Post by jimc8154 on Aug 7, 2013 12:54:34 GMT -5
Second try to post, not sure what happened to the first, waited over night to see if it would appear, but no go.
I have been a rock hoarder my whole life and have finally decided to try tumbling. I have a Lortone QT12 and a Thumler A-R1 that I use for cleaning brass to reload. Grit & polish ordered and on the way. Plastic BB pellets on the shelf ready for action. (Best thing about this is that my wife is actually just as excited as I am about this though I suppose we will have to take turns picking the stones to tumble.
I have a ton of various river rock and pebble landscaped areas in my yard and found some really nice stones. Also have boxes of rocks collected throughout my life that I need to look through for future batches.
Some photos here -
www.flickr.com/photos/99955771@N03/
I think the first two photos are feldspar's, they are about 6 hardness and do not react to Hydrochloric Acid. I read somewhere that if it looks and acts like quartz, but is not, it is probably feldspar. The third photo looks to be various chert/chalcedony or related. The last photo is just some stuff to experiment with.
Question, should I skip the coarse grind for the smooth pebbles and if so what stage should I start and for how long. I plan to maybe run four batches of rough in the QT-12 to sort for subsequent stages. I can use the smaller A-R1 to work some of the post-coarse stuff.
By the way, if my photos are accessible (first time I've used flickr), I would like to know if any of the pebbles can legitimately be called moon & sun stones.
Any advice will be welcome!
Thanks
I have been a rock hoarder my whole life and have finally decided to try tumbling. I have a Lortone QT12 and a Thumler A-R1 that I use for cleaning brass to reload. Grit & polish ordered and on the way. Plastic BB pellets on the shelf ready for action. (Best thing about this is that my wife is actually just as excited as I am about this though I suppose we will have to take turns picking the stones to tumble.
I have a ton of various river rock and pebble landscaped areas in my yard and found some really nice stones. Also have boxes of rocks collected throughout my life that I need to look through for future batches.
Some photos here -
www.flickr.com/photos/99955771@N03/
I think the first two photos are feldspar's, they are about 6 hardness and do not react to Hydrochloric Acid. I read somewhere that if it looks and acts like quartz, but is not, it is probably feldspar. The third photo looks to be various chert/chalcedony or related. The last photo is just some stuff to experiment with.
Question, should I skip the coarse grind for the smooth pebbles and if so what stage should I start and for how long. I plan to maybe run four batches of rough in the QT-12 to sort for subsequent stages. I can use the smaller A-R1 to work some of the post-coarse stuff.
By the way, if my photos are accessible (first time I've used flickr), I would like to know if any of the pebbles can legitimately be called moon & sun stones.
Any advice will be welcome!
Thanks