cardiobill
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 879
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Post by cardiobill on Mar 3, 2013 13:05:02 GMT -5
Is it ok to use ceramics with obsidian? I see the MOHs hardness of ceramic is higher than obsidian.
I am tumbling some obsidian that Krystee sent me and it looks like I could use a little more volume after stage 1.
Thanks in advance Bill
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Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 3, 2013 13:31:11 GMT -5
Do you have Krystee's obsidian instructions? I'm doing my first batch of obsidian right now too. Most of it is still in 60/90. Here's a quote from Krystee's obsidian tutorial: From this point on I use ceramic media as a cushioning agent for my obsidian. It’s very important to use cushioning for the rest of the stages to prevent chipping. Most rock shops that sell grit will also carry ceramic media. I use a mixture of large and small media. I have also heard of several people that use ceramic tile spacers from Home Depot with good results. You do not want to use plastic pellets in a vibrating tumbler. They are not heavy enough and will impair the functionality of the vibration process. One nice thing about ceramic media is that it can be rinsed and moved along with your stones in every stage. You DO NOT need to have dedicated media for each grit stage! Here's her tutorial: www.certifiedrockhound.com/otr.pdf
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 3, 2013 13:34:03 GMT -5
I have used ceramics with all my obsidian with no problems at all. If I run a full load of just obsidian then about half the volume is ceramic filler.
Chuck
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Post by susand24224 on Mar 3, 2013 15:49:18 GMT -5
I use ceramics with everything, including obsidian. I read somewhere that ceramics do not harm softer material despite their hardness since they are less dense. I have no idea whether this is correct, but it makes sense.
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cardiobill
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 879
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Post by cardiobill on Mar 3, 2013 17:39:33 GMT -5
Thanks everyone.
Bill
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