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Post by MyNewHobby on Aug 30, 2009 17:23:07 GMT -5
Okay .... discouragement is now setting in. Okay ... I know ... grrr
This batch is shining somewhat ... but not how I thought it was going to a day ago.
I am running a burnish right now and for the life of me I just cannot get the pin prick polish out of the dam things. They all seem to have these little pin prick holes and the polish gets buried and I cannot get it out.
What am I doing wrong?
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Post by tkrueger3 on Aug 30, 2009 17:43:54 GMT -5
Julie - what's in this batch? Is this the mixture batch of preforms? I've had the same problem with a lot of the "less-than-hard-as-a-rock" stones both in the vibe and in the rotators. Only way I've been able to get the daggum crud out of the pinholes is to go after it with a 3/4" little bristle brush on the Dremel. But that, let me tell you, is a total PITA!  As a side note, I remember reading somewhere that SiC grit is harder to clean than is AO grit. But I don't know if you can find AO in anything more coarse than 500. But I've had this problem with the AO also. The worst I've seen was with Chromium Oxide polish - great finish, but the green crap took forever to clean out of the holes. If you find a good way to get rid of the crud in the holes, please post it, and save the rest of us from that scourge! I guess, if a body wanted to spend a lifetime on one batch, one could get out the magnifier, and a bright light, and the super-thin CA glue and fill in all the little pin holes before every run - that might do it. But I don't have that kind of time, nor patience. I want it ALL, and I want it NOW! ;D Tom |
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Post by Noosh9057 on Aug 30, 2009 17:44:50 GMT -5
What are you tumbling. I dont think you mention what you are having a problem with.
Roger
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Post by Toad on Aug 31, 2009 6:41:26 GMT -5
Maybe you need to go back a step or two to ensure total smoothness???
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Post by MyNewHobby on Aug 31, 2009 11:27:32 GMT -5
Morning All!
I am working with various stuff that have similar, if not the same mohs. I learned last time I had wide a range of mohs and the batch got really beat up.
They are cabs I cut from slabs I have gotten from others here. This is my 2nd completed batch.
It is the same issue of getting the polish out of those little iddy bitty holes. Not all the pieces are like this ... just the ones that have really tiny soft spots.
I recharged late yesterday afternoon and added a little special item. I am trying to use the Dove soap idea from Nature. I got up with this morning and found a great bubble bath in my vibe.
I am not having a smoothing issue. All the cabs are great in shape and smoothness.
I will finish rinsing and drying off the batch and will post pics.
As always ... my humble thanks
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Post by connrock on Sept 1, 2009 8:00:54 GMT -5
This issue comes up a lot here and as far as I know there's only 2 ways to prevent it from happening.
One is to only work with white rocks and the other is to NOT work with rocks with pits in them.
I know that a lot of our tumbling material isn't gem quality but after the first rough you should be able to tell if a rock should go on or be thrown out.
That being said we all do rocks that aren't quite up to par (including myself) and I find the (especially in a vibe) the letting the load get to a point where you have a very thick slurry will cause it to get impacted into every tiny place it can.
Excessive polish will do the same thing.
Getting it out should not be the problem.Letting it happen is.
Pits and fractures are 2 different problems.Pits will get loaded with grit/polish and it's possible to get it out.
Fractures are common to may rocks we tumble and it's not really anything stuck under the fractures it's just that the fractures are there and that's that.Very much like a broken glass window that is still in tact.You can wash,grind and polish that window for the rest of you life but those fractures will still be there.
A LOT of the rocks I just finished for the competition had this type fracture in them and I just had to accept it.
I've tried a high pressure spray gun to get the muck out of pits but after getting it out the pits still look terrible.The pits are the pits and that's that,,,,,,as are the fractures.
I find that when using a vibe adding powdered laundry soap and letting it run for a while before adding grit/polish helps to prevent muck from getting into problem areas in the rocks.The soap gets into the problem areas first and that helps during clean-up.NOT a cure all but it does help.
connrock
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Post by Toad on Sept 1, 2009 10:04:03 GMT -5
I have to agree with connrock. I never had the problem with polish in pits/cracks in my rocks, and I used a vibe to finish. But then I never let any rocks/slabs go past 60/90 if I saw any pits/cracks. And if they showed up later in the process, back to 60/90 they went.
Of course this also means exceptionally long process times, and grinding some stones away to nothing. It's a trade-off.
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