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Post by Jugglerguy on Feb 28, 2015 16:21:47 GMT -5
I just had a new experience. I am attempting to tumble some unakite in just a rotary tumbler instead of a rotary and then a vibe. My rocks just got done in a week of 120/220 grit. I emptied the barrel and did a wash with borax for about an hour in the tumbler. Then I rinsed again and decided to do one more wash, but this time I used Dreft laundry detergent, I use both in my Lot-O. I let it run for a couple hours and when I dumped it in my sink, the water was black. Not dark gray, but really black. The only thing in the barrel was unakite and ceramic pellets. The only thing that could have produced black water was my barrel, so it had to have eaten away some of my barrel. The barrel looks fine, but I won't be using Dreft in there again,
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Post by MrP on Feb 28, 2015 16:31:21 GMT -5
I just had a new experience. I am attempting to tumble some unakite in just a rotary tumbler instead of a rotary and then a vibe. My rocks just got done in a week of 120/220 grit. I emptied the barrel and did a wash with borax for about an hour in the tumbler. Then I rinsed again and decided to do one more wash, but this time I used Dreft laundry detergent, I use both in my Lot-O. I let it run for a couple hours and when I dumped it in my sink, the water was black. Not dark gray, but really black. The only thing in the barrel was unakite and ceramic pellets. The only thing that could have produced black water was my barrel, so it had to have eaten away some of my barrel. The barrel looks fine, but I won't be using Dreft in there again, If that is what happens I would not have a barrel left. Been doing that for years...............................MrP
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Post by Jugglerguy on Feb 28, 2015 17:11:29 GMT -5
I have no explanation for what just happened then. I've combined Dreft, borax, unakite, ceramics, loto barrels all the time. The only new addition was a Lortone barrel. Weird.
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,547
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Post by tkvancil on Feb 28, 2015 19:07:34 GMT -5
That is weird indeed. Wouldn't think that the soap would react with rubber.
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Post by snowmom on Mar 1, 2015 18:03:29 GMT -5
If it was a brand new barrel, could it have been residue or loose oxidation of the rubber that rubbed off? mysterious and a little worrisome.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 1, 2015 20:42:02 GMT -5
Same barrel I've always used.
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,352
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Post by quartz on Mar 2, 2015 0:13:20 GMT -5
Test the PH of your loads. I found out a while back that a water/slurry that's really strong alkaline, or base, depending on your preference of terms, eats my rubber gaskets quite readily. Larry
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Post by parfive on Mar 2, 2015 0:14:38 GMT -5
Only rubber I’ve seen bleed black is a toilet flapper. Don’t know if that’s years of chlorine at work but it’s messy to change one.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 2, 2015 15:13:37 GMT -5
The alkaline idea is interesting. The load ran for a week with no black in the clean out. Then I did a wash with borax and still had no issues. It was only when adding Dreft for another wash that the black showed up. So the question is, will Dreft significantly raise the PH? I don't have anything here to measure PH, but could get some ph paper from my wife's classroom if I needed to. I won't be opening the barrel for a week and a half.
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,352
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Post by quartz on Mar 2, 2015 23:18:19 GMT -5
When I got to testing loads, I had to let the slurry settle for a while so the gray matter would drop out and give me fairly clean water. Couldn't see the paper color otherwise. Kept the slurry in a closed glass container so as to not foul the test. If you figure it was the Dreft, and that it may be high alkaline, test it on it's own. Then too, did it act as a catalyst and start some sort of reaction?
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