jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 2, 2015 16:37:30 GMT -5
Mixed load, 4 different rhyolites/coral/unakite/agate/impactite. No smalls so added 25% glass. Added one cup of sugar. 14 pounds total. Vibe.
Started after being rough ground in rotary with 30/60.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2015 16:56:25 GMT -5
Viking or Price vibe?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 2, 2015 17:24:51 GMT -5
Viking. Been too cold/rainy to tinker on that one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2015 17:34:43 GMT -5
and soon it will be growing season and Jim will be busy making a living...
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 2, 2015 17:57:08 GMT -5
and soon it will be growing season and Jim will be busy making a living... yep. In the greenhouse trimming dead foliage. cold and windy outside, toasty in greenhouse Good thing I don't get paid to look good
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Post by broseph82 on Feb 2, 2015 23:38:00 GMT -5
If jim lived in CO, DC, or WA he could be making a killing all year round
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 3, 2015 4:55:30 GMT -5
If jim lived in CO, DC, or WA he could be making a killing all year round They would have fired me if I was hired to polish obsidian.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 3, 2015 5:22:02 GMT -5
Help me out 39don. Trying your method out, except coarse grit was done in rotary so starting w/SiC 220. I remember you mentioned using SiC 90 all the way thru to polish in the Viking vibe. Then using cerium oxide for getting your polish. Do you get a overly dirty slurry ? Does it help or matter if the slurry is dirty ? Do you have to add water along the way ? I did use 25% glass for filler, it may dirty the slurry too much since it is soft. I have done quite a few SiC 220 runs and noticed that it seems to break down quickly and cut quickly. It would be nice to not do a clean out for 220,500,1000. And just one clean out for polish. Any suggestions would be appreciated Don. Scott said it : and soon it will be growing season and Jim will be busy making a living...
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Post by snowmom on Feb 3, 2015 6:26:23 GMT -5
dang I love when you do these... watching with interest!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 3, 2015 6:44:59 GMT -5
dang I love when you do these... watching with interest! This time I am following Don's lead. So I can't screw it up Deb LOL. I did saw two more green rocks. I don't think they are impactite though. One of them looks like it is crystalline quartz perhaps colored by a copper additive. Got a sunny day, will try to get photos.
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Post by snowmom on Feb 3, 2015 6:57:06 GMT -5
dang I love when you do these... watching with interest! This time I am following Don's lead. So I can't screw it up Deb LOL. I did saw two more green rocks. I don't think they are impactite though. One of them looks like it is crystalline quartz perhaps colored by a copper additive. Got a sunny day, will try to get photos. cool- is your slurry turning black from impactite carbon buckyballs? I polished a piece here over the weekend (just a little window so I could see what it was like) and the stuff coming off the rock was deep dark gray. still watching!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 3, 2015 7:23:47 GMT -5
Coal miner's slurry, uh, buckyball black slurry. buckyball ??, and you guys say we talk funny ?? snowmom
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Post by snowmom on Feb 3, 2015 7:29:29 GMT -5
LOL, no, I never said that! That must be some other Yankees you know! Buckyball Fullerenes' name for some reason just cracks me up. Whoever named them had a sense of fun, and I must have caught it. Or at least I get the joke this time. I do believe rock craziness is contagious!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 3, 2015 7:37:44 GMT -5
Chrome diopside- green color from chrome(duh). Bet color in photo will closely resemble the crystal face of this specimen very closely snowmom
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Post by snowmom on Feb 3, 2015 7:43:31 GMT -5
Hope so!
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39don
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by 39don on Feb 3, 2015 10:22:11 GMT -5
Help me out 39don39don. Trying your method out, except coarse grit was done in rotary so starting w/SiC 220. I remember you mentioned using SiC 90 all the way thru to polish in the Viking vibe. Then using cerium oxide for getting your polish. Do you get a overly dirty slurry ? Does it help or matter if the slurry is dirty ? Do you have to add water along the way ? I did use 25% glass for filler, it may dirty the slurry too much since it is soft. I have done quite a few SiC 220 runs and noticed that it seems to break down quickly and cut quickly. It would be nice to not do a clean out for 220,500,1000. And just one clean out for polish. Any suggestions would be appreciated Don. Scott said it : and soon it will be growing season and Jim will be busy making a living... You are correct James. 90 grit all the way to clean out for polish with the cerium or tin oxides. I do mainly all slabs so I don't need all the rounding except on the edges. I can live with small imperfections on edges but the polish has to be there on the remaining surfaces. The breakdown of the 90 SIC to clean out for polish takes about 7 to 8 days on the hard stuff and I only add water, as needed, plus a tablespoon Borax at the start. When I polish it's 2 to 3 days with the cerium or tin and I add about 1/4 cup of sugar for 2 days. A onetime, at the start, teaspoon of borax and water as needed to keep things moving. I figure the grit is breaking down about twice each day so 90 1st 24hrs, 200 2nd 24hours etc............so when I get to the 8th day my grit is around 12,000 to 13,000 on the 8th day. I will pull a random slab and buff the face with the cerium/tin on a felt buffing wheel. If it has the polish I'm looking for I go to the polishing stage. It will pretty much always have a finish polish in a split second on the wheel. Yours should do good with you doing a pretumble in the rotary. I do not like the many cleanouts you guys do..........I'm too old for that............The biggest plus is I only have to stock 90grit SIC and the polishing oxides (tin, cerium and Linde A/alumina). 39don
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 3, 2015 10:49:50 GMT -5
Thank you for reaffirming this info 39don. This one will be interesting and care free. Man I hope I get it right, SiC breakdown galore ! It is a method that people should be aware, simple and thrifty. The wheel test is clever. thanks again.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 4, 2015 17:22:53 GMT -5
48 hours on SiC 220 with sugar- looking smoother. Nice thick dirty batter. Started with a 5 day rough SiC 30/60 finish.
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Post by phil on Feb 4, 2015 22:08:12 GMT -5
Let me wrap my fuzzy around this.... you're saying start with 90 in vibe, not a tumbler, and vibe it for a week till ready for final oxide of some sort? That's kinda revolutionary to my way of thinking... I always thought you had to go thru the different grits religiously! When do I add the sugar and how much? Right in the beginning? doesn't it dissolve in the water? Thanks.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Feb 5, 2015 5:52:51 GMT -5
Let me wrap my fuzzy around this.... you're saying start with 90 in vibe, not a tumbler, and vibe it for a week till ready for final oxide of some sort? That's kinda revolutionary to my way of thinking... I always thought you had to go thru the different grits religiously! When do I add the sugar and how much? Right in the beginning? doesn't it dissolve in the water? Thanks. The sugar is not needed for the SiC 90 grit run Phil, just a tablespoon of borax at the start.(I am testing sugar in coarse, only a test for increased cutting rate). Don only uses the sugar with the final oxide run. And Don mentioned this method for 'hard stuff'(agates). Don ran a large industrial vibratory shop for years finishing ceramic electrical components. He probably has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. As far as tumbling in a rotary or a vibe, sugar/corn syrup/Karo syrup/pancake syrup/etc can be used as a cutting lubricant and slurry thickener. yes, it dissolves. Basically into syrup. Sugar cheaper than the syrups though, and easier to dose for repeatable viscosity. In the vibe, 1 cup sugar per 14 pounds of rock has given me luck, but I am still experimenting. ***Just enough water to dissolve the sugar crystal, takes a few minutes... Note, in my case I roughed in the rotary, then transferred to the vibe at SiC 220-so I started at 220 and not 90 in the vibe.
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