Post by LCARS on Oct 15, 2007 22:07:45 GMT -5
The following is just something for the dial-up people to read while they're waiting for the pictures to load, and for those with broadband to get some background on the images afterward if they want...
It's been a little while since i've posted a tumble here but to be honest it's been a while since i've had anything postworthy finish tumbling. I slowly shut down my tumblers before my move and slowly got them back up and running to full capacity with new material so this is my first opportunity to post something.
My latest batch of beach glass (and almost this batch i'm about to post) was ruined by cross contamination so I aborted it because it has scratches too deep for polish to get out. It's going to be "frosty" glass now because i'm not wasting anymore polish on it. This is the second time this batch of glass has foiled me so i'm going to send it back to 120/220 and leave it there to show it who's boss.
It's those &%$#! plastic pellets, they all have little voids in them that eventually capture grit and let it out later on so I have to stress to those who haven't been lectured yet to make sure you only re-use pellets in the same stage they were first used in or coarser and CLEARLY LABEL the container. I just need to make double sure from now on which container i'm dumping used pellets in from and I should be fine.
This batch WAS due to come out on the 19th of Sept.
It was in final polish when I noticed there was a problem and stopped it on the 16th. After a good cleaning cycle, I restarted this batch on the 17th in AO prepolish for 8 days and then AO polish for 9 days and was in TO polish for 12 days before I was satisfied all the scratches from the previous bungle were gone.
So here's some eye candy fer ya's!
I photographed them outside with a polarizing filter to show off the "almost KD" shine I got on most of them despite the fact that they were nearly KD shiney when I dumped gritty pellets into their final TO polish run.
Agates, and tigereyes and jaspers, oh my!
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/LCARS/Minerals/RTH/Agates-1.jpg[/IMG]
Some agate slices and tumbled flat slabby bits[/size]
These all came from that 3/$2.50 half polished agate slice bin at the Rockhound Shop. I tumbled them through a week of 60/90 and kept them in the batch until it was finished.
The one in the middle always almost looked like a fish, that's why I bought it, but I think i'm going to leave it as is and not try to shape it.
These are some various small flat slabby lookin' ones
Some of you may recall this as one of the Agates from Hell.
After that 50 grit sandblasting SiC nightmare...
After a re-do from 60/90 lapidary grade Sic through to polish...
It's still not "perfect" but I wanted to see it polished at least once before deciding wether or not to send it back through a third time.
Hmmm, how about two tumbled quartz crystals.
The one on the top went in at the AO polish stage.
The one below went through prepolish in a previous batch.I threw it in with this batch at the AO polish stage as well.
Well, that's it for now...
There are more, but I ran out of time and light outside to take any pics. I thought I would get all this "junk:" out of the way before posting the REALLY good stuff in a later update...
Hope you enjoyed the show, feel free to ask questions and make comments as usual to help keep the thread alive and thanks for lookin' & readin' all.
Rob
It's been a little while since i've posted a tumble here but to be honest it's been a while since i've had anything postworthy finish tumbling. I slowly shut down my tumblers before my move and slowly got them back up and running to full capacity with new material so this is my first opportunity to post something.
My latest batch of beach glass (and almost this batch i'm about to post) was ruined by cross contamination so I aborted it because it has scratches too deep for polish to get out. It's going to be "frosty" glass now because i'm not wasting anymore polish on it. This is the second time this batch of glass has foiled me so i'm going to send it back to 120/220 and leave it there to show it who's boss.
It's those &%$#! plastic pellets, they all have little voids in them that eventually capture grit and let it out later on so I have to stress to those who haven't been lectured yet to make sure you only re-use pellets in the same stage they were first used in or coarser and CLEARLY LABEL the container. I just need to make double sure from now on which container i'm dumping used pellets in from and I should be fine.
This batch WAS due to come out on the 19th of Sept.
It was in final polish when I noticed there was a problem and stopped it on the 16th. After a good cleaning cycle, I restarted this batch on the 17th in AO prepolish for 8 days and then AO polish for 9 days and was in TO polish for 12 days before I was satisfied all the scratches from the previous bungle were gone.
So here's some eye candy fer ya's!
I photographed them outside with a polarizing filter to show off the "almost KD" shine I got on most of them despite the fact that they were nearly KD shiney when I dumped gritty pellets into their final TO polish run.
Agates, and tigereyes and jaspers, oh my!
i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/LCARS/Minerals/RTH/Agates-1.jpg[/IMG]
Some agate slices and tumbled flat slabby bits[/size]
These all came from that 3/$2.50 half polished agate slice bin at the Rockhound Shop. I tumbled them through a week of 60/90 and kept them in the batch until it was finished.
The one in the middle always almost looked like a fish, that's why I bought it, but I think i'm going to leave it as is and not try to shape it.
These are some various small flat slabby lookin' ones
Some of you may recall this as one of the Agates from Hell.
After that 50 grit sandblasting SiC nightmare...
After a re-do from 60/90 lapidary grade Sic through to polish...
It's still not "perfect" but I wanted to see it polished at least once before deciding wether or not to send it back through a third time.
Hmmm, how about two tumbled quartz crystals.
The one on the top went in at the AO polish stage.
The one below went through prepolish in a previous batch.I threw it in with this batch at the AO polish stage as well.
Well, that's it for now...
There are more, but I ran out of time and light outside to take any pics. I thought I would get all this "junk:" out of the way before posting the REALLY good stuff in a later update...
Hope you enjoyed the show, feel free to ask questions and make comments as usual to help keep the thread alive and thanks for lookin' & readin' all.
Rob