Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Jan 30, 2010 12:54:13 GMT -5
Howdy folks,
Well, a freezing morning outside but I had to go out and change out the UV-10. I started a load of small rock in fine grid the other day as an excuse to throw in a few tumble cabs for sanding. Well, the tub wasn't full enough so, having a senior dumbass moment, I thought what the heck, I'd just dump in a couple of bags of those ceramic beads to top off the load. Never gave a dang thought as to how I'd separate them out because duh, ceramic don't float. So I just spent a couple of hours cussing and freezing my fingers off while I separated the multitude of small stones to be moved on from a zillion damn ceramic beads. Next time, a full load of rocks and some plastic beds ( which float duh!). I'll save the ceramic for topping off loads of big rocks which are easy to pick out. *L*....Mel
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Post by Bikerrandy on Jan 30, 2010 18:26:49 GMT -5
I'm not laughing.......as far as you know. ;D
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Post by superioragates on Jan 30, 2010 18:32:22 GMT -5
uhhh -hmmmmm......choke......cough.....
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Post by deb193redux on Jan 30, 2010 18:36:20 GMT -5
good use for the ceramic cylinders
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Post by llana2go on Jan 30, 2010 19:47:48 GMT -5
Aw, come on Mel, it wasn't that c-c-c-c-cold out this morning!  I've never used ceramic beads and after reading this, I think I'll just stick with my tile spacers and plastic pellets. |
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Post by NatureNut on Jan 30, 2010 19:55:58 GMT -5
Well Darlin' I did the same chore today, but we knuckleheads in the northeast learned our lessons when our wet hands stuck to the door knob.  (don't laugh) Rinsed in a colander under the cold spigot, then dumped them into a bucket with WARM water inside the house, picked out the stones for about an hour or so in front of the TV without freezing my fingers off.  |
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Post by llana2go on Feb 11, 2010 9:09:35 GMT -5
I don't live very far from Mel, so I've also been dealing with cleaning rocks in the cold. Except, I don't do it in the cold anymore. I have a cat, so starting saving the big jugs the cat litter comes in. I have several 3 gal buckets I got from Ace Hardware that my colandar fits
perfectly. So, I flip the rocks into it, rinse them off with warm water, then dump them into another bucket of warm water. Then empty the buckets into the cat litter jugs, using a funnel. When the jugs are full I empty them on my compost pile.
I always hated throwing those big jugs away - figured there had to be a use for them. Can't believe it took so long for it to dawn on me they would be perfect for this!
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Post by Toad on Feb 11, 2010 9:18:00 GMT -5
I always used a mix of large and small ceramic cylinders for the rough grind in the rotary. Then I switch to the ceramic pellets for each subsequent stage in the vibe. It is a bit of a pain, but I like handling the rocks after each grind anyway just to make sure no defects appeared during the tumble. Guess I'm just a glutton...
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Feb 11, 2010 13:02:19 GMT -5
I built two screen boxes, one with quarter inch hardware cloth and another with regular screen. I stack them so that the ceramics and really small stuff gets caught in the bottom screen. You could add a third box with eight inch cloth and that would allow the very small cylinders (pellets) to fall through while catching the larger ones. Here's my illustrated post: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=hmequip&thread=27919&page=1Chuck |
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Post by Toad on Feb 11, 2010 13:04:00 GMT -5
Plus, if they are so small as to be hard to pick out of the pellets, they get demoted to grit carrier.
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Feb 11, 2010 17:48:57 GMT -5
Agree with Toad on using them as grit carriers.
Chuck
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Post by NatureNut on Feb 11, 2010 17:56:09 GMT -5
Unless you plan to make a gem tree, then they are tiny leaves. ;D
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Post by connrock on Feb 12, 2010 8:12:58 GMT -5
Mel, I guess we all go through "at least" one thing tha's not all too much fun!Those ceramic pellets are a real pain in my side too.I use them a lot in my vibes and have to deal with sorting them all the time. I like to save the tiny rocks to put into fancy bottles so te screen thingy is out. I did one better then you though. I needed a LOT of some kind of medium for a load and mixed a LOT of pellets with (of all things) white quartz,,,,tiny,tiny white quartz!! I have all sorts and sizes of screens but when it gets down to the tiny ones,,,,,,one,,two,,,three,,,,four hundred four,,,four hundred five,,,,,,lol If I had to deal witht he cold I just wouldn't tumble in winter.I'm pretty much spoiled rotten when it comes to "my" area down here which is almost 1400 sq ft!! "She" got the up stairs and I got the down!she does sneak a few things into my area but I keep a close watch as I am NOT allowed to "trespass" in her domain! lol We had to compermise as to where the Christmas Tree would be stored and I'm a tough negotiator! She won!!!!!! lol lol lol,,, Back to rocks,,,,, I can do it all inside now no matter how much slurry or grinding residue I have. I have 5 buckets,,,1 on top of the other. I pour the much into the top bucket . As the bucket fills about 1/2 full I add about 2 gallons of water,,,let set I then syphone that water into the next bucket and do the same until the bottom bucket is full. I pump that water into 1 tub in my sink.When that tub is about 3/4 full I add enoughwater to fill it to that top. I then pump that water into the other tub and down the drain. Here's a few pics of it,,,try to follow the "flow' of the water from the bottom bucket right through the final pumping down the drain,,,,,    Did ya notice that the sink is a lot higher then normal?? hen I installed it I raised it up 10" so I wouldn't have to lean over it all the time,,,,told ya I was spoiled rotten!! connrock |
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(don't laugh) Rinsed in a colander under the cold spigot, then dumped them into a bucket with WARM water inside the house, picked out the stones for about an hour or so in front of the TV without freezing my fingers off. 
