Vibe Help!!!!

I always use Aluminum oxide, I use it on everything (hard rocks and soft rocks), everything always turns out great. If you're tumbling agates, there's no reason that they shouldn't shine, in a vibe it shouldn't take any more than three days. Are they at least semi-gloss? Matt finish? ..or do they just plain look like crap? If they look like total crap, you might need to go back to the fine grit for three days and then try again. I highly recommend AO from the rockshed.

How much water is a little water? Just damp? Any visible level of water is too much.

Hi Rockhobbit,
You dont need any water at all OR as long as they are glossy grey.

I fill th Lot "O" with water then add all the stones (water to stop them damaging each other) then tip out ALL the water.

I use Co but now Im using a (Conrock SPECIAL ) with Tripoly and its Fantastic,

I can send you the recepie if you want just email me john @matco.me.uk or ask tom

this is the results you should be getting (photoed Dry )

Some Garnets,
img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/john-edward/Vibe5thLotap07013.jpg

&



These are on some slabs of Banded Agate and local beach stuff taken last year.

This vibe is amazing but you should NEVER use water except what is on the stones as too much water Washes the rocks and what you have then is a "Rock Washing Machine"

All you want is the rocks mobile fill it up run it and top it up again !!! add grit and a spreader run 2hrs , give it a few squirts of water if the mixture goes grey and looses its glosy look, check it every 2 hours (till you get used to its pecularities)

The amounts of grit is also amazing 1/2 a tea spoon !!! (after the 220 run) such a saving in grit !!!!

Dont give up persever

Have a good day

Jack
Yorkshire UK

As long as the rocks have to rolling/tumbling action going on, there's not too much polish. I'm thinking that the polish itself might be the prroblem.

Hey, hon, I am giving advice from a totally non-expert point of view.
Assuming you have done the Borax wash and all that?
Again, wash your rocks AND your tumbler very, very well!

And then, make sure you load your tumbler to the max! With a vibe, especially the Lot-O, that is pretty important. I have tried to do smaller batches, no go. Hope this helps!?
K

My 2 cents worth,

"I'm getting a matte finish",,,,,,

There is only one way that I know of that will cause a true "matte" finish.

As we go through the tumbling cycle all we are doing is making the "scratches" in the rocks smaller and smaller.In the case of tumbling the "scratches" look like little bumps (rather then a "line" type scratch) on the rocks which can be seen using a 10X jewelers loupe.

If you look at a "matte" finish you will see that the only parts of the scratches (bumps) that are polished are the very tops.The "valleys" will remain dull,hence a matte" finish!

If you took your rocks right out of rough and put them in polish this example would become quite apparent as the bumps would be very big and the rocks would actually look dull to the naked eye.

In order to get the bumps small enough to get a polish they must be ground down in a sequence of different size grit.If one of the steps in the sequence is omitted the rocks will never shine.

The step I "think" you are omitting is what is called the pre-polish.

There are different opinions on exactly what a pre polish may be but if you use any of them properly you should come out with a beautiful shine on your rocks.

Pre-polish????Hmmmmmm???

A pre-polish in a rotary can be a s simple as using 500 grit for 10 days. The reason? In a rotary tumbler the grit breaks down (gets finer) to approximately 1/2 of it's original size in 7-10 days.This means that after 7-10 days your 500 grit has become approximately 1000 grit which is good for a pre-polish.

To take the rotary to a step higher,after the 500 grit cycle you can do a 1000 grit as a pre-polish.This makes the "bumps" VERY small!

Why do I speak of a rotary when you are using a vibe?

Just to give you comparison of time and amounts of grit/polish use between the two,,,a rotary and a vibe.

In a vibe the grit breaks down in 1/2 in approximately 12 hours.I say "approximately" because of different situations in the barrel itself.The slurry may become very thick and slow down the action so the "break down" may take longer.

You won't see many rotary "recipes" that include a 1000 grit or Tripoli pre-polish because of the cost of the amount need to do so.

In a vibe the amounts are so small that it becomes affordable for us to do a 1000 grit and or Tripoli pre-polish as all we use for 4.5 lbs of rocks is 1/2 of a teaspoon.If using a Lot-O-Tumbler there is absolutely NO reason to use more then 1/2 of one teaspoon full of grit/polish past the 220 grit stage.

After roughing in a rotary,,,,4.5 lbs of rocks
220=2 tablespoons,24 hrs
500=1/2 teaspoon,24hrs
1000 and or Tripoli-= 1/2 teaspoon,24 hrs
Polish=1/2 teaspoon,24hrs
burnish in rotary,plastic pellets,powdered laundry soap/Borax,4-24 hrs depending on type of rocks being burnished

If you use more of any of the above you are just wasting it.

I'm almost positive that if you do a pre-polish in either 1000 or Tripoli you will get your "bumps' down enough to get a very nice shine on your rocks.

Here are a few examples of using the above recipe:








Note that in the above and following photos of Montana Agate that there is no polish residue on the edges or in the cracks!



connrock

John,
These dog gone vibes can be a real pain to get used to.We have this misconception that we need a lot of grit/polish as we do in a rotary and just flat out refuse to use less in a vibe.

I'm so thick headed it took me over a year to "concede"! LOL

I bought 50lbs of 220 grit many years ago when I just had rotary tumblers.Shortly after I bought the Lot-O and I still have more then 1/2 of the 22o grit left!

The savings in grit and polish is unbelievable and fits my retirement budget to a "T"!

connrock

Well if they are shining at only 1000g, then it had to be that they did not have enough time in the early stages last time - I mean it could not have been too much polish.

Good luck.