zebra61
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2024
Posts: 117
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Post by zebra61 on Jan 21, 2024 8:32:26 GMT -5
When I was a kid my family was in the washed sand & gravel business. We'd spot a 'pretty rock' and throw it in a bucket never really knowing what would come next. There was a toy rock tumbler under our Christmas tree one year and when school was out that tumbler was filled and placed a shelf in the tool shack. It tumbled away for weeks on end, we didn't know a darn thing about tumbling rocks and in the end it was more of a 'rock disintegrator'. I sure wish I had a few buckets of those pretty rocks now. Dad is probably rolling in his grave knowing I paid $25 for a little bag of rocks! So now I'm attempting to do a little better job. My old QT12 has been retired and now I'm armed with a Lortone 3B, Rebel 17 and a Lot-O tumbler for finishing. These were finished with polish and Borax. And given my hatred for Borax I'm excited to give a sugar recipe a chance on my next batch. This is my second finished batch, I'm not very happy with the first batch so I'm not showing photos of those! (Pride?) So tell me what you think of these and remember, I'm a big boy now so I can take it.... Mark
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Post by rockjunquie on Jan 21, 2024 8:48:39 GMT -5
They look shiny, so they work for me. Good job. Don't eat the sugar.
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victor1941
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2011
Posts: 1,979
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Post by victor1941 on Jan 21, 2024 9:48:12 GMT -5
These look very well shaped and are well polished. Rerun the first batch for similar results if they are the same mix.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jan 21, 2024 9:49:50 GMT -5
I think you did a great job on those Mark! *Love your signature line! LOL
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chris1956
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2022
Posts: 1,258
Member is Online
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Post by chris1956 on Jan 21, 2024 9:51:47 GMT -5
Look pretty darn nice to me!
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Post by greig on Jan 21, 2024 12:10:54 GMT -5
I used to add white table sugar to my polish to thicken the slurry and perhaps make the polish stick to the rocks. I stopped because I would sometimes get gas during the tumble and my blame was the sugar. Not positive the sugar was the cause.
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zebra61
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2024
Posts: 117
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Post by zebra61 on Jan 21, 2024 13:24:21 GMT -5
These look very well shaped and are well polished. Rerun the first batch for similar results if they are the same mix. Thanks. I think I'll give that a try. The shapes are good but they just didn't have the glassy shine like I was hoping for. Maybe I missed some grit in a cleanout or just didn't give things enough time in the final two stages. Patience is a big part of the equation. I have to leave day/time notes on each tumbler so I can remember when I started it. It's easy to get confused, I'm Norwegian and old. So I got that happening too..
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zebra61
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2024
Posts: 117
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Post by zebra61 on Jan 21, 2024 14:31:49 GMT -5
I used to add white table sugar to my polish to thicken the slurry and perhaps make the polish stick to the rocks. I stopped because I would sometimes get gas during the tumble and my blame was the sugar. Not positive the sugar was the cause. I added corn syrup to my tumbler once for the same reasons and it too expanded from fermentation gases. I wouldn't recommend sugars in a closed barrel tumbler. I jumped right in with the sugar yesterday and truthfully I wasn't very clear that I planned to use it in the Lot-O tumbler. I'm hoping that there won't be any gas buildup in that thing. There's a 3.5lb charge in the Lot-O right now on stage 3. I threw in 1 full tablespoon of sugar and it's looking a little thicker than I expected. It's rolling quite well and looks plenty wet for my taste. Time will tell if it's a good plan or bad. I don't mind an experiment from time to time. Mark
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RockyBeach
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2023
Posts: 240
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Post by RockyBeach on Jan 21, 2024 22:17:03 GMT -5
zebra61 ... why the hate for Borax ?
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zebra61
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2024
Posts: 117
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Post by zebra61 on Jan 23, 2024 9:15:03 GMT -5
zebra61 ... why the hate for Borax ? I'm hoping that my less-than-perfect specimens won't have the Borax deposits in every little pinhole. I've spent too much of my lifetime poking at the dried white powder in fractures and pinholes. Call me lazy...
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rocknewb101
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2022
Posts: 1,330
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jan 23, 2024 16:25:44 GMT -5
I think they look great too! Good shape and have a nice polish. The more you do this, the more refined you'll get - there is a big learning curve and patience is a huge part of that. I am not the most patient person, but have learned to have more with this hobby. Something that I've just started doing (and i believe it's helping) is to use my water pic on the rocks at the end of each stage (2-4) - it literally blasts any left over grit/polish, etc. out of the cracks, divots, etc and greatly improves polish. Thanks for sharing your pics - look forward to seeing more.
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RockyBeach
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2023
Posts: 240
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Post by RockyBeach on Jan 24, 2024 19:54:18 GMT -5
Maybe it's my water, BUT when I used shaved bar Ivory and Ivory Liquid as burnisher I still had "smoky" (as in not shiny) results but with the Borax, the rocks that will shine ...do ! I do my burnish with LOTS of water for at least 1/2 hour !
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zebra61
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2024
Posts: 117
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Post by zebra61 on Jan 26, 2024 15:32:30 GMT -5
I'm hoping that my less-than-perfect specimens won't have the Borax deposits in every little pinhole. I've spent too much of my lifetime poking at the dried white powder in fractures and pinholes. Call me lazy... Same. I replaced borax with liquid Ivory. They seem to have the same effect but I just prefer a liquid that I can squeeze in and it makes the rocks smell good. + no residue I guess. I'd highly recommend getting a $50 ultrasonic cleaner though. It's my most valued tool besides the tumblers. I bet it could dislodge borax because it works well for cleaning the slurry out of holes. Aint no one got time for that. I actually own a small ultrasonic cleaner that I use for gun parts from time to time. My concern is that the imperfections and small fractures might be worsened by that type of vibration. The Lot-O employs a lot of vibration but ultrasonic is a different game.
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pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,442
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Post by pebblesky on Jan 26, 2024 16:38:37 GMT -5
This batch looks very nice in shapes, patterns, colors and shine.
Just my 2 cents:
Sugar was among the main reasons that my Rebel 17 leaked due to the gas buildup.
I use ultrasonic cleaner to clean rock between stages. The vibration from it seems to be so mild that it doesn't do enough to remove the slurry from the small cracks or porous area, so it is hard to make me believe it will worsen your tumbled rock - the tumbling action should be much stronger in attacking the fragile rocks. Vibrating the rocks soaked in water in my Raytech TV5 seems to do a better cleanup job, but eventually I still had to use electric toothbrush to clean some of the rocks, and some polish still stayed on the porous surfaces of a few of my tumbles. I feel the best strategy will be to grind off these porous areas between stage 1 and stage 2, but for some rocks the porous areas just keep appearing.
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