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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jul 13, 2014 13:52:41 GMT -5
I tried to get too many rocks in the loto this week with not enough ceramic. I probably only had 10 percent ceramic. all of the rounded rocks came out perfect but any rocks that had a flat side paid the price. I figured its easier for the newbies to learn if they see some failures instead of just the successful stuff all the time. These are already running again at 50 percent ceramic so hopefully next week we can see the before and after. thanks for looking Chuck
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 13, 2014 14:05:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the post. New to the hobby, I'm probably more interested in seeing common mistakes indeed. I have a vibe but not the guts to switch it on yet, still coarse grinding stuff and discovering what rough to tumbled looks like, let alone polished yet! Love ogling your work!
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transcendental
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 459
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Post by transcendental on Jul 13, 2014 14:20:27 GMT -5
I agree, hopefully us noobs can learn from the mistakes of others. I bet that batch will shine up great once put thru again. Thanks and gl
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1nickthegreek
spending too much on rocks
Member since February 2014
Posts: 383
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Post by 1nickthegreek on Jul 13, 2014 14:20:49 GMT -5
Ouch Chuck, that sucks bro. Fairly easy mistake to make though as I have learned in past batches in my old vibe LOL
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Post by snowmom on Jul 14, 2014 6:06:00 GMT -5
yes, very helpful... thanks for the post.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 14, 2014 6:32:11 GMT -5
I love seeing your failures. Show more!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jul 14, 2014 6:44:22 GMT -5
I love seeing your failures. Show more! This is the first one I have ever had I'll have to blame a bad barrel or defective polish since it could not be my fault, lol Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 14, 2014 8:30:29 GMT -5
I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
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junglejim
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 344
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Post by junglejim on Jul 14, 2014 9:09:55 GMT -5
Thanks for posting. Wonder if I filled mine too full this time. It has some slabs in it too. Finishing one and ready to start another today. Once I get it started I'll see how much more ceramic I need to add. I had more I wanted to put in but ran out of room. Maybe I need to take a few out and add ceramic to be safe.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 14, 2014 10:46:14 GMT -5
I usually use about 30% ceramic for a normal load. If you have a lot of slabs, go about 50% ceramic as Chuck said. I haven't had a problem with just a few slabs mixed with a bunch of regular rocks.
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jul 14, 2014 10:59:48 GMT -5
I love seeing your failures. Show more! AND, we see that he has removed his " #1" avitar I recently had a case where only the edges of the flat pieces were damaged during the final polish. All the rounder ones were great. Still puzzled on that one. Had plenty of ceramics.
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Post by fantastic5 on Jul 14, 2014 16:56:31 GMT -5
Question - is this solely because of the lack of ceramics or the lack of variation in size of material?
I guess phrased another way, if you have enough variation in size, can you run a polish batch with little or no ceramics?
New to all of this myself, I understood ceramics to act as grit carriers ONLY if you don't have a good variation in size to do the job naturally.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 14, 2014 17:34:10 GMT -5
I use a mix of ceramic media. Even the large stuff is smaller than almost any rock I'd move to the Lot-O. If you were to have a lot of very small pebbles that didn't have any holes in them to carry grit, you probably wouldn't need ceramic. But I don't even move those really small rock along because I have no use for them when theirselves finished and I don't want to inspect every little rock.
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Post by victor1941 on Jul 14, 2014 20:05:36 GMT -5
I think your picture and the reason for the damage is very helpful for those of us just starting to learn how to tumble. I would like to know if aluminum oxide media and ceramic media are the same material and are used in both the rotary and vibe tumbler?
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 14, 2014 20:26:14 GMT -5
No, they're not the same, but are used for the same purpose. Check out this recent thread: Aluminum Oxide Pellets
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jul 14, 2014 20:44:51 GMT -5
Aluminum oxide pellets may last longer but 99.9 percent of what you see posted on this forum is done using ceramics (or plastic for some of the rotary polish folks). I would like to see the difference but am not willing to change my recipe at this point.
Chuck
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