Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 23, 2013 16:55:37 GMT -5
Well folks, I've got to remember it always pays to not get too complacent. I've tumbled a lot of rocks but man I forgot the major rule on my last batch. Had me a big pile of slabettes so without even giving it a thought, I just threw a bunch in the vibe for the fine grind stage with very little else. For any of you newbies, it is not wise to do that *L*. What happens, is without small filler or ceramic beads, the grit gets caught between the slabettes and pits or abrades the faces just enough to spoil the shine in later stages. I did of course, use lots of smalls as filler in the later stages but by then the damage was already done. Got to remember, only a few slabettes per load with lots of small stuff to separate the slabs and smooth the faces evenly. Soon as I took them out of course, I remembered, and was saying "DUMB Dumb Dumb". So now I have to take out all the slabs and start them over in fine grind. Crap! *L*.....Mel
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Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
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Post by Steve on Aug 23, 2013 19:08:45 GMT -5
Yup. But who among us hasn't done this at least once?
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Post by helens on Aug 24, 2013 13:03:27 GMT -5
Sok, now you have an excuse to cab them:).
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Post by connrock on Aug 25, 2013 8:14:20 GMT -5
Mel,,, I can't tell you how many times I forgot to put the grit in the tumbler,,,let it run for a couple weeks and found nicely washed rocks! LOL I once put uncooked rice and hot water in a Lortone 6lb barrel, just before I left for work in the morning, to see how it would work as a cushion. WRONG,,,,When I got home I found the lid blew off and I had cooked rice and grit ALL over my shop!The lid was about 10' feet from the tumbler and it may have gone farther if it hadn't hit a wall! LOL You aint alone on this one! LOL connrock
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2013 12:44:39 GMT -5
Sucks man. All that time wasted. I can not blame anyone else so I blame my fingers. They keep screwing up no matter how much I yell at them. But it is what it is. Jim
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Mark K
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,772
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Post by Mark K on Aug 26, 2013 20:36:46 GMT -5
I use this really hard purple rock they use on the roads here. The stuff must be incredibly cheap because they don't seem to mind the damage it does to the snow plows. It is REALLY hard. It is also found on the RxR tracks here and the saw does not like to cut it. I tried cutting the stuff up once, but now I just scrape it out of the gutter. They have 2 sizes they seem to like. about 3/8 and a little over 3/32 in size. The rock in the rough grind really works well. I have not tried it in the next step.
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