a state pension. I managed to get 2 tumblers on offer from Amazon. they work well but only hold 2lbs of rocks with a max weight all in of 4lbs. With water and medium it leaves room for just 20 ozs of stones. I do now skip the first course grit stage, I've found I can keep an eye on progress better starting on grit no2 and rotating at slower speed.
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jul 18, 2023 14:32:41 GMT -5
Trying to tumble Fluorites. Watched all the You tube videos. Started with 20oz of stones. 1 day grit No2- lost 4ozs. Went to grit No 3, 1 day lost another 4ozs. Went onto grit No4. 1 day lost another 4ozs. What is left looks terrible. What am I doing wrong. So disappointed and lost a lot of money. Please advise.
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jul 18, 2023 14:40:23 GMT -5
So just unloaded the first batch of stones from the final polish. Followed all the rules. All stones of hardness 7. What a disaster. They are far worse now than they were after stage 3. After stage 3 they all had a semi shine and were nice and smooth. Stones tumbled in clean water for 12 hours. Rinsed again. All equipment spotless. Filled tumbler with stones and new, washed, ceramic media. Sachet of No4 polishing powder. 5 days tumbling on number 1 slow speed.
They look horrid now. No shine at all. Pits and edges roughed. I'll need to re run these stones through stage 3 again to get back the smoothness and sheen.
What on earth am I doing wrong.
Second tumbler has plastic beads and not ceramic media. Another 3 days to go and then I'll see if they come out any different.
Any thoughts please.
Frustrated of UK.
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ashley
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Post by ashley on Jul 18, 2023 16:59:11 GMT -5
madenglishmanDo you have a mixed batch or just fluorite? If you have mohs 7 stuff in there that is why. Fluorite is super soft at a 4 and should be ran by itself.
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jul 20, 2023 5:23:26 GMT -5
Hi Ashley. Thanks for the reply. No soft stuff in this batch. My fluorite isn't enough now to tumble. All Hardness 7. Various quartz. Tumbled on No1 slowest speed. Really terrible results. I've used the No 4 white polishing powder.
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madenglishman
off to a rocking start
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Post by madenglishman on Jul 20, 2023 5:27:52 GMT -5
So just unloaded the first batch of stones from the final polish. Followed all the rules. All stones of hardness 7. What a disaster. They are far worse now than they were after stage 3. After stage 3 they all had a semi shine and were nice and smooth. Stones tumbled in clean water for 12 hours. Rinsed again. All equipment spotless. Filled tumbler with stones and new, washed, ceramic media. Sachet of No4 polishing powder. 5 days tumbling on number 1 slow speed.
They look horrid now. No shine at all. Pits and edges roughed. I'll need to re run these stones through stage 3 again to get back the smoothness and sheen.
What on earth am I doing wrong.
Second tumbler has plastic beads and not ceramic media. Another 3 days to go and then I'll see if they come out any different.
Any thoughts please.
Frustrated of UK.
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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman on Jul 20, 2023 5:33:44 GMT -5
Any advise on using polishing wheels to put a shine on faceted larger pieces of crystal and fluorites etc. I bought a set of discs for the drill, 50, 100, 200, 400, 1500, 3000 and 6000, but the results are terrible.
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iamchris
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Post by iamchris on Jul 20, 2023 7:17:04 GMT -5
Yeah, you can't tumble hardness 7 material with fluorite. Fluorite needs to tumble only with other fluorite. All the harder rocks in your batch beat it up.
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