Post by William C on Feb 23, 2005 15:44:27 GMT -5
Greetings All,
I have Lortone QT12 barrels for my rough grit stages, and the biggest I've attempted are slightly larger than fist size. Yes they are huge for tumble stones and yes the right assortment of sizes for the rest of the mix is important. I use walnut shell as a filler in the 220 grit on up, I even started adding a little to the 120/220 stage to thicken up the slurry, it works much better than plastic pellets since it breaks down and helps coat the rocks with a layer of grit. With the right amount of water it makes a most excellent sludge that keeps the rocks from banging during smoothing and polishing. Best of all, since I wash out my rocks outside on my e rockpile in my back yard, I don't care about pouring used walnut shell into it. I wouldn't be able to do this with plastic pellets. Eventually I need to get a few more and better sized sieves to catch the used walnut shell, especially the walnut shell I use in the borax washes between stages. If I'm careful now with the kitchen sieves I use I get most of it back, but it takes a long time to be careful. and not just wash it away. Especially when it's cold or raining and I don't want to spend the time being careful scooping it out of the sieve and into a baggie. Better just to have the several of the right sized sieves and let the walnut shell sit in them until it dries, then recycle it.
For what I'm thinking of check out www.ascscientific.com/sieves.html
Probably the number 35 (0.5 mm) or 60 (0.25 mm) would be the right size to catch the usable remaining walnut shell, while letting the grit and mud pass through. They're a bit pricey, probably $35 apeice, but if I can get triple or quadruple the usage of a given weight of walnut shell, eventually the sieves will pay for themselves. And I won't have to spend the 10-15 minutes per barrel as I do now so as to not waste. That is at least an hour a week, and over time it's well worth a hundred bucks or so to save that time if nothing else.
Always looking for the most efficient way to keep the process going![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
Williamc
I have Lortone QT12 barrels for my rough grit stages, and the biggest I've attempted are slightly larger than fist size. Yes they are huge for tumble stones and yes the right assortment of sizes for the rest of the mix is important. I use walnut shell as a filler in the 220 grit on up, I even started adding a little to the 120/220 stage to thicken up the slurry, it works much better than plastic pellets since it breaks down and helps coat the rocks with a layer of grit. With the right amount of water it makes a most excellent sludge that keeps the rocks from banging during smoothing and polishing. Best of all, since I wash out my rocks outside on my e rockpile in my back yard, I don't care about pouring used walnut shell into it. I wouldn't be able to do this with plastic pellets. Eventually I need to get a few more and better sized sieves to catch the used walnut shell, especially the walnut shell I use in the borax washes between stages. If I'm careful now with the kitchen sieves I use I get most of it back, but it takes a long time to be careful. and not just wash it away. Especially when it's cold or raining and I don't want to spend the time being careful scooping it out of the sieve and into a baggie. Better just to have the several of the right sized sieves and let the walnut shell sit in them until it dries, then recycle it.
For what I'm thinking of check out www.ascscientific.com/sieves.html
Probably the number 35 (0.5 mm) or 60 (0.25 mm) would be the right size to catch the usable remaining walnut shell, while letting the grit and mud pass through. They're a bit pricey, probably $35 apeice, but if I can get triple or quadruple the usage of a given weight of walnut shell, eventually the sieves will pay for themselves. And I won't have to spend the 10-15 minutes per barrel as I do now so as to not waste. That is at least an hour a week, and over time it's well worth a hundred bucks or so to save that time if nothing else.
Always looking for the most efficient way to keep the process going
![:)](http://storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
Williamc