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Post by talkingstones on Mar 28, 2012 5:49:10 GMT -5
I've been working these stones for a bit and supposedly finished the final polish yesterday. I'm not a happy camper with these. The garnets were much better at the 500 level than the 1000 and the came out with a dull matt finish. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The garnets I'm pretty much resolved that I'm going to have to finish by hand, but this other stuff I shouldn't have to. It isn't like these are the greatest pieces on the planet. I got them at the barn out of the vug so this isn't a real investment of anything but time. The thing is, I like them and they should come up nicely. Any suggestions? Cathy Addendum: Could changing soaps have done this? I used Zote this time instead of Ivory bar soap. They're both soaps but two different kinds. The Zote was flakes and seemed to have left a film on the inside of the barrel. Cathy
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 28, 2012 9:07:58 GMT -5
Only things I could suggest is don't mix garnets with the other materials. Even though garnet is mohs 6.5-7.5 and it would seem they would work fine with quartz gems at mohs 6-7, in my experience, the garnets chew up the quartz gem materials. Also, when I tried garnets by themselves a time or two, I found a lot of difference in how the garnets themselves work up. The red pyrope types seemed to polish OK while the brown and black andradite? types showed pitting and undercutting which would seem to indicate a lot of microfractures or softer areas in the crystals. This being said, maybe someone with more garnet experience will chime in as I've only done them a couple of times...Mel
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Post by talkingstones on Mar 29, 2012 6:20:36 GMT -5
Thanks Mel. I'm going to take the non-garnets back to the 500 level for a day or so and then try to step them up again to see what happens. Also going to use Ivory this time. See what happens....
Cathy
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Mar 29, 2012 20:33:16 GMT -5
My guess is that your vibe is underloaded and you're not getting good action. If it's underloaded the rocks just tend to bang against each other. I can't overload my vibe: I've filled it all the way to the top and it still works fine. You might try adding more small stuff.
Chuck
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Post by NatureNut on Mar 29, 2012 22:42:46 GMT -5
I tend to agree with Chuck. I found that the more I load the vibe, the gentler it is. Jo
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Post by Jack ( Yorkshire) on Mar 31, 2012 1:47:52 GMT -5
Cathy
What about the quality of the Garnets ?
I have 2 lots here one lot is useless and wont polish up, at all the other lot polishes up awsome and it was with in a mixed batch.
Jack Yorkshire uk
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Post by talkingstones on Mar 31, 2012 4:39:20 GMT -5
They aren't very high grade at all. They do alright on the wheels but in the tumbler they're just degrading. I pulled them from the batch and will be working them today by hand.
Cathy
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