Jon
starting to shine!
Member since January 2005
Posts: 43
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Post by Jon on Jan 9, 2005 21:25:26 GMT -5
problem polishing quartz (smokey, pink and clear)
1 week with 46/70 grit 1 week with 80 grit 1 week with 220 grit 1 week with 600 grit 1 week with cerium oxide polish (pink grade)
polish was not quite good enough for me, so
1 more week 600 grit again 1 week with aluminum oxide polish (batch still running after 3 days here)
will this polish better?
who has experience polishing quartz?
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Post by docone31 on Jan 9, 2005 21:56:09 GMT -5
Ah, quartz. The final polish is the issue. I polish with Cerium Oxide for at least four weeks. I tried one week, two weeks, and went to four weeks. I also watch my water. I used R/O water for final polish, and pre polish. I believe water hardness is a factor.
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1Mark
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since November 2004
Posts: 91
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Post by 1Mark on Jan 9, 2005 22:26:21 GMT -5
Hi Jon,
I'm not highly experienced, but most of my work has been with common quartz and granite (which is quartz based, if I understand correctly) rocks that I find on the ground in various places. Cerium gives me only so-so results -- much as you seem to have found. I use essentially the same first 4 steps that you are using, then use 1000 grit A.O. for a week followed by 2 or 3 days with TXP polish. I have a 15 pound load tumbling in TXP right now that I ran a week in 2000 grit A.O. polish -- it didn't even look as good as cerium polished rock aftyer the 2000 A.O.
This is my first load in the 15 pound tumbler, and I think it's more prone to damaging the rocks if the slurry is too thin in 220 and finer grits. I took this load back to 600 grit 3 weeks ago, then ran a week in 1000 A.O and a week in 2000 A.O., using plenty of plastic pellets and sugar to keep the rocks from banging together too much. Just checked it tonight after 3 days in TXP, and it's almost there, but I'm beginning to wonder if a couple of rocks with cracks in them might have carried some coarser grit into the polish stage -- the results so far aren't quite as good as what I get from my 3 pound barrels.
Shalom, Mark
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Tellfamily
spending too much on rocks
Member since September 2004
Posts: 476
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Post by Tellfamily on Jan 9, 2005 22:44:52 GMT -5
We have had very good results with Tin Oxide on all different kinds of Quarts
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Post by stoner on Jan 10, 2005 2:04:14 GMT -5
Hi Jon. Quartz is actually one of the stones that always seems to polish nicely for me, even when everything else turns out bad. The biggest problem with quartz is fracturing. I use titanium oxide(polish that comes with Thumlers grit kit) and always get a good shine.
Ed
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Post by creativeminded on Jan 10, 2005 11:55:10 GMT -5
My clear, rose and green quartz turned out very nice with the system I have. I just use our tap water, but the composition of the water changes with what well they are pumping from. We notice that the water tastes dirty, and has a strong Chlorine smell when they pump from the north well. I would probably get different results if I were to use water from my sister that lives on a farm and pumps water directly from the source, not treatment. Tami
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