m83striker
starting to shine!
Member since July 2012
Posts: 36
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Post by m83striker on Aug 19, 2012 15:52:06 GMT -5
Well, I just opened the first barrel that has made it through the entire 4 stage tumbling process and I'm not impressed. The last 10 days they have been in the polish stage. After taking them out about an hour ago they have dried and hazed over. Currently I have them in the barrel again with (2) tablespoons full of Borax, but if they haze over again then I'm not sure what to do. Should I put them in the polish stage again for another 10 days? I have made sure that I cleaned and even did the Borax between the pre-polish and polish stages. I used a new barrel specifically for the polish stage and used new plastic beads like all the instructions/blogs say to do. For some reason I was not expecting a disappointment right from the start.
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fwfranklen (Mike)
spending too much on rocks
Rock-ON--Have you kissed your rock today?
Member since August 2012
Posts: 379
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Post by fwfranklen (Mike) on Aug 19, 2012 15:53:44 GMT -5
Can you post some pictures? A close up random group shot, both dry and wet? A lot to ask but these people can tell you with pictures!
Mike
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m83striker
starting to shine!
Member since July 2012
Posts: 36
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Post by m83striker on Aug 19, 2012 15:56:15 GMT -5
Maybe I'll leave them in overnight with the Borax and then I'll take a picture tomorrow. Borax shouldn't hurt anything if left for that long.
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fwfranklen (Mike)
spending too much on rocks
Rock-ON--Have you kissed your rock today?
Member since August 2012
Posts: 379
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Post by fwfranklen (Mike) on Aug 19, 2012 15:57:56 GMT -5
Nope won't hurt.
Mike
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Minnesota Daniel
freely admits to licking rocks
A COUPLE LAKERS
Member since August 2011
Posts: 891
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Aug 19, 2012 16:02:00 GMT -5
Start from the beginning. What kind of rocks are they? What grit did you use for each stage, and how long did you run each stage? What are you using for polish and where did you get it? Might all be called Aluminum Oxide, but it's not all the same quality.
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m83striker
starting to shine!
Member since July 2012
Posts: 36
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Post by m83striker on Aug 19, 2012 16:14:09 GMT -5
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Minnesota Daniel
freely admits to licking rocks
A COUPLE LAKERS
Member since August 2011
Posts: 891
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Aug 19, 2012 17:47:38 GMT -5
I can't speak to wonderstone, but the rhyolite I've worked with was kind of coarse grained. It took forever to attain a polish I was satisfied with, and it never did get a shine like an agate. More time in the 500/600 might have helped. I hope it looks better after the borax wash, but you might need to run it in the polish again. If you do, keep it in for a while. I check it very five days or so to see if it's getting any better, and I keep doing that until it's good enough.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2012 19:20:55 GMT -5
Hi! I am new to this. Let me ask the pros a question, in the hopes my question will help them help you.
Isn't 1200 grit more of a pre-polish than a polish?
Lastly, I think you purchased those candy stones from Jason - nmonyx - a member here. Maybe he has some advice specific top that stone.
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m83striker
starting to shine!
Member since July 2012
Posts: 36
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Post by m83striker on Aug 19, 2012 19:34:56 GMT -5
I was really hoping that this Wonderstone/Rhyolite was going to be a good starter for my tumbling obsession. I have (2) barrels of Mahogany obsidian in the pre-polish stage and hopefully they will turn out better than this first batch. I have heard that obsidian is hard to get a good polish, but I thought the rhyolite was a "shoe-in" for a good first batch, lol. I'm thinking that these two types of rock are going to be my favorites so I better figure out a good system!!!
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Aug 19, 2012 19:45:32 GMT -5
Hi! I am new to this. Let me ask the pros a question, in the hopes my question will help them help you. Isn't 1200 grit more of a pre-polish than a polish? Lastly, I think you purchased those candy stones from Jason - nmonyx - a member here. Maybe he has some advice specific top that stone. I just caught this when shotgunner asked about the 1200,overlooked it on the first read.Iuse 1000 ao as prepolish on all my tumbles,I would think the 1200 is prepolish too,not familiar with it.I use rockshed ao polish,anyone know how it compares to the 1200 ao mentioned? snuffy
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Minnesota Daniel
freely admits to licking rocks
A COUPLE LAKERS
Member since August 2011
Posts: 891
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Aug 19, 2012 21:21:54 GMT -5
I missed that too. 1200 grit is very likely to be fused alumina. It's too coarse and too impure to be a good polish. Polish is more on the order of 3,000 grit, but if they even list polish grain size it's in microns. ordinary AO polish is usually about 5 microns in size. Polish that size will be levigated Alumina. It's purer and has flatter crystals than fused alumina. It's a different kind of AO, not just a finer grit. Most of the time though they just call it polish and you really don't know what it is. That's why I asked where you got it.
I made the mistake of purchasing crappy polish on eBay once and ended up throwing it away. Now I get my polish from the Rock Shed. Their polish is top quality.
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jspencer
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2011
Posts: 929
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Post by jspencer on Aug 19, 2012 21:30:48 GMT -5
1200 is a good pre-polish I would think. But a good polish is going to be more like 14,000 grit size. Anything less than 8,000 is not going to give you a good shine IMHO. My personal favorite is Raybrite-A though it has gotten more expensive in the last couple of years. An excellent all purpose polish in the results I have gotten from it.
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Post by connrock on Aug 20, 2012 9:37:46 GMT -5
You chose 2 difficult types of rocks to start off with. The rhyolite/wonderstone can be pretty difficult to get a glass like finish and the obsidian is fairly soft for a beginner! The rocks sent to us for the 2011 World Rock Tumbling Competition were called Royal Savannah Jasper and were a form of rhyolite. Here is a photo of them after their 5th rough,,,,shown wet,,,, Here is a photo of the few I entered for judging shown dry,,,, As you can see,some took a fair polish while some didn't. It's VERY difficult to get a good shine on rocks with a different hardness within themselves. You'll never get a consistent shine on all the rocks.Some will come out good and some not as good. For obsidian I would suggest you follow the tutorial Krystee (tntmom) has posted here.It's tried and true with proven results,,,NO Karo syrup either! LOL Good luck,,, connrock
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Post by connrock on Aug 20, 2012 9:41:59 GMT -5
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m83striker
starting to shine!
Member since July 2012
Posts: 36
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Post by m83striker on Aug 20, 2012 15:55:41 GMT -5
Well, thanks everyone!! I guess you just can't buy grit "kits" and expect them to tumble any rock type. I looked at The Rock Shed and they use 500 grit as a pre-polish also in their grit kits. Does everyone test every combination of grit and polish for every rock type that they tumble? I should have studied a little more in the beginning about what types are easier to tumble before setting out on this quest, lol. I stopped tumbling my obsidian and cleaned them up. According to the tutorial I should be using a viberatory tumbler and I don't have one of them yet. I'll finish them up at a later date then. I put the rhyolite back in a barrel with another load of 1200 polish, but I might take that out also and table it for another day. I'll do a little more research. Thanks.
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Minnesota Daniel
freely admits to licking rocks
A COUPLE LAKERS
Member since August 2011
Posts: 891
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Aug 20, 2012 18:32:09 GMT -5
Hey Striker, I too have a couple bags of stuff that I'm going to try again another day!
In instead of kits my advice is to order all your grit and polish separately. Separately because you never know how many stages of 60/90 you'll need. You'll save on shipping too if you order larger amounts all at once (from reputable dealer obviously).
Almost all rocks use 60/90, 120/220 and 500 grit. After that there are variations - study the tutorials.
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Post by susand24224 on Aug 25, 2012 23:27:43 GMT -5
You can tumble obsidian just fine in a rotary. I did many loads before I broke down and bought the Lot-O. Caveat: I used Rock shed AO as polish, but it took as much as three weeks with obsidian to get a good polish. Also, you must cushion the load to prevent chipping, etc. For me this was a pinch of soap shavings and 50% ceramics. For others it's plastic pellets.
Also, don't toss that "polish" you have. I made the same mistake once, but it works just fine as a pre-polish. With harder rocks, you can often get away with skipping the 1000 (or 1200) stage as a prepolish, but to get a decent polish on softer rocks, like your rhyolite, the 1000 stage will be crucial.
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