peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 10, 2015 16:25:25 GMT -5
So this happened: This stuff, which I thought was marble or cultured marble, is crumbly as all get-out. Can I use the crumbles and smalls as media in the tumbler? Anybody know?
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Post by orrum on May 10, 2015 18:48:53 GMT -5
Anything makes tumbler fodder around here. We make mud!
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 11, 2015 7:56:05 GMT -5
I guess I'm gonna be trying it. It won't be as interesting as the mud post but what the heck...
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Post by gingerkid on May 11, 2015 8:03:51 GMT -5
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Post by orrum on May 11, 2015 8:36:17 GMT -5
Hey Peachfront, sometimes things in a tumbler surprise me and come out awesome. I haven't been doing this long and don't know what a lot of tumbler material is that I put in there. So as for tumbling like hardness rocks to get goes I haven't got a clue..... Therefore it's survival of the most fit. Mark and I went to Gem Mountain in Spruce Pines and bought a bucket of dirt salted with gems. He was keeping these off white rocks in a separate pile from his gems. I ask him what the white rocks were thinking I was gonna learn a new rocks name, well or else he wasnt very particular about things. He said he always needed tumbler fodder to make nice smalls and most importantly a nice cushioning mud!!!
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 11, 2015 8:40:08 GMT -5
Well, you would think real marble is a cheap enough stuff but crushed up stone made up into "cultured" stone is everywhere now in the home improvement stores...it is more consistent product I guess but it also appears to be quite fragile, maybe there's epoxy in it or something because I feel it shouldn't have crumbled after only 5 years outdoors I was using it to flat lap soft stones. I'm sure they expected you to use it to tile kitchen floors or something indoors but still...
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Post by gingerkid on May 11, 2015 8:45:04 GMT -5
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Post by orrum on May 11, 2015 8:47:30 GMT -5
Hey a lot of gemstones are going to synthetic or dyed or crushed and reconstituted. Turquoise is a prime 3xsmple. I visited Kingman Turquoise in Az. They make turquoise bricks from dust, crumbles chalky stuff etc. Also stabilize natural stone they mine. Awesome material!
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 11, 2015 8:50:32 GMT -5
It's awesome but it's also problematic. For this very reason I will no longer buy material that is frequently reconstituted/cultured -- "amber," turquoise, etc. I'm a hobbyist so I don't care about getting consistent product in the stores. For me the mystery is that I'm working with something grown in the earth...and every year it seems to get more challenging to do that.
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Post by orrum on May 11, 2015 9:06:14 GMT -5
Yes plus wild stone is unpredictable and always unique. Cultured is consistent dull and predictable! I so agree Peachfront!
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on May 11, 2015 9:43:11 GMT -5
I'm all with natural stone too-nothing cultured for this old man.........
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stonemaster499
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since July 2014
Posts: 97
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Post by stonemaster499 on May 12, 2015 17:41:55 GMT -5
I wouldn't waste my time with a soft filler like that. If it is cultured marble (reconstituted marble scraps with heat and pressure, and resin) - the same entry-level bathroom countertop material? Will turn to dust in days, and foam up your barrel. Filler should be hard and smooth (like the "smooth ceramic shapes"). I would recommend anything granite (6.7) hardness and up will be fine. Some use gravel for fish tanks sold at pet stores, which I read also contains agate! granite, gravel, glass, ceramic (broken porcelain tiles are fine), tile spacers, AGATE...etc. Must be hard, or will grind down fast. Work them in for 12 hours in your rotary to smooth them out, and run them first in a rough grind. follow the sizes for media "smalls" (like small ceramic and large ceramic sizes).
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Post by Peruano on May 12, 2015 19:23:41 GMT -5
It is important in my eyes, to have filler that approximates the hardness of what you are tumbling. If its too hard your material will be left scratched by it, and if its too soft it will overwhelm your grit and prevent you from achieving any real shine. I recently ran a batch that suffered from having too much soft filler and got pretty hohum results. With grit being expensive and using too much or too little for the type of stones being tumbled, I'd stick to known stuff and adjust my times and quantities from there. I have a bunch of tiny quartz fragments that a friend has "pretumbled" that I use for filler in hard runs and I use all of my trim saw "trims" that match the stone being tumbled (mostly agates and petwood (agatized)so seldom resort to ceramics but I do when necessary. Too much mud is too much slick to achieve the process in my eyes. Tom
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