michele57
off to a rocking start
Member since May 2014
Posts: 1
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Post by michele57 on May 30, 2014 10:58:29 GMT -5
I am only on day 4 of stage one and just checked my stones, This is my 1st time with 3 moh and I found some pieces to small 1/8 inch and others nearly half and less. What am I doing wrong in this tumbling process. Thanks Michele
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Post by deb193redux on May 30, 2014 11:00:01 GMT -5
Tumbling such soft material is almost impossible. You might be able to get somewhere with 1 day in rotary, and then move to medium grit in a vibe.
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Post by Toad on May 30, 2014 12:10:16 GMT -5
As Daniel said, way soft. What grit did you start with?
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stephent
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2014
Posts: 213
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Post by stephent on May 30, 2014 12:44:32 GMT -5
Stage one 60-90 grit looks like a no-no to me.. I would start those at a graded 220 grit and even then watch them close. Fill up to 3/4--85% full with lots of plastic media...I would think ceramic media might even be a bit hard on the softer stones. And then again that soft may never be able to rotary tumble...but filling to nearly full (1/2 full of stones) the reswt with plastic media and starting with finer grit will give ya at least a shot at doing it. Last batch of rough quartz-ish stuff (but mohs of 6.5 to 7) I started was with 9 days of 120/220 (one grit recharge at 5 days) after roughing to shape with my whizzer grinder....no 60-90 stage at all. I'm about to give up totally on using 60-90 grit in my rotary tumbler. Even Agates very roughly pre-shaped came out lookin good with an almost double dose and time of 120-220 grit. Softer stones would be even less time.
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Post by johnjsgems on May 30, 2014 13:32:51 GMT -5
Take a pocket knife and try to scratch your rocks. If they scratch you won't have much luck in a rotary tumbler. Those are both soft stones. I know of only one lepidolite mine where the material is mixed with Quartz (Thursday Mine) and may tumble OK.
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 3,803
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Post by gemfeller on May 30, 2014 15:00:07 GMT -5
Both minerals have easy cleavage planes which means they'll split apart with a certain level of impact. Lepidolite is a form of mica and calcite has three directions of perfect cleavage. I think your problems may be more related to that than their hardness, but soft minerals/rocks are often hard to tumble-polish.
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