electricface
starting to spend too much on rocks
First fish of the day
Member since August 2012
Posts: 211
|
Post by electricface on Nov 27, 2012 19:34:13 GMT -5
I just took my surviving amethyst and citrine out of 500 and am getting them ready for polish. I'm pretty excited, and nervous. lol
I do have a question. I run them through a wash tumble for a few hours after I clean them. Should I run them through the wash with the pellets or does it matter? I have been over filling with water thinkind that will help with the wash. I haven't had any break or chip yet but when I get out of polish and into the final step might it scratch them? After polish I plan on running it longer than a few hours, just not sure how long to run it.
|
|
jukerocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 154
|
Post by jukerocks on Nov 27, 2012 19:44:32 GMT -5
I always wash between stages for about 24 hours. Takes a little more time, but I think this produces better looking stones with less residual grit between each stage. I used small round pellets during the polishing stage for my amethyst. I was disappointed that many of the pieces had small chips regardless of having pellets in with them. Amethyst is harder to work with than a lot of other types of stones.
|
|
jukerocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 154
|
Post by jukerocks on Nov 27, 2012 19:45:43 GMT -5
Pellets and all during the washing stage.
|
|
Minnesota Daniel
freely admits to licking rocks
A COUPLE LAKERS
Member since August 2011
Posts: 891
|
Post by Minnesota Daniel on Nov 27, 2012 20:15:03 GMT -5
I use soap (powdered laundry detergent actually), Borax and tripoli in the wash between the SiC and the AO. About a third as much tripoli as the amount of polish I'm going to use in the final stage. I run that for 24 hrs in the vibe, or 2 days in a rotary. I got the idea from Bikerrandy. He uses polish not tripoli. I tried tripoli because it's cheaper than polish. Seems to work. They look better going into the AO polish than they looked coming out of the 500 SiC.
|
|