TuesdayMae
off to a rocking start
I quit drinking and bought a rock tumbler! It's only been 146 days. Please share any helpful tips✌️
Member since November 2023
Posts: 9
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Post by TuesdayMae on Nov 7, 2023 0:06:22 GMT -5
Can I tumble petrified wood, glass, and rocks together? And do I use the same grit on all?
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Post by vegasjames on Nov 7, 2023 0:19:12 GMT -5
If all roughly the same hardness then yes. Glasses, petrified wood and rocks can all vary in hardness, so you would have to check the hardness of each and again try to keep everything as close to the same hardness as possible.
And if tumbling glass, or any stones that have organics such as algae or lichens the tumbling will form gas and so you need to burp the barrels frequently to release the gas.
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Post by Starguy on Nov 7, 2023 8:17:12 GMT -5
You can certainly tumble them together. In coarse grit anything can be tumbled. The hard part will be getting a polish on everything in a mixed batch. I would advise checking the tumbler regularly as glass and obsidian can cause pressure to build up in closed barrels. If the top pops off, it can make quite a mess.
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geoff59
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2022
Posts: 288
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Post by geoff59 on Nov 7, 2023 13:21:14 GMT -5
Glass is not as hard as most commonly tumbled rock. Maybe you can get away with this mix in step 1, but for the most part I think you’ll get better results by separating the glass from the rock.
A lot of people tumble glass as a solo item, and it gets started in step 2 grit and not the coarse, step 1 grit. In a heavier mixed load I think the rocks would quickly help reduce the glass to small bits that wouldn’t be like the results you want. I have a 3 pound drum going right now of obsidian, there is nothing else in it (except some pellets) and I fill only to about half way with the glass/obsidian, then bring it up to 80% or so with small pellets. I don’t try to mix Moh’s 5 stuff with Moh’s 7 in the same drum, you probably shouldn’t either.
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 7, 2023 14:51:27 GMT -5
TuesdayMae Please post the topic of your discussion or question as the title so more folks can benefit from your question and the answers. Plus, people will more easily see what you are looking for.
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Post by vegasjames on Nov 8, 2023 9:46:39 GMT -5
Petrified wood is nearly 7 on the mohs hardness. Glass I think a 5? I'm tumbling some moonstone, 6-6.5. It's softer than ceramic media and other rocks like pet wood, so I'm tumbling it with tempered glass as the media. Being tempered, the glass can't break into sharp edges and isn't hard enough to scratch the stones. Just one scenario of mixing glass with rock, the intention being to polish the moonstone and discard or reuse the glass. Again depends on the glass. The Moh's scale for glass is based on plate glass, but other glasses are harder. Borosilicate glasses for example area around 6, which would put them in the same range as some feldspar rocks. Aluminosilicate glasses can be a bit harder. Fused silica (fused quartz) glass can be up to 6.5 on hardness and fullerene glass recently developed can scratch many diamonds.
Glass actually covers quite a range of substances. There are even metallic glasses and there are ceramic glasses that are an intermediate between glass and ceramic.
Due to the variations in glass hardness, it would be best to just tumble the same glass source all by itself to make it easier.
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Nov 14, 2024 18:17:57 GMT -5
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Nov 14, 2024 18:17:57 GMT -5
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Nov 15, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
Nov 15, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
