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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Nov 19, 2012 20:15:14 GMT -5
ok so I got cocky after having a great batch of obsidian last week and thought I could tumble some fluorite. Bad idea! these are the worst thing we have had in our tumblers ever. started in 120/220 but they never really got rounded they stayed jagged and just loss mass. decided we had to just move them along or we wouldn't have anything left by the time they rounded. we followed up with 500 in the lot-o for 3 days then finished with rocksheds recommended a/o polish and dry corn cob polish. Anyone ever have any luck with this stuff? maybe I just had bad material? fluorite = kyptonite ![](http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x462/drummondislandrocks/fluorite/DSC03172_resize.jpg) ![](http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x462/drummondislandrocks/fluorite/DSC03173_resize.jpg) ![](http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x462/drummondislandrocks/fluorite/DSC03175_resize.jpg) Chuck
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 19, 2012 20:22:07 GMT -5
It is real soft.
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snuffy
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Post by snuffy on Nov 19, 2012 20:44:47 GMT -5
You just reminded me,I have a bag of fluorite somewhere that I gave up on! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) snuffy
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The Dad_Ohs
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Post by The Dad_Ohs on Nov 19, 2012 20:56:26 GMT -5
Almost looks like not enough cushion in the barrel... they slammed into each other big time!!
I've never tumbled Fluorite before but I had some quartz that looked like that ... it's garden material now... got me totally flustered... I would say much more media to cushion the load is needed...maybe the small ceramics would be better, wouldn't use plastic on it.. don't want it floating away from material. With all those cracks/fractures dunno if you can rerun the load without losing at least half of what you have in mass trying to clean them up.
good luck with it.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 19, 2012 21:04:32 GMT -5
Those look horrible. I was just starting to think of you as a rock god too.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Nov 19, 2012 21:11:23 GMT -5
I could not have cushioned these any better, the handful you see here was all that was in the 4lb lot-o the rest was all filler and even over filled the barrel to reduce the action. I would say I had at least 2/3 filler to 1/3 fluorite.
I really hated posting those horrible pictures but figure its no fair to just brag about the good stuff and hide the bad.
I need re-assurance in my tumbling ability so my next batch will be some good old reliable AGATES.
Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 19, 2012 21:47:13 GMT -5
I bought some of that corn cob stuff too. I was going to try the Kona in it, but I couldn't even get it to the point where I was supposed to put it in the corn cob.
When did your fluorite go bad? Three days in the Lot-O sounds like a long time. Did it come out of the 500 looking halfway decent?
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Minnesota Daniel
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Nov 19, 2012 22:10:33 GMT -5
Don't you think a lot of those cracks were already there? Maybe you didn't look that close or pay much attention because it didn't look so bad. The tumbling though has really brought them out, made 'em bigger.
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The Dad_Ohs
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Post by The Dad_Ohs on Nov 19, 2012 22:48:11 GMT -5
Don't you think a lot of those cracks were already there? Maybe you didn't look that close or pay much attention because it didn't look so bad. The tumbling though has really brought them out, made 'em bigger. I agree with you there ... guaranteed that a majority of those cracks may have been lurkers... hiding until enough material was removed to allow then to surface.
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Post by susand24224 on Nov 20, 2012 0:44:36 GMT -5
Ah, yes, the Devil Fluorite. How well I remember it looking like, well, like yours! I just dragged the jar out and looked--lots looked like yours, and a few (less than a third) are rounded nicely and either fracture-free or close to it.
Here's some stuff I remember. I had fluorite rough from two sources. The Rockshed's, although it had nicer colors, also had more fractures and disintegrated faster. The best pieces I have were scraps from a slab used for cabs. This leads me to believe that lots of the problem is the way it is broken up.
I remember that some of the fluorite had attached hitchhikers of what appeared to be small amounts of quartz. These had to come out. I also remember tumbling in a 3lb barrel with Ivory Soap and 50% ceramic shapes. Tumbling was for three days (in the rotary) beginning with 120/220, then 3 days with 500, then 3 with 1000. I had a decent shine at that point, but went to a regular polish phase with borax which completely ruined the shine. Borax and fluorite are not friends, at least in my water.
When I got the Lot-O I went back to 1000 for eight hours and then polish for eight hours. When I (at first) ran the polish longer, the fluorite got duller, so I minimized it; that worked better. I haven't tried the walnut shells or corn cob approach. For me, the key to success, if my sorry little batch could be called that, was minimizing the tumbling process. They did better in the rotary than in the vibe.
I hope this helps a bit.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Nov 20, 2012 6:33:39 GMT -5
Thank you for all that info Susan. The only pieces that came out good in this batch were the smaller chips. All pieces larger than a nickle were all crap. I do think the material was probably the main problem but it sure was disappointing.
Rob - I was trying to use the logic from the obsidian tutorial when it came to my 3 day run in the lot-o with 500 grit. The theory being that the grit breaks down 50 percent every 24 hours so that the second day is 1000 and the third 2000. That didnt work at all it just gave the rocks a longer period to damage each other.
Oh well there's lots of rocks left to try next! Chuck
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Post by captbob on Nov 20, 2012 14:08:18 GMT -5
Top pic has a stone that looks to be Ruby in Zoisite, was that in the tumble??
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Nov 20, 2012 15:33:02 GMT -5
the one piece of Ruby in Zoisite went in after all the damage was already done. I just threw that in for the last half of the run in corn cob to see what it would do for the polish on it and at that point I was not worried about the fluorite anymore.
Chuck
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 22, 2012 5:59:35 GMT -5
A small slow turning rotary tumbler works best for me on soft material.But i never saw obsidian shine like yours.I have seen flourite at the local hobby shop with an overseas shine.How did they do it?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 22, 2012 6:06:11 GMT -5
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