ts
starting to shine!
Member since March 2023
Posts: 36
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Post by ts on Feb 28, 2024 15:50:47 GMT -5
I am relatively new to this hobby. I started tumbling a little over a year ago with a small hobby tumbler I got for Christmas. A few months into it I got a vibratory tumbler. I found I needed to learn alot about grit and grit breakdown as it happens so quickly with vibratory tumbler. I did alot of research on this site and various Facebook and YouTube channels. It seems to me there are at least 2 schools of thought with grit breakdown. One school believes grit breakdown results in a useless slurry after a period of time and needs to be cleaned out and new grit added to continue working. The other school of thought is that grit breaks down into finer and finer grains and if you leave your rocks in the tumbler long enough you can arrive at polished rocks. Of course you have different results regarding SC or AO. SC breaking down in sharp grains being much less likely to arrive at polished rocks. AO breaking down finer and rounder being much more likely to arrive at polished rocks.
I love how technical and scientific many of you are in this hobby. So I am curious as to what your experience is like and what you have learned about grit breakdown.
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Post by victor1941 on Feb 28, 2024 22:45:52 GMT -5
I use a UV-18 on material that comes from a 60 grit flat lap so my comment is related to this material. If the scratches are deep the smaller grit is not effective after breakdown and must be replaced with coarse grit to repeat the process-I wash first before recharging. I use borax and plenty of small media for all the steps and get good results on solid agate on a regular basis. I don't use a rotary so I really have very little knowledge about rock sludge and abrasive or polish breakdown.
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Post by catmandewe on Feb 29, 2024 0:56:16 GMT -5
I use a rotary with 2 to 3 times the amount of 80 grit and just let it run for a while (average about 5 weeks) without changing grit, then I move it to a vibratory and do polish for 2 days. I have found that both SC 80 and AO 80 work, but AO comes out almost shiny before moving on to the polish stage.
(I usually only do one or two batches a year but it is usually in a 100 to a 500 lb barrel which do create more action, so smaller barrels can take longer. I do keep a Rebel 17 going, just for fun, when I can keep one in the shop)
Tony
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Post by velodromed on Feb 29, 2024 9:20:17 GMT -5
When I first load and start a batch of rocks, I add some dried slurry to the first run and exactly one level tablespoon of grit per pound of barrel size. For the next few course runs, keeping the slurry helps set the base for building up a good consistent slurry that will help cushion the rocks in later course runs. I save the slurry from each barrel and re-use it until it’s either stinky (I throw it away) or thick enough to add additional water. I like my slurry to be a medium-light thick consistency. Yes, that is completely subjective. I want the Rocks to be able to travel around and the slurry be heavy enough to carry grit and ease collisions (especially in latter course runs where I want to treat the rocks more gently). I run a rebel 17 and two duel, 3 pound tumblers. 36 grit SiC in the rebel 17 and 46-70 SiC in the 3lb tumblers, and 60/90 when I have a load of mostly finished rocks in their final course run. I also tend to run the tumblers an extra day or two. By touch, SiC slurry feels completely used up by day four or five. But the rocks will be rough feeling. Let it go a couple more days and the rocks come out quite smooth. So each of my cycles is typically 7 to 9 days. It works for me.
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ts
starting to shine!
Member since March 2023
Posts: 36
|
Post by ts on Feb 29, 2024 17:47:23 GMT -5
I use a rotary with 2 to 3 times the amount of 80 grit and just let it run for a while (average about 5 weeks) without changing grit, then I move it to a vibratory and do polish for 2 days. I have found that both SC 80 and AO 80 work, but AO comes out almost shiny before moving on to the polish stage. (I usually only do one or two batches a year but it is usually in a 100 to a 500 lb barrel which do create more action, so smaller barrels can take longer. I do keep a Rebel 17 going, just for fun, when I can keep one in the shop) Tony WOW! Tony that is a Huge tumbler! I am curious, how much grit do you use in a 100 lb tumber?? I just got a 12lb tumbler and the grit reccomendation for it is all over the place. Lortone reccomends a lb of grit. Most folks seem to rccomend 12 Tbls and then a friend of mine who I trust and has been doing this a long time uses 4tbls. So for my first load I used 6 TBls. Fingers crossed it works |
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Post by catmandewe on Mar 1, 2024 0:00:36 GMT -5
I use a rotary with 2 to 3 times the amount of 80 grit and just let it run for a while (average about 5 weeks) without changing grit, then I move it to a vibratory and do polish for 2 days. I have found that both SC 80 and AO 80 work, but AO comes out almost shiny before moving on to the polish stage. (I usually only do one or two batches a year but it is usually in a 100 to a 500 lb barrel which do create more action, so smaller barrels can take longer. I do keep a Rebel 17 going, just for fun, when I can keep one in the shop) Tony WOW! Tony that is a Huge tumbler! I am curious, how much grit do you use in a 100 lb tumber?? I just got a 12lb tumbler and the grit reccomendation for it is all over the place. Lortone reccomends a lb of grit. Most folks seem to rccomend 12 Tbls and then a friend of mine who I trust and has been doing this a long time uses 4tbls. So for my first load I used 6 TBls. Fingers crossed it works 100 lb barrel uses a coffee can full. I had a 1000 lb tumbler that we dumped a whole 55 lb sack into, but it has since found a new home. On my rebel 17, I use half a cup of grit (search engine says that is 8 tablespoons). There is not a set number, play with it and see what seems to work. Tony |
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