jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,562
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Post by jamesp on Jan 21, 2016 9:15:48 GMT -5
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Post by captbob on Jan 21, 2016 9:39:50 GMT -5
I like the idea of round media for the finishing up steps. Looking forward to your assessment on this media. Have always used either the cylinder or triangle shaped in the early grits figuring the "pointy" ends would help get in the rough places better. Just my thinking, don't know it matters. Switch over to plastic pellets for finishing.
Looked at the auction, put it on my think about it later list. Seems 10 pounds of that stuff would easily fit in a MFRB... don't care much for sellers making money on shipping.
What ever became of your 50 pounds of rice husks and the 15 other things you experimented with?
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 21, 2016 9:45:16 GMT -5
Let us know how this one works out. My concern is that a ball only has one very small point of contact. My thinking is that the normal ceramic cylinders can slide across flat surfaces helping to polish all the cabs and saw scraps. I am sure the balls would be fine for a load of normal hammer broken tumbled rocks but what about a load of cabs. That is the real test of any media.
Chuck
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,562
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Post by jamesp on Jan 21, 2016 10:32:55 GMT -5
Follow point of contact issue Chuck. Probably losing some surface contact. Mostly looking for balls to fill voids of 1-2 inch random shaped rocks. Only using the balls in the AO 500 finish step/polish step on well rounded coarse ground rocks in the vibe.
I noticed I could load 1-2 inch rocks in the vibe and vibrate them down for 30 seconds. Then add round quartz pebbles up to 20% by weight and re-vibrate, the rock level did not rise-i.e. void fill.
Or added the 20% by weight round filler while rocks are vibrating and witness no rise in the rock level. But, during the adding of the rounds a significant increase in the rotation motion of the rocks. Most of the surface contact seems to be between the rocks themselves. Their flatter faces...
Been using this menu for filler:
All tough agate river pebbles 1-2 inches I use 20-30% round quartz pea gravel. Crystalline quartz/tender rocks that tend to frost like rose quartz/amethyst 40%-50%. Big agates 2-3 inches 60-70%. Slabs and bigger stuff also 60-70%.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,562
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Post by jamesp on Jan 21, 2016 10:40:22 GMT -5
I like the idea of round media for the finishing up steps. Looking forward to your assessment on this media. Have always used either the cylinder or triangle shaped in the early grits figuring the "pointy" ends would help get in the rough places better. Just my thinking, don't know it matters. Switch over to plastic pellets for finishing. Looked at the auction, put it on my think about it later list. Seems 10 pounds of that stuff would easily fit in a MFRB... don't care much for sellers making money on shipping. What ever became of your 50 pounds of rice husks and the 15 other things you experimented with? All experiments have arrived at a plateau of synchronized high elevation techniques. Einstein rolled over. Pinnacle achieved. Am just using the round media for finishing captbob. Not so many pits to reach.
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,547
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Post by tkvancil on Jan 21, 2016 11:53:30 GMT -5
I don't see why round wouldn't work. I once used a bunch of marbles for filler in an obsidian vibe run. Had no noticeable issues.
Last couple times I used my vibe I noticed something new to me when adding grit at the start ... I could see that the grit was sticking to the rocks far more than the ceramic media. Rocks near completely covered in grit with media still looking white (uncoated). The media didn't really have a homogeneous coating until slurry began to form.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,562
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Post by jamesp on Jan 21, 2016 23:57:16 GMT -5
I don't see why round wouldn't work. I once used a bunch of marbles for filler in an obsidian vibe run. Had no noticeable issues. Last couple times I used my vibe I noticed something new to me when adding grit at the start ... I could see that the grit was sticking to the rocks far more than the ceramic media. Rocks near completely covered in grit with media still looking white (uncoated). The media didn't really have a homogeneous coating until slurry began to form. Maybe the media is made to shed abrasive. Will watch the balls to see if they stay cleaner than the rocks tk. This media is used if that means anything. May be benefits to having the media not attract abrasive. I have been looking for some smaller marbles. Like 3/8. Had seen round ceramic 3/16-1/4 balls and did not want to fool with such small media. Saw these 10mm balls and figured they would fill the voids well, and easier to separate from the rocks. The round media does speed up the roll in the Viking vibe. Not sure if that is beneficial or not. Guessing it is a good thing.
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