Post by onewomanarmy on Mar 17, 2009 12:14:03 GMT -5
Hi!
I'd found myself in a rut for some time when I came back to this board just to see how everyone has been doing and entertain myself with all the cool stuff you've been up to. Little did I know it would be just the boost I needed to start dragging myself out of my rut - not only did all the rock photos and conversation get my motor going but I also had the luck to stumble into that little Sudoku contest LadyB had going. (Is luck really the right word there?
) Anyway, since then, I've been slowly trying to get going again and I'd certainly like to thank everyone here for that - all the photos and discussion were just what I needed after an up and down year.
Once I got my dead tumblers going again, I decided I needed a little more tumble power and bought another used Lortone 6lb tumbler on ebray. Felt like I got a pretty good deal and was quite excited to get it going.
When I finally got the time to get the barrels started, I noticed that when I squeezed the barrels - distorting their shape slightly - I could see small cracks. Ugh. I decided that these two new barrels would have to be used for coarse grind only since I wasn't sure I'd ever get them completely cleaned out again given the condition of the rubber. Thought they'd be fine for just coarse though. However, when I checked my first load in the new barrels (after running in coarse for a week), the slurry was very black - despite one load having NO black at all - just some orangey cherty stuff I came across around a creek here. I had no idea if this local rock would tumble but I knew there wasn't a bit of black in it. The slurry was also more foamy than usual and a very weird consistency. Grainy almost. Not the grittiness of 60/90 grit exactly - different. The rocks didn't appear to have changed a bit either. Odd I thought. But maybe this stuff I picked up locally wasn't tumble-able... So I looked at the other barrel - this was a mixture of stuff I have accumulated from purchases - some of which I know will tumble - and it looked exactly the same - very black, grainy, foamy slurry and no change to the rocks. I'm afraid that it's the barrels - I'm guessing they are dry rotted (or had been used for something that damaged the rubber) and are breaking down somewhat in my tumble.
My questions - is there any way I can salvage these two barrels? Will this breakdown prohibit any progress in tumbling? It seemed to (prohibit progress) from my initial results - though I don't understand why exactly. I'm a little bummed, I was excited to have more coarse barrels going to feed the final stages a little quicker.
Not to mention, if the barrels aren't usable, the tumbler wasn't near as good a deal!
Thanks for any wisdom/advice!
owa
(and thanks for being the motivation to get outside my rut!)
I'd found myself in a rut for some time when I came back to this board just to see how everyone has been doing and entertain myself with all the cool stuff you've been up to. Little did I know it would be just the boost I needed to start dragging myself out of my rut - not only did all the rock photos and conversation get my motor going but I also had the luck to stumble into that little Sudoku contest LadyB had going. (Is luck really the right word there?
) Anyway, since then, I've been slowly trying to get going again and I'd certainly like to thank everyone here for that - all the photos and discussion were just what I needed after an up and down year.Once I got my dead tumblers going again, I decided I needed a little more tumble power and bought another used Lortone 6lb tumbler on ebray. Felt like I got a pretty good deal and was quite excited to get it going.
When I finally got the time to get the barrels started, I noticed that when I squeezed the barrels - distorting their shape slightly - I could see small cracks. Ugh. I decided that these two new barrels would have to be used for coarse grind only since I wasn't sure I'd ever get them completely cleaned out again given the condition of the rubber. Thought they'd be fine for just coarse though. However, when I checked my first load in the new barrels (after running in coarse for a week), the slurry was very black - despite one load having NO black at all - just some orangey cherty stuff I came across around a creek here. I had no idea if this local rock would tumble but I knew there wasn't a bit of black in it. The slurry was also more foamy than usual and a very weird consistency. Grainy almost. Not the grittiness of 60/90 grit exactly - different. The rocks didn't appear to have changed a bit either. Odd I thought. But maybe this stuff I picked up locally wasn't tumble-able... So I looked at the other barrel - this was a mixture of stuff I have accumulated from purchases - some of which I know will tumble - and it looked exactly the same - very black, grainy, foamy slurry and no change to the rocks. I'm afraid that it's the barrels - I'm guessing they are dry rotted (or had been used for something that damaged the rubber) and are breaking down somewhat in my tumble.
My questions - is there any way I can salvage these two barrels? Will this breakdown prohibit any progress in tumbling? It seemed to (prohibit progress) from my initial results - though I don't understand why exactly. I'm a little bummed, I was excited to have more coarse barrels going to feed the final stages a little quicker.
Not to mention, if the barrels aren't usable, the tumbler wasn't near as good a deal!Thanks for any wisdom/advice!
owa
(and thanks for being the motivation to get outside my rut!)
