calxoddity
off to a rocking start
Me lying sideways on custard spill
Member since February 2008
Posts: 19 
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Post by calxoddity on Mar 8, 2008 18:24:31 GMT -5
Hi,
I obviously didn't sacrifice enough chickens before committing to the polishing round of my first ever tumbling load - nice and smooth but no polish.
Everything had been going so well - Lortone 33B and I kept a barrel aside exclusively for polishing. Washed the smoky quartz pieces properly after the 600 grit, inspected and removed a couple that had cracks with grit in them. Finish was looking good.
The barrel only got around half full due to wastage from previous rounds. Put the required 6tbsp 1200 Al Oxide and water in and away it went for a week. Upon opening it, the first thing I noticed was barrel full of capuccino froth. hmmmm.... this isn't in the manual thinks I. Mixture consistency once reaching the liquid was like full-cream milk - I was expecting something thicker.
The stones were satin-finish. If wetted, they stayed shiny for quite a while - much smoother than after the 600 grit, but not shiny and glassy.
Apart from the chicken thing, any idea what I did wrong?
Regards,
Calx
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Post by Bikerrandy on Mar 8, 2008 19:27:18 GMT -5
Not sure how much 6 tbsp of AO is (in ounces), the 3bl tumbler requires 2 ounces of polish according to the instructions from the rockshed's website, with the water filled even with the top of the rocks. Not sure if this helps any. Here's the instructions that I read.... www.therockshed.com/instructions1.html#Rotary Oh, forgot to ask, what kind of rocks are you tumbling? |
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Post by Cher on Mar 8, 2008 19:40:16 GMT -5
I never use more than 3 level tablespoons of anything, grit or polish in the 3lb barrels.
How much water did you add, it should be just below the level of the rocks. Did you have pellets or anything for cushioning. Also, what size were your rocks, did you have a good variety of different sizes?
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calxoddity
off to a rocking start
Me lying sideways on custard spill
Member since February 2008
Posts: 19
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Post by calxoddity on Mar 8, 2008 21:56:12 GMT -5
Hi,
Thanks all for the fast response! I was tumbling jellybean quartz - waterworn quartz crystals ranging from half inch to 2.5 inches long, and from quarter inch to one inch thick. Mixture of smoky, citrine and clear, with around 10% having rutile/tourmaline inclusions.
No pellets for cushioning, just the stones, the polish, and the water.
For the amount of polish to use, I was referring to the Lortone guide.
Regards,
Calx
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Post by Bikerrandy on Mar 8, 2008 22:49:10 GMT -5
The only thing that I can think of is to run them in polish again for another week or two. One thing that I have learned is that the longer they stay in polish, the more shiney they get. It definately sounds like they were ready for the polish stage.
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 8, 2008 23:05:25 GMT -5
It sounds like not enough load. You should add ceramic or plastic pellets to fill barrel to 3/4 full then 3 tablespoons polish and water to cover or nearly so.
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Post by captbob on Mar 8, 2008 23:14:35 GMT -5
It sounds like not enough load. You should add ceramic or plastic pellets to fill barrel to 3/4 full then 3 tablespoons polish and water to cover or nearly so. Bold is mine. I've not even made it to a polish stage yet, but I've read everything written here by what I consider to be the best of the best at tumbling stones. Providing the stones were clean before you moved on to polish, I think (from what I've read) that your load was too small. Using plastic pellets to fill the load to 2/3 to 3/4 and to cushion the tumble probably would have made all the difference you need. Edited: okay, bold doesn't work in quotes. I bolded: "It sounds like not enough load." |
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geogoddess
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2007
Posts: 287
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Post by geogoddess on Mar 9, 2008 1:35:04 GMT -5
Not much additional to add... other than to say that my polish rounds are usually more "capuccino frothey" than sludge like coarse rounds.
The cracked pieces... were they also chipped? I had a helluva time with some quartz that was chipping all the way through the polish round... those definitely aren't as shiny as they could be.
And I'm guessing you're not using the Lortone polish? My last batch I broke out the "good" stuff rather than using the end of my Lortone AO and I'm much happier.
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Post by akansan on Mar 9, 2008 12:59:51 GMT -5
Geogoddess, that was my question! What polish are you using? Hopefully not the polish from the Lortone kit. If you are using the Lortone polish, throw all the stones back in there and don't check them for another three weeks.  |
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geogoddess
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2007
Posts: 287
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Post by geogoddess on Mar 9, 2008 18:23:05 GMT -5
Calxoddity said it was 1200 AO... which is more info that I know about *my* lortone polish... so I'm guessing its better than that... but thought I'd ask just to make sure.
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Mar 9, 2008 23:20:33 GMT -5
Your problem is the polish, it's not fine enough. 1200 grit is just a very fine pre-polish, it will never put a shine on rocks. I'm not sure the grit size of "real" polish, but it's got to be something like 10,000 or 30,000.
I use a 4 step process -- 60/90, 120/220, 500, polish. Your 600 grit is similar to my 500 stage. Some folks like to add an extra stage of 1000 grit before polishing - that's essentially what you did with the 1200 stage.
Now get some real polish, and shine those babies up!!!
-Don
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