meviva
Cave Dweller
Member since July 2013
Posts: 1,474
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Post by meviva on Sept 22, 2015 11:10:56 GMT -5
Nice job on those, Andrea. Congrats on the win! I entered the contest for the first time this year. I really thought I had a good chance of placing because my rocks looked really good. I'd love to see what the difference in the winning rocks and the losing rocks was. It's impossible to tell from the pictures. I've never heard of M5. I decided to go with tin oxide. I had some around, I never use it, and have read several places that it's good for softer rocks and obsidian. I'm curious what everyone else went with for a polish. I had at least 50% ceramic in my Lot-O, but not 90%. I can't wait for next year's contest. Thanks Rob. When I found out the contest rock was obsidian I started reading everything I could about polishing it. On Amazon I found M5, and I ordered it because it stated it works for obsidian. The first and only time I have used it was for these rocks 4 days before the deadline. I was happy with it and I am going to try it on other rocks the next time I have a full batch to work on. Right now I am working on another batch of obsidian, I was having trouble in the course grind but I'm making progress now. It would be good to see all of the contest rocks, but as you said it's impossible with pictures. I'm looking forward to next years contest also....this was a lot of fun. I still want us to have an RTH tumbling contest if we could make it work. Andrea This is the final polish I used
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Post by Jugglerguy on Sept 22, 2015 11:37:00 GMT -5
I've never heard of it. I've thought about buying some fancy polishes, but the Rock Shed's AO usually works great for me. Thanks for sharing your technique!
Rob
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meviva
Cave Dweller
Member since July 2013
Posts: 1,474
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Post by meviva on Sept 22, 2015 12:10:07 GMT -5
I've never heard of it. I've thought about buying some fancy polishes, but the Rock Shed's AO usually works great for me. Thanks for sharing your technique! Rob I have always used the Rock Shed's AO also, and have had no complaints but for the contest I wanted to try something else because the obsidian scared me. Lol. Oh and as for using 90% ceramics that was only because I had such a small amount of obsidian to move along and time was running out, but maybe it helped.
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Sept 22, 2015 13:23:50 GMT -5
Congratulations! I would love to hear about your process, if you wanted to share. Thanks….I really wish I would have taken notes. This is basically what I did: Since we got 3 lbs of obsidian and I only had 6 lb barrels…I bought a 3 lb Thumler barrel and put it on my QT-66. I started with all big pieces in 80 grit but after the first run I decided to cut some of them into smaller pieces. Each week I cleaned out and looked at all of them but couldn't really pull any out for the next step for a while. Eventually, I got about a handful that could move on. I stopped working on them for several months. Then a few weeks before the deadline I started again but since I only had a handful and my vibe bowl is a 4 lb. I used a lot of ceramic…probably 90% ceramic for the last 3 steps. I ran each step for about 4 days, and burnishing with dawn soap between each step. I used 120/220 SiC, 500 AO prepolish and I bought a polish that was for obsidian and other hard to polish stones. It's called M5 I got it on Amazon. The rocks were very shiny after the pre polish but I think the M5 helped a lot. I also used bottled water in the pre polish and polish steps since Arizona water is very hard. Not sure if that helped or not. Andrea, thank you. Not only are you a champ, but you share your secrets with us! And to think you refused to send on your favorite cause you would lose it,ha
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meviva
Cave Dweller
Member since July 2013
Posts: 1,474
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Post by meviva on Sept 22, 2015 14:55:50 GMT -5
Andrea, thank you. Not only are you a champ, but you share your secrets with us! And to think you refused to send on your favorite cause you would lose it,ha Thanks Mark. I've been a member of this group for 2 years and I've probably asked hundreds of questions, and will most likely ask hundreds more. Everyone here has always been so nice in helping me learn how to tumble, saw, cab and wrap. I've learned that the first stage is the most important and requires a lot of patience, but will be worth it in the end. I wanted to share what I did as a way of contributing something useful to the group, instead of always asking for help. Hopefully, next year RTH members will win all places. I love this group! Andrea
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Post by drocknut on Sept 22, 2015 15:20:11 GMT -5
Congratulations
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Post by Toad on Sept 22, 2015 21:44:30 GMT -5
Congrats!
I entered the contest but never submitted any rocks. My 12-lb barrels just ate those little chunks they sent me.
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meviva
Cave Dweller
Member since July 2013
Posts: 1,474
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Post by meviva on Sept 24, 2015 13:40:01 GMT -5
Congrats! I entered the contest but never submitted any rocks. My 12-lb barrels just ate those little chunks they sent me. That's too bad…..hopefully next year will be better. I bought a 3 lb barrel because all I had were 6 lbs. I am working on the remaining contest obsidian and some other obsidian that I was doing as a test batch that I never finished. I started them out in a 6 lb barrel with some ceramic as filler. I ran them twice for 2 weeks and the grit never broke down. I don't know if it was the larger barrel or the ceramics that caused the problem (probably ceramics). I've moved them into the 3 lb barrel with no ceramic and they are doing fine now. Andrea
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Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,557
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Post by Tom on Sept 25, 2015 22:48:45 GMT -5
Congratulations Andrea, wonderful rocks and again a RTH member wins.
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Post by iant on Sept 26, 2015 11:41:48 GMT -5
Well Done Andrea, those rocks look amazing!
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