glol
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2006
Posts: 12
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Post by glol on Jun 27, 2006 16:12:23 GMT -5
Hi All, New to this forum yesterday, so thought I would join. Just got a tumbling kit a week ago, stones arrived yesterday (1.5kg of mixed - I have no idea what they are!) and a book comes tomorrow. Guess I'll be asking lots of questions. One I have already - I have a Dremel on order for other hobbies - would this be suitable to cut larger stones (2") into smaller ones? I really have no idea here. Adding to the UK contingent ) GLOL
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Post by deb193 on Jun 27, 2006 16:30:08 GMT -5
There are some cutoff wheels for Dremel - but it would take forever if the stone is hard enough to take a good polish.
Unless you need precision, a cold chisel and masonry hammer work pretty well.
Some folks tumble for a while and then make good use of the Dremel to take out some deep pits or small ridges so the stone does not have to stay in course forever and shrink too much.
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Post by Cher on Jun 27, 2006 16:44:55 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum. Daniel is right, a dremel would take way to long to cut but if you have a lot of patience it can be done.
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Post by akansan on Jun 27, 2006 18:48:56 GMT -5
I've found 4.5" diamond blades made for 1/4" arbors on Dremel-like tools. Before buying the workforce, I thought about using one of those with my dremel to do some cutting. If you could find something similar, that would work for smaller stones. You'd need to securely fasten the stone in some way so only one thing is moving at a time - the stone or the dremel!
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Duckbean
fully equipped rock polisher
Looking for rocks in all the wrong places
Member since February 2005
Posts: 1,072
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Post by Duckbean on Jun 27, 2006 20:53:55 GMT -5
I've gotten 1 5/8 diamond blades from an Ebay seller named Finding king , and another named uncoso several timesand they worked great! The problem is I can no longer find them any where. Perhaps in the U.K. there is some one who still sells them. I'm glad I bought three of them because it looks like that all I'm going to find. Worth a look round foryou, Good luck.
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glol
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2006
Posts: 12
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Post by glol on Jun 29, 2006 3:46:45 GMT -5
Well, the first batch went in last night. Not really sure what all the stones are, but photographed them anyway to start identification. 7 days seems a long time!
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Post by sandsman1 on Jun 29, 2006 23:16:13 GMT -5
welcome glol glad you decided to join us -- if those stones have very sharp edges they may take alittle longer then a week to get rounded up,, i have seen agates take 6 weeks in first grind to get right but thats if you want very rounded edges -- some like them more natural -- and if there a softer stone they may shape up sooner
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glol
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2006
Posts: 12
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Post by glol on Jun 30, 2006 15:43:31 GMT -5
Here's a pictire of the rocks I put in. Not sure if there's any Agate there?
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Shelbeeray
has rocks in the head
Member since January 2006
Posts: 688
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Post by Shelbeeray on Jul 5, 2006 0:36:26 GMT -5
The blue is sodalite; the white with black spots is dalmation jasper; the clear in th center is quartz; I think the green is aventurine
The rest I'm not sure about (I hope I'm right on those!) I had some stuff that was rusty colored and it turned out to be yellow moss agate...
Be sure to check them in a week, the sodalite will probably be fairly well rounded by then.
I found out the hard way that the dremel is only good for some minor detail work, drilling holes, etc. with a water setup (One was posted in the Lapidary Tips section).
I found an inexpensive wet tile saw, most people have a Workforce tile saw from Home Depot for cutting rocks down & preshaping them.
Welcome to the group!
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Post by akansan on Jul 5, 2006 12:05:38 GMT -5
I think I also see a couple pieces of leopardskin in that mix - on the upper left side and the upper right corner. One of them had a more orangy mix color and the other a more pink based color.
Of course, I could be wrong on those as well!
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glol
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2006
Posts: 12
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Post by glol on Jul 6, 2006 2:57:19 GMT -5
Thnaks for the info There's also some Tigers Eye bottom left. Took them out of the first stage last night and looking good. Back in on 400 grit now for another 7 days.
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