Post by firstrune on Jan 11, 2009 14:04:59 GMT -5
Well I have to confess, I'm almost embarrassed to put these up when looking at the beautiful pieces of work the rest of you have done. But I promised I would, and here they are. I need to learn from my mistakes and this is a great way to do that. These rocks are all from my own collection around our farm and I admit they're not the best specimens to start with. Does anyone have any idea what the rock is which appears to be simulating a reptile skin??
Here is what I think I did wrong - please agree or disagree or tell me more.
1. I didn't vary the size of the rocks enough.
2. I think, overall, the size of the rocks is too large for my 3 lb tumbler.
3. I used plastic pellets and when I cleaned I realized I had used more of them than I thought, this was probably unnecessary.
4. Many of the rocks have deep pits that I don't think any amount of tumbling will remove.
5. I don't think I got my slurry right (though I did measure carefully) but looking at the pics ejs put up on the slurry thread, my slurry at end was much thicker and still had visible pieces of the grit in it.
6. I'm still not good at the hardness scale determination. So I don't know if these are all in the same hardness range or not. I don't think any of them are ready for the second stage.
7. I need to find a better workstation, my kitchen is a mess.
But this was a lot more fun than cooking!
Bonnie
Here is what I think I did wrong - please agree or disagree or tell me more.
1. I didn't vary the size of the rocks enough.
2. I think, overall, the size of the rocks is too large for my 3 lb tumbler.
3. I used plastic pellets and when I cleaned I realized I had used more of them than I thought, this was probably unnecessary.
4. Many of the rocks have deep pits that I don't think any amount of tumbling will remove.
5. I don't think I got my slurry right (though I did measure carefully) but looking at the pics ejs put up on the slurry thread, my slurry at end was much thicker and still had visible pieces of the grit in it.
6. I'm still not good at the hardness scale determination. So I don't know if these are all in the same hardness range or not. I don't think any of them are ready for the second stage.
7. I need to find a better workstation, my kitchen is a mess.
But this was a lot more fun than cooking! Bonnie
Fran, the rock you asked about doesn't seem to have a rainbow effect. I wish I was more knowledgeable about rocks in general so that I had a better idea of what is in this batch. I have followed your advice ejs, and put them back in the tumbler with some makeup rocks. I didn't put in any pellets at all this time. So I'll check them again next weekend. How exciting it was to check them the first time though! 
