snivlem
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2008
Posts: 167
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Post by snivlem on Mar 23, 2008 19:46:52 GMT -5
Egg-rock type decorative stone that is very cheap, could it be used as filler for my UV-10 when I need to fill a load?
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Post by deb193redux on Mar 24, 2008 0:07:59 GMT -5
In the early stages. If it is not hard and fine grained, then it might hinder polish. Can't go wrong with ceramic.
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Mar 24, 2008 10:57:59 GMT -5
What exactly is "egg-rock decorative stone"? Any type of quartz or agate makes a good filler, might as well run something that will look nice and you can get the stuff for a buck a pound or less. If you want small stones that will get in the hollows of the larger, and will give you a really beautiful if small finished product, get the pea garnets from India, couple bucks a pound and they look great when they're done.
SirRoxalot
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snivlem
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2008
Posts: 167
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Post by snivlem on Mar 24, 2008 12:36:04 GMT -5
Yeah, the pea garnets seem like a good idea. It just seems that for the same price or cheaper than ceramic or plastic, I could use something that would be useful after finishing.
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lapidopterix
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2008
Posts: 216
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Post by lapidopterix on Mar 24, 2008 16:38:10 GMT -5
I save all the tiny bits left over from sawing and toss them in.
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oriongal
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2007
Posts: 96
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Post by oriongal on Mar 24, 2008 19:20:01 GMT -5
I used some of that as filler with the sapphires in coarse (I have a flowerbed that is filled with the egg rock you're talking about, and just grabbed up a few pieces to throw in with them). None of the pieces that I threw in turned into anything noteworthy, but they were certainly cheaper than an equivalent amount of ceramic would have been in order to get the barrel full enough to go.
But - in my case, I already had the egg rock on-hand, had no worries about hardness to consider with them vs. what they were going in with, and I was also introducing a little more size variety to the load by using them. Since most loads would not be of such small-sized stones as this was (none larger than a half-dollar in size and the majority of them being smaller than a dime), it'd be more likely that you'd need variety in the smaller-sized direction rather than the same or larger. I know there's some variety within the egg rocks size-wise, but they're still not as small as ceramic media would be.
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 24, 2008 20:52:35 GMT -5
I have no idea what "egg-rock" is but the ceramic cylinders are most commonly 5/32" x 5/16". That's pretty small. Covington sells ceramic in 3/8 x 5/8". That's closer to pee gravel I guess. They also list a garnet sand, 8/12 mesh. I'll have to check that out next time I'm there. I think the saw scraps idea was a good one and a good use for otherwise waste material.
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oriongal
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2007
Posts: 96
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Post by oriongal on Mar 24, 2008 21:51:39 GMT -5
John, it's just landscape rock, what you'd make a rock garden out of (especially if you live in an area where you don't have local rocks to make a rock garden out of, <grin>). Egg rock is just what they call it because it's already pretty well rounded: Link to Egg rock at Lowe'sThat's what it looks like right out of the bag, but when you rinse off the dirt they're actually primarily white with some tans, browns and grays. A handful from the flowerbed:  Never done a scratch-test on them so don't know what hardness they are. My uneducated guess is that they're mostly some sort of quartz variety. |
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snivlem
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2008
Posts: 167
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Post by snivlem on Mar 24, 2008 22:13:56 GMT -5
Yeah the ones i was talking about were a bit smaller, tumbled, and slightly polished. More from the arts/crafts section than lawn/garden.
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Post by Michael John on Mar 25, 2008 0:50:18 GMT -5
Seems like a waste to spend money on the electricity to run a tumbler for months, plus all of the grit, and then purposely use junk for part of your load. IMO, you should get some more good gemstone to fill the load.
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oriongal
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2007
Posts: 96
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Post by oriongal on Mar 25, 2008 7:16:54 GMT -5
At $20-$25/lb, and running in one 3lb barrel of a dual that would have been running anyway, I'm not so sure it would be cheaper, <grin>. But, they didn't actually run that way for more than a couple of weeks. I started with a little over a pound that I'd bought on eBay, but I wasn't sure at that time I was going to be continuing them. If they hadn't done much, they were destined for my tabletop fountain at work (which is probably still their eventual destination - they're generally too flawed to make much out of) and something else would be going into the tumbler. When that batch shaped up in coarse better/faster than I'd originally expected them to, I got another couple of pounds from Multistone, and didn't need much in the way of filler again until they got to medium (by which time they got topped up with ceramic just like any other load). Of course, tumbling mine-run corundum at all is in many ways a big waste of money even with a full barrel. But then again, considering that I'm purely a hobbyist tumbler (no cabbing machine, no slab saw, no laps - just tumblers and a WF to make things fit into them), and that most of what has come out of my tumblers in the past year has been given away - the return on investment for me in tumbling anything at all is the enjoyment of it and nothing more. Depending on your point of view, either everything I put in is a good ROI - or nothing that I put in is, since I'm not going to be seeking or seeing any monetary return on any of it.  |
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fanatic
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since October 2007
Posts: 233
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Post by fanatic on Mar 25, 2008 9:43:32 GMT -5
Like oriongal, I also have a WF and tumblers only. I save my scrap from the WF to use as filler and my daughter grabs those tumbled scraps and makes earrings and dangly bracelets out of them. One mans trash......
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chassroc
Cave Dweller 
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on Mar 25, 2008 11:59:02 GMT -5
Driveway rocks are usually river gravel and such and can be used as filler. Keep your eyes open and you might find interesting quartz and other rocks in commercial office landscaping and I doubt anyone would mind if you took a handfull here and there. Once you tumble for a while, you'll have plenty of do-overs and rejects left over from previous batches
csroc
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Roan
has rocks in the head
Member since January 2008
Posts: 600
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Post by Roan on Mar 25, 2008 13:59:46 GMT -5
Oriongal,
I think that's very cool that you used two different coins in your photo. Great idea! Wish I had some Brit money for that.
Eileen
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Mar 25, 2008 16:19:07 GMT -5
The "egg rock" photo looks like rounded quartz, and I bet it'd tumble up nicely if it's anything like the milky white quartz pebbles I've found on the north shore of Lake Superior. We found some beauties on a beach in San Diego many a year ago, they tumbled up perfectly and 90% of the work had been done by the surf. If the stuff is dead cheap, go for it. Ask the supplier where they get it from, prospect around a bit and see if you can't collect your own!
SirRoxalot
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rockdewd
has rocks in the head
Member since October 2007
Posts: 605
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Post by rockdewd on Mar 25, 2008 19:10:36 GMT -5
I use ceramic media, cheap glass marbles, and tempered glass shards for vibratory tumbling media. After a while you build up enough small tumbled rock bits that work for vibe media too. My vibe tumblers pretty much run 24x7x365. I usually don't have full batches running through when I'm trying to get cabs done so having suitable media on hand is a requirement for my cab business. Of course they are sitting at home idle right now while I'm in Montana hunting agates. You know you've had a good day agate hunting when you have to stop about every 100 feet to rest on your walk back to the car...  Rick |
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