HeefageLA
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Member since October 2013
Posts: 28
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 11:46:26 GMT -5
Hello all! My name is Heath and i work at a granite frabrication shop. We measure, cut, and fabricate granite, marble and quartz slabs for homes and buisnesses. Ive been saving the 'pilot holes' for sink cut-outs for sometime. They measure about 1 1/4'' x 1 1/4''. I ordered an A-R12 today from Cabela's just to get my foot in the door for this tumbling adventure.
My questions are: Where do you guys buy your grit and polish? Im looking for the cheapest products possible at this point. Is their any advice yall can give to me? (someone who hasnt even seen a tumbler in action) Are their any stone i should stay away from that might damage the tumbler?
Thanks for the help and the awesome forum!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 18, 2013 12:05:16 GMT -5
Hi Heath, The ar-12 should work great for you. No rocks will damage the barrel so no worries there. You mentioned using the 1.25" sink cut outs but you will also need a bunch of other random sizes all the way down to some 1/4" stuff to make sure your grit works properly. Anyone that tumbles rock knows that grit can get expensive but most of us get our grit from www.therockshed.com/grit.html and when purchased in larger quantities its not too bad. You can start with some instructions like these and modify them to suit the material your working with. geology.com/rock-tumbler/rock-tumbler-instructions.shtmlGranite tends to undercut as you get it to the polish stage meaning that the harder minerials in it do not wear away as fast as the softer minerals. It will still take a great polish but will not be as smooth as a tumbled agate or jasper would be. Good luck and ask plenty of questions. Chuck
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HeefageLA
starting to shine!
Member since October 2013
Posts: 28
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 13:03:31 GMT -5
Wow. Thanks Chuck. Ill be ordering some grit sometime today.
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Oct 18, 2013 13:19:27 GMT -5
I second the Rock Shed recommendation. Kingsley North is another option for grit. If you produce chips in the shop you can use them as filler, or just take a chunk of scrap and break it up.
Be sure to fill your barrel 2/3 to 3/4 full and fill it with water to just below the top layer of rocks. Whenever you change grits you'll need to add filler to take up the space. For rough grind this can be just more rocks. For the later grinding/sanding stages a lot of people use plastic pellets in a rotary tumbler.
Don't dump the slurry down the drain! It will clog pipes.
Chuck (we're not all named Chuck)
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HeefageLA
starting to shine!
Member since October 2013
Posts: 28
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 13:37:23 GMT -5
OK, i just ordered a kit that contains 1lb. of each type of grit and two 3lb. barrels to separate the stones and to do smaller stones. Hopefuly, after all this stuff comes in, I can try and polish my first piece of granite!
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Post by pghram on Oct 18, 2013 15:10:53 GMT -5
Just fyi, you will use much more 60/90 than the others, so if you still can add to your order you may want to order 5 lbs of course grit.
Rich (not named Chuck)
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 18, 2013 15:27:25 GMT -5
I was going to say the same thing as the non-Chuck guy said. I ordered 50 lb. of 60/90 last Christmas, and I'm hoping I make it to this Christmas. I'm running a total of 18 lbs. of rough at all times.
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HeefageLA
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Member since October 2013
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 15:32:46 GMT -5
Oh well. The Rock Shed has already shipped my order. Is their an alternative to buying coarse grit since you use so much of it?
Im thinking you could use sand blasting material for the coarse grit and just buy the polish as you need it. But, I know next to nothing so...
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Post by pghram on Oct 18, 2013 15:38:05 GMT -5
As long as it's sic it would be the same. If its AO, I've read that it doesn't breakdown into sharp particles, so it stops grinding/sanding. I don't know for sure, I've never tried it.
Rich
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 18, 2013 15:38:10 GMT -5
I've read that blasting sand doesn't work at all. Silicon carbide is really hard, much harder than sand. It also breaks, leaving new sharp edges, rather than wearing down to rounded edges that don't grind very well. I don't know of a better alternative.
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HeefageLA
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Member since October 2013
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 15:45:10 GMT -5
Also, i have an endless supply of grit left over from cutting our slabs into counter tops. I know that the only thing harder than granite is diamonds, so could i possibly use some of our granite, marble or quartz grit in the process?
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 18, 2013 16:10:06 GMT -5
Silicon carbide is a lot harder than granite, so are lots of other things. Granite is not considered to be a really hard rock. Check out the Mohs scale of hardness. It is a scale for mineral hardness, not rock hardness. Granite is a rock made of minerals. I think it's mostly granite and feldspar, which are 7 and 6 on the Mohs Scale. Agate is 7 on the scale and is typically harder than granite. Silicon carbide is 9 on the Mohs scale. This is not my area of expertise at all, so someone else can feel free to jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not sure what sort of grit you use to cut granite, so I can't tell you if it would work. If the grit you're talking about is granite dust, it's not going to work because it's the same hardness. There's someone else on this site who works with granite countertops who could probably help you, but I can't remember who it is.
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HeefageLA
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Member since October 2013
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 16:40:16 GMT -5
Well im learning more by the minute. Thanks Yeah, id like to talk to someone else who does stone fabrication to get theyre input.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2013 18:16:18 GMT -5
Heath, where is your shop? I sell granite installations. My office is in Chino.
We are amongst giants here. Literally tons of knowledge. Silicon Carbide is quite a bit harder than granite (as are many other things). All of the advice above is good.
When you say you use grit to cut granite, are you using water jet to to the cuts?
Just so you are aware the marble/travertine you may me cutting is softer than your pocket knife. Try scratching a scrap to see!
Thanks Rob for pointing me to this thread. I dont frequent the introductions enough.
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HeefageLA
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Member since October 2013
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 18, 2013 19:30:08 GMT -5
We're located in Vidalia, LA. I said we have alot of grit left over from cutting the granite. A wet saw and wet tooling is what actually cuts the stone. We use a Park Ind.'s Titan Fab Center to produce our tops. I write the autoCAD programs that the machine uses.
We dont do any travertine, but the sister tile store does alot of travertine.
Have you ever polished any of the stones from your work? If so, how'd they turn out out? Which type of slabs have you polished pieces of?
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quartz
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Post by quartz on Oct 18, 2013 23:34:51 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum. Some blasting grits are sand, some aluminum oxide, and some are silicon carbide, SiC is what you want to tumble with. Have fun with it.
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HeefageLA
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Member since October 2013
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 20, 2013 11:50:15 GMT -5
When you buy stones online, which websites do you prefer?
I happen to name my son Jasper before i knew anything about stone. He's 8 months old. Id like to buy several different kinds of jasper to polish
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2013 19:40:37 GMT -5
haha I took LA to be Los Angeles!
There is grit in your waterjet cuts too. Likely corundum. Aluminum Oxide. The grit from the cutting is just granite and it wont be very effective for cutting/polishing granite. Need harder oxides todo that.
I have 1000# of spare granite here. I have a batch of blue pearl granite that killed my tumbler. Haven't polished any because the tumbler broke. Granite is very solid (except for maron cohiba). Should polish up as good as the stone workers get. glassy wet look.
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Thunder69
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Post by Thunder69 on Oct 24, 2013 16:37:14 GMT -5
Hey Heath you might want to check out Tony (Catmandewe) on the forum He has Literally tons of jasper material....He has a website on his post link...We need to visit sometime...John
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HeefageLA
starting to shine!
Member since October 2013
Posts: 28
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Post by HeefageLA on Oct 24, 2013 20:49:44 GMT -5
Ill look him up for sure. The more I look at them, I start to lean toward the picture jaspers. Its neat seeing vast landscapes within the pieces.
Im around about 30 different types of huge granite slabs all day, but know nothing about them. Maybe you could come to J&J Stone and give me some knowledge about the slabs I fabricate.
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