jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Jul 15, 2016 7:49:33 GMT -5
Bill Burke would be 95 years old this year. Had a rock shop in Tampa Florida for many years. Master lapidarian. Finally found his photos of a lap that bewildered other lapidarians due to his polishes on his slabs. He travelled the country doing rock shows. He and his wife. He passed at the age of 91. This is his 'pie ring floor buffer pad high speed dry lapper'. Capable of the wettest shine on the softest materials in only 12 hours. Run over night and preferably run outside for dust reasons. His forte was Malachite polished slabs and halves. He was constantly questioned about his fine polishes on hard to polish materials. Machine: 24 inch floor buffing pad at about 1200 RPM. Initially sprayed with water and charged with Alum Ox 80. 10 inch pie rings were laid down on a sheet of glass with non stick sprayed. Slabs laid inside face down. plaster of paris poured over and let dry. Two 10 inch pie rings set in rollers and rollers adjusted and clamped to contain pie rings. Motor switch turned on and room evacuated till morning. Operation: Floor pad spinning fast, driving the pie rings to rotate. Mixed motion at face of rocks as pie rings are driven to rotate on floor pad. Rock dust settles in floor pad being removed from Alum OX 80. AO 80 starts to smooth and imbed in rock dust. End result is rock being polished with it's own dust. Held two 10 inch pie rings. -WARNING, rock dust hazardous to health-
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Jul 15, 2016 11:04:08 GMT -5
Cool, would be interesting to see in operation. Lapidaries come up with some of the best tools. Would like to see it run too amyg.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jul 15, 2016 13:31:55 GMT -5
Sinister is right, I wonder if the plaster dust contributes to the final shine?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Jul 16, 2016 6:21:55 GMT -5
Sinister is right, I wonder if the plaster dust contributes to the final shine? Make sense Lee. Was curious about that too. It definitely contributed to dusting up his shop. The rotating discs sitting on a larger rotating disc sure does mix up the abrading. If not mistaken, the 24 inch floor buff pad turned at motor RPM ~1700, so very fast.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jul 16, 2016 11:35:31 GMT -5
1700rpm + dry = hot That kind of heat for that long? With a richardsons sander, 3450rpm with 7 inch discs, I had to rotate 2 or 3 rocks through at a time to allow them to cool. A thunder egg half only takes a couple or five minutes at each stage with the high speed sander and they get hot. the outside edge of 24 inches will be moving a lot faster at 1700.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Jul 26, 2016 4:42:48 GMT -5
1700rpm + dry = hot That kind of heat for that long? With a richardsons sander, 3450rpm with 7 inch discs, I had to rotate 2 or 3 rocks through at a time to allow them to cool. A thunder egg half only takes a couple or five minutes at each stage with the high speed sander and they get hot. the outside edge of 24 inches will be moving a lot faster at 1700. Perhaps the pressure was low when doing slabs ? I see your point. Concentration of heat at rock face. The speed at outside of 24" would be incredible. perhaps the very porous floor pad had good air circulation ? Wish I could ask Bill. He is the one that ran that crazy machine.
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