beers007
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2024
Posts: 7
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Post by beers007 on Apr 9, 2024 21:10:59 GMT -5
Hi! Looking for some help. My rocks aren't turning out super shiny like before. I'm using a Lortone 45c as my tumber. Step 1 took about 4 weeks to get the stones fairly rounded out. Step 2, 3 and 4 took a week each. I did a thorough wash between of the stones, media and tumbler with a scrub brush. I also did a tumble of a couple house with some borax after cleaning everything before step 4.
This image shows the results of a couple of them. The three red jasper on the right are from a previous batch and they are super shiny. Although the picture might not show that. The other red jasper next to them had the same shine as the other three before it went through the full tumble process of step 1-4. I put it in as a control test.
Step 4 was about a week long. Here are the full rocks (and a couple closer pictures) after the tumble. I know some of them won't ever really shine, but most of them are agate and jasper.
Here's the tumbler with the rocks, media and polish before it started. The polish is aluminum oxide, white fine powder.
Here's the media in the strainer after separating the larger rocks. The small pieces have been in there since step 1 really. I just didn't bother to take them out.
Did I just not put in enough polish? I did about 1.5 tablespoons per pound. I had about 3 to 3.5 pounds of rocks.
Another question. I have run across rocks like this purple one and they just seem too soft to polish with the others. Should I never expect to get them a good polish the normal way? It looks good wet, as seen in the second picture.
This is like the purple one and just doesn't seem to shine. It has a nice "halo" or "lenticular" effect as you turn it, but it won't shine.
Any help is greatly appreciated! I'm still on the waiting list for a vibe. Not sure my day will ever come.....
These are some good results that I've had in the past for reference that I can succeed.  This time around not even the tiger's eye took a good shine and that usually works no matter what.
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Mark K
Cave Dweller 
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,818 
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Post by Mark K on Apr 9, 2024 21:31:40 GMT -5
Wash them real good. Then put them in a perfectly clean barrel and roll them for a day. Then take them out by hand and pour the water through a sieve or similar lined with a white paper towel. Take a close look at what has filtered out.
Then tell us what you found.
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Post by Son Of Beach on Apr 9, 2024 21:56:46 GMT -5
I think it might have to do with the overall "hardness" of your batch. If there is differing hardness in a batch the soft rocks will always take the brunt of the damage. Thinking about it differently there is not as much "hard" rock to polish harder stones like jasper. Just not as many solid contact points to use the grit effectively. Hope that makes sense and if I'm off base someone steps in and gives you a better answer  |
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titaniumkid
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2023
Posts: 499
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Post by titaniumkid on Apr 9, 2024 22:38:09 GMT -5
The "lenticular effect" rock is very pretty, even if it didn't polish well. It reminds me of paua shell.
The above answers are good advice. You have a very nice diversity of rocks, but that might be part of the problem because, at a glance, it looks like you have a bunch of rocks of different hardnesses and that may require different tumbling methods or treatment. Some of the harder rocks should take a really good shine (you can already see their potential here), but they might be bruising softer or more fragile rocks, and in doing so, may damage other rocks and contaminate the barrel. Others (like the "lenticular" rock, which could be labradorite?) are notoriously tricky to polish. Some rocks don't tumble well together. And others in your batch look like they may never be very shiny. It's just how they are. You might need to determine what rocks you have, separate them out, and tumble them in batches with rocks that they will tumble well with.
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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 Apr 9, 2024 23:04:51 GMT -5
I agree with all the advice above.
If I was in your situation I would add more media to the barrel, so it was 3/4 full. I'd run 500 AO for 7 days. Then I'd run AO pre-polish for 7 days. Then I'd add more media in if necessary, and run Rock Shed polish for 2 weeks.
No guarantees, but that is what I'd try.
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Post by chris1956 on Apr 10, 2024 8:08:31 GMT -5
Looks like you got some ideas above. As far as the purble rock. The dry pic reminded me of a fine quartzite. Not sure after I looked at the wet pic (looks really good) but that would be my guess. Some quartzite (usually rocks with larger grains) will polish well and some won't. Just have to experiment. If you have a good magnifying glass or loupe, you might look to see if there are fine grains in the rock which would be an indication of quartzite. I hadn't seen purple quartzite before but there are images on the internet.
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beers007
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2024
Posts: 7
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Post by beers007 on Apr 10, 2024 19:50:06 GMT -5
Wash them real good. Then put them in a perfectly clean barrel and roll them for a day. Then take them out by hand and pour the water through a sieve or similar lined with a white paper towel. Take a close look at what has filtered out. Then tell us what you found. Do this without the media? |
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Mark K
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,818
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Post by Mark K on Apr 10, 2024 20:01:04 GMT -5
yep
this is to see what is in there to see if there is still grit contamination.
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beers007
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2024
Posts: 7
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Post by beers007 on Apr 15, 2024 18:40:18 GMT -5
I did that and I didn't see any grit contamination, although it did break some of the rocks along some weak/cracks and that caused small fragments to be in there. It was interesting that they had a little better shine after running with just the water. Without the media, it was about half or less full and that's probably why some of them broke as they were being tumbled more than polished. I put them back in a polish stage with more media to get it a little fuller. The weight was a little over 4 pounds and the tumbler is rated for 4, so I hope it is okay. They have been going for about 4 days again and hopefully they will get a little better again. The small fragments from the broken rocks:  The strained water:  The broken rocks. On closer inspection I could see that they were starting to round the broken edges after the one day:  |
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This time around not even the tiger's eye took a good shine and that usually works no matter what.
