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Post by paulshiroma on Aug 29, 2015 23:21:26 GMT -5
A little more than a year ago, I picked up a Covington Vibratory Lap from the Agateer folks. Great service and really helpful. Dialing forward after lots of experimentation, trial and error, etc, I finally have a few that were worth posting. This is a 20lb piece of petrified wood that I picked up, already cut, from that last Searchers clearance sale. Not the best piece, given the level of fracturing but for $0.25 per pound, I wasn't going to nitpick. This one I put on the lap by itself. Without flash:  With flash:  Rio Grande Agate (from one of Mel's sales). With flash:  Without flash:  Rio Grande Agate (again, from one of Mel's sales).  Agate from Yermo, CA  Thunder eggs from the Searchers blow out sale last year. These were pre-cut and just needed to be polished. Had some difficulty with the flash tonight.    Mexican Coconut Geodes:     Hope you enjoy the photos. |
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Post by orrum on Aug 30, 2015 5:37:57 GMT -5
Very good work. I have a vibe lap but haven't used it yet. What is your recipe?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2015 8:21:22 GMT -5
Way to go Paul AND BOYS. Beautiful stones for sure. I like the baby owl.
Jim
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 30, 2015 18:20:53 GMT -5
Wow Paul great job on all of those. Man that black and white one from the Rios must have rolled down clear from Marfa, Texas. Don't think I've cut into any of those myself as of yet. That vibe lap is sure a nice way to polish up some fancy specimens. Thanks for posting the Rios. I love to see what's inside of the ones I never get a chance to cut myself.....Mel
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Post by Jugglerguy on Aug 30, 2015 18:47:19 GMT -5
Those are great. There aren't many people here posting pictures of rocks done on a vibratory lap, unless I've missed them. I've read that they're difficult to use. It sounds like you had a bit of a learning curve yourself. I'd love to hear more about your experience. Are those half rocks in your pictures or slabs? It's hard to tell.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Aug 31, 2015 2:59:04 GMT -5
Dito on the black and white. Cut many a Rio and never seen such.
Heck of a collection Paul.
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Post by paulshiroma on Sept 1, 2015 8:43:14 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies, gang! Jugglerguy: These are all halved for the below reason. Jugglerguy and Orrum: I tried slabs early on but found that heavy specimens polish easier. Initially, I had too many variables running with trying to figure out how best to use the vib-lap, slurry consistency, cleaning between stages, preventing chips/nicks, that I switched from slabs to just large heavier pieces to practice on. When I first tried this out, I was weighing down the slabs with fishing weights. I still find that getting the starting consistency of the slurry at each stage to be a bit of a hit/miss thing with me and am still adjusting the recipe for each stage. The first stages (46/70 and then 80 grit) and second stages (120-220 and then 300 grit) I seem to have down. What I noticed, though, is that even a small amount of water will make a major difference in grinding. Simply put, after thoroughly cleaning the rocks between stages, I have to dry them. If they're carrying any additional water, it tends to lean-out the mix a bit too much. Then you get splatter and a pretty good mess. This is a much more messy way to polish rocks. I am still playing with the next several stages. Weather makes a difference as well since in SoCal, it's been hot and the water evaporates at a faster rate that it does during winter. There's a lot more clean up involved as you have to clean everything pretty thoroughly between stages. I ended up purchasing a second pan for the polishing stages. The other thing that's been a bit of a challenge is preventing nicks and chips. On the halves, I wrap them in those large rubber bands that you can get at office supply stores by the hundreds (original idea from Covington's manual). That works well although the bands take such a beating you find that they break and come off during the cycle and have to pluck them out of the pan periodically. I end up wrapping three or four bands around each piece. I go through a lot of rubber bands. LOL. I've got another dozen or so halves in various stages now that I'm going to finish up and then I'm going to go back to trying slabs. We'll see how that goes. Thanks! |
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Post by paulshiroma on Sept 1, 2015 8:44:34 GMT -5
Wow Paul great job on all of those. Man that black and white one from the Rios must have rolled down clear from Marfa, Texas. Don't think I've cut into any of those myself as of yet. That vibe lap is sure a nice way to polish up some fancy specimens. Thanks for posting the Rios. I love to see what's inside of the ones I never get a chance to cut myself.....Mel This one was definitely a surprise. Shaped like a donut as well, go figure. Thanks again for the great purchase, Mel. |
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Post by gingerkid on Sept 1, 2015 9:08:17 GMT -5
paulshiroma, those are outstanding and gorgeous!! Thank you for sharing your polishing method with your lap, too. What size is your Covington lap? The wood looks like it has some opal in it? Beautiful!
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Post by Jugglerguy on Sept 1, 2015 10:09:49 GMT -5
Thanks for the explanation, Paul.
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
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Post by grizman on Sept 1, 2015 13:51:23 GMT -5
Those are all great, but I really like the Mexican coconuts! Thanks for sharing the vibe lap photos.
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herchenx
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Post by herchenx on Sept 1, 2015 14:11:26 GMT -5
I need to get my vib flat lap going. I have seen Jason (NM Stone Supply) post videos on Facebook of his flat lap, and he uses various O-rings just sitting around the rocks (obviously many different sizes of o-rings) - they aren't tight to the rocks but they sit in the pan and jiggle around with everything else, but buffer the rock within their circle.
Thanks for posting these and for all the info! Can't wait to see more.
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Post by orrum on Sept 1, 2015 16:01:52 GMT -5
Hey Paul thanks for the recipe and tips! Now I just gotta get it out and start the learning curve.
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Post by paulshiroma on Sept 1, 2015 22:11:40 GMT -5
paulshiroma, those are outstanding and gorgeous!! Thank you for sharing your polishing method with your lap, too. What size is your Covington lap? The wood looks like it has some opal in it? Beautiful! WARNING: That recipe may change! HA! I'm still trying to figure out the upper polishing grades. I neglected to mention that for the first two stages, 46/70 and 80 graded, I put in five heaping teaspoons and just a bit over 1/4 cup of water. I will increase or decrease the water depending upon whether or not the rocks are wet. For the 120/220 and 300 graded, it's a 1/4 of water. If I'm at home, I added a couple of tablespoons every hour depending upon the weather. If it's hotter, I'm out there more frequently. The 500, 600, 1000, AO and the cerium oxide I'm playing by ear still. The Covington is a 16 inch lap which, I think is the largest vib lap they have (or had - might have changed). I bought it on the recommendation of the Agateer folks as they mentioned the smaller ones are just too limiting. With this one, I can have about eight to ten geodes in there or two or three really large pieces of petrified wood or large slabs. I think the wood has some common opal in it. |
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Post by paulshiroma on Sept 1, 2015 22:12:37 GMT -5
I need to get my vib flat lap going. I have seen Jason (NM Stone Supply) post videos on Facebook of his flat lap, and he uses various O-rings just sitting around the rocks (obviously many different sizes of o-rings) - they aren't tight to the rocks but they sit in the pan and jiggle around with everything else, but buffer the rock within their circle. Thanks for posting these and for all the info! Can't wait to see more. Hey, that's a good idea. Hadn't thought of o-rings. I was using the rubber bands as they were cheap and disposable so I can swap them out between stages. May have to look into the o-rings... |
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Post by paulshiroma on Sept 1, 2015 22:13:11 GMT -5
Those are all great, but I really like the Mexican coconuts! Thanks for sharing the vibe lap photos. Cutting those was a lot of fun ... like Christmas. Each one was different! |
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Post by paulshiroma on Sept 2, 2015 23:02:44 GMT -5
Hey Paul thanks for the recipe and tips! Now I just gotta get it out and start the learning curve. I'd be curious to know your experience and recipe with this. There's been a lot of trial and error in my experience. |
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Post by woodman on Sept 3, 2015 9:22:16 GMT -5
Even with rotary laps and polishers, weight is critical for a good finished job. For smaller pieces on the polisher i make some bean bags with lead shot, used levi material and made bags, filled with lead shot and stitched them up. various sizes of PVC pipe can be cut and used s rings in which to place round eggs or geodes.
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