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Post by velodromed on Nov 18, 2023 9:37:24 GMT -5
This rock looked so good after coming out of the 60 AO, I went ahead and threw it in the vibratory Tumbler, which I was running micro AO polish. After just tumbling overnight, the rock came out pretty shiny. This was a good experiment to do and has given me some ideas to try out with the material.   |
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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 Nov 18, 2023 20:55:25 GMT -5
You inspired me to buy some. Looks like it is definitely worth experimenting with it.
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texhex
starting to spend too much on rocks
Rocks 10 - TexHex 2
Member since August 2023
Posts: 149
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Post by texhex on Nov 19, 2023 18:04:40 GMT -5
Experiment time My high speed Rebel 17 chews through rock shed and Kingsley North course SiC fast. So I picked 10lbs of this stuff up. I keep seeing it on Amazon and have been wondering for a long time if it would work. I put around 15 pounds of mixed size local rock we’ve collected, mostly cherts and Jaspers I think, a cup of this stuff and water in the rebel 17. It’ll spin at 40 rpm for the next month or so before checking. I know AO doesn’t break down as much or  fast as SiC does, and it continues to work as it does. At least that’s how I understand it, so I’m really curious to see what happens. Very interesting thread. |
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller 
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,432 
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Post by Wooferhound on Nov 20, 2023 8:49:12 GMT -5
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Post by velodromed on Nov 21, 2023 15:00:13 GMT -5
Incredibly informative! Thank you very much. |
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Post by velodromed on Nov 23, 2023 17:54:32 GMT -5
Did you ever try mixing the AO and SiC in the same barrel at all? Thats what I’m toying with now. In my rebel 17 I have something like 2/3rds cup of 36/70 SiC and 2/3rds cup of AO. Most of the rocks in it have been through months of course tumbling and are near ready to move on, so I’m hoping the addition of the 60 AO will ease some of the hard scratches from the SiC and allow them to go to the next stages in the vibe better prepared. I also decided last night to try the other size extreme and added a heaping teaspoon of the 60 AO to my 1.5lb barrel, along with a 1.5 tablespoons of 60/90 SiC. I’ll open the rebel in a week or so and the smaller one in about 9 days. |
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Post by velodromed on Dec 2, 2023 8:00:13 GMT -5
I’m not really liking it so much during early and mid course runs. Feels like it cut down on the grinding by as much as 30 to 40%, considering how thin the slurry was. It was also quite visible in the rock themselves, there was not near as much ‘sharp edge smoothing’. But I did like the way the rocks came out of the rebel 17, smooth and almost like they had been through pre-polish. I tend to like local Jasper, chert and agate combinations, which tend to be higher on the Mohs scale as well as tough, so they will often run more than a dozen corse stages. Same with the rock I buy. So I think I’ll wait for the final course run to use the AO 60 and see how it does.
As for the smaller tumblers, I didn’t notice as much difference with the tumbling action. I put a smaller ratio of AO in those, 1/3rd instead of 1/2 the amount. The ones that were ready to move on to the vibe did come out nicer than normal I noticed. Which was cool. Also tried a different experiment with my Raytech five vibratory Tumblr. Instead of running multiple 2 day sessions and cleaning out in between them, then changing out to a finer grit and repeat… I have simply kept it running and added finer grit as it goes every 36-48 hours (180, 220, 500, 700). For the last 2 days I add a 1/2 tsp of 1200 grit AO. It’s counterintuitive I know, but I’ve done this twice so far and both times the rocks came out beautiful, after I’d switched them over for a 3-4 day run in a separate AO polish vibe barrel. It’s fun experimenting lol.
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