Post by yorgos on Apr 2, 2010 14:37:26 GMT -5
Dear all, 
the two batches of the blue chalcedons are back in the rotary tumbler in the 80 grit, so no new pictures yet.
However, a friend of mine gave me to try out a Raytech Vibratory Tumbler - the Tumble-Vibe 5 with a 8'' bowl with capacity 4 of pounds. He bought the machine some years back and never used it. Of course I was excited and wanted to try it out to see the difference in the two types of tumblers. I read what I could and especially the thread started by Bikerrandy in this section of the forum "Instructions for vibe tumblers" was very helpful.
After about a week of studying the texts I tried my first batch and as far as I can judge it is a complete disaster.
I followed the instructions given with the tumbler - i.e. filled it with approx. 4 pounds of rocks of different sizes, the biggest 3-4cm in diameter, I sprinkled the rocks with 2 tablespoons of Silicone Carbide 100/120 (which is what Raytech supplies with the machine and suggests to start with) and added two tablespoons of water and turned the tumbler on, nothing much happened except that the rocks were vibrating practically in one place and just moving slowly in the circle around the center shaft. There was no turning of the rocks and no movement to the center of the bowl. So I added more water, but nothing much changed, the rocks were vibrating in one place without turning just slowly moving around the center shaft staying in the same position, if you can understand.
Can anybody tell me what I am doing wrong? Has anybody experience with this type of tumbler - is maybe this motion the correct one for this tumbler???
Thank you in advance for responding,
yorgos
I just realized I posted this message in the wrong section, I wanted to post it in the Totally Rock Tumbling section, my apologies.
the two batches of the blue chalcedons are back in the rotary tumbler in the 80 grit, so no new pictures yet.However, a friend of mine gave me to try out a Raytech Vibratory Tumbler - the Tumble-Vibe 5 with a 8'' bowl with capacity 4 of pounds. He bought the machine some years back and never used it. Of course I was excited and wanted to try it out to see the difference in the two types of tumblers. I read what I could and especially the thread started by Bikerrandy in this section of the forum "Instructions for vibe tumblers" was very helpful.
After about a week of studying the texts I tried my first batch and as far as I can judge it is a complete disaster.
I followed the instructions given with the tumbler - i.e. filled it with approx. 4 pounds of rocks of different sizes, the biggest 3-4cm in diameter, I sprinkled the rocks with 2 tablespoons of Silicone Carbide 100/120 (which is what Raytech supplies with the machine and suggests to start with) and added two tablespoons of water and turned the tumbler on, nothing much happened except that the rocks were vibrating practically in one place and just moving slowly in the circle around the center shaft. There was no turning of the rocks and no movement to the center of the bowl. So I added more water, but nothing much changed, the rocks were vibrating in one place without turning just slowly moving around the center shaft staying in the same position, if you can understand.
Can anybody tell me what I am doing wrong? Has anybody experience with this type of tumbler - is maybe this motion the correct one for this tumbler???
Thank you in advance for responding,
yorgos
I just realized I posted this message in the wrong section, I wanted to post it in the Totally Rock Tumbling section, my apologies.
