stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 27, 2016 12:05:30 GMT -5
The kit sizes are most likely something like 60/90, 120/220, 500 and polish Yes at least 3/4 full. That's why I have a few loto-s instead of one big vibe tumbler. It's nice to be able to run a batch when I only have a few pounds ready instead of having to wait for a massive amount. I run my loto so full that rocks will just about fall out with the lid off. What was your reason for running stage #2 in the rotary? Stage #2 uses less grit in the vibe and takes 2 days instead of 7. Chuck Cause I have a cheap vibratory tumbler and I was worried about it eating the plastic bowl
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 27, 2016 12:23:58 GMT -5
The kit sizes are most likely something like 60/90, 120/220, 500 and polish Yes at least 3/4 full. That's why I have a few loto-s instead of one big vibe tumbler. It's nice to be able to run a batch when I only have a few pounds ready instead of having to wait for a massive amount. I run my loto so full that rocks will just about fall out with the lid off. What was your reason for running stage #2 in the rotary? Stage #2 uses less grit in the vibe and takes 2 days instead of 7. Chuck Cause I have a cheap vibratory tumbler and I was worried about it eating the plastic bowl Hey that is a good answer. No shame there. I started out with getting my kid a plastic toy tumbler a few years ago. Chuck
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 27, 2016 12:42:16 GMT -5
Cause I have a cheap vibratory tumbler and I was worried about it eating the plastic bowl Hey that is a good answer. No shame there. I started out with getting my kid a plastic toy tumbler a few years ago. Chuck
I eventually will get a Lot-O....currently it wasn't in my budget.
Your website along with your cabs and jewelry look fantastic by the way.
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Post by Peruano on Sept 27, 2016 17:17:58 GMT -5
I judge how to load the vibe on the basis of the rattle (movement). Too little weight (stones) and the thing will really violently rattle and chip rocks. If you are close you can slow things down with a bit of water and a big squirt of Dawn Liquid. The soap contributes to cushioning, and carries the grit up onto all surfaces (even in polish and prepolish stages). If you get too much water, then you form a pond in the bottom and all the grit stays there and wears out the bottom of the bowl. Hence its better to add ballast using rock (smalls, ceramics, chips, or ) which together with the soap as it begins to mesh in with the polish calms things down. If things are just barely moving or just weakly moving around in a circle (in the vibe), you probably have too much weight (remove a few of your biggest rocks), or too little water (your slurry is sticky and causing things to lock up). How to tell the difference? Well experience helps but look at your slurry if its really like latex paint beginning to dry, its to dry. If its wet and slick looking, then your slowness is probably too much ballast, you can take out some stones and see if the action picks up. As long as your bowl is screwed down you can run without the top, which allows you to adjust things, but once you are content, its probably a good idea to replace the lid to reduce evaporation (and splash to the floor). Usually bowls are ruined by big stones being stuck on the bottom and wearing through, or too much water which keeps all the grit down in the bottom and rubbing on the same level all the time, Either way its a costly mistake and can be prevented by 1 making sure all of your stones are circulating (especially the largest ones) and 2. that you don't have so much water that the smalls all stay on the bottom. You are doing fine and learning so keep on shaking them and some will be beautiful enough to meet your expectations. Pay attention the others, there is a reason they didn't turn into beauties too. Next time.
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 27, 2016 18:03:26 GMT -5
I judge how to load the vibe on the basis of the rattle (movement). Too little weight (stones) and the thing will really violently rattle and chip rocks. If you are close you can slow things down with a bit of water and a big squirt of Dawn Liquid. The soap contributes to cushioning, and carries the grit up onto all surfaces (even in polish and prepolish stages). If you get too much water, then you form a pond in the bottom and all the grit stays there and wears out the bottom of the bowl. Hence its better to add ballast using rock (smalls, ceramics, chips, or ) which together with the soap as it begins to mesh in with the polish calms things down. If things are just barely moving or just weakly moving around in a circle (in the vibe), you probably have too much weight (remove a few of your biggest rocks), or too little water (your slurry is sticky and causing things to lock up). How to tell the difference? Well experience helps but look at your slurry if its really like latex paint beginning to dry, its to dry. If its wet and slick looking, then your slowness is probably too much ballast, you can take out some stones and see if the action picks up. As long as your bowl is screwed down you can run without the top, which allows you to adjust things, but once you are content, its probably a good idea to replace the lid to reduce evaporation (and splash to the floor). Usually bowls are ruined by big stones being stuck on the bottom and wearing through, or too much water which keeps all the grit down in the bottom and rubbing on the same level all the time, Either way its a costly mistake and can be prevented by 1 making sure all of your stones are circulating (especially the largest ones) and 2. that you don't have so much water that the smalls all stay on the bottom. You are doing fine and learning so keep on shaking them and some will be beautiful enough to meet your expectations. Pay attention the others, there is a reason they didn't turn into beauties too. Next time. Thank you for all that info. Good stuff!
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 28, 2016 10:08:32 GMT -5
I just bought some pea gravel to use as filler media. Not sure where I read someone used it and had good results but it was cheap and you get a lot. I am assuming I only want to use it in the coarse stages? Not all of them look rounded and I would think it would hurt the polishing of the stones.
If I can put the pea gravel into the prepolish stage I would want to do that as I think the tile spacers are maybe to big and hindering movement a little bit. All the material is "vortexing' (for lack of a betterword.) but it could probabably go faster if there were smaller media and not all bigger tile spacers.
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 29, 2016 10:00:02 GMT -5
Two Days Dry Check-up (Stage 3 Vibratory (PrePolish) Took a couple rocks out and dried them (I wish I would have taken dry pictures of every stage so I can see the progression. I will do that for my 2nd tumble. I see pretty good polishing going on the parts of the rocks that stick out farther than other parts. Its not uniformly getting polished. There are some parts that already have a polish and some are hazy still. I am assuming after a week all of them will have a decent luster.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Sept 29, 2016 19:33:46 GMT -5
Those are looking great to me. I'm definitely not an expert but a week in the vibe seems long to me. In my rotary I have gotten good final polish from rocks that look pretty much like these.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 29, 2016 19:52:42 GMT -5
Those are looking really good. My pre-polish and polish stages are both only two days in the vibe.
Chuck
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 30, 2016 8:44:46 GMT -5
Those are looking great to me. I'm definitely not an expert but a week in the vibe seems long to me. In my rotary I have gotten good final polish from rocks that look pretty much like these. Hmmm....not sure where I got a week from..guess it's time for Polish! Thank you!
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Sept 30, 2016 8:47:03 GMT -5
Those are looking really good. My pre-polish and polish stages are both only two days in the vibe. Chuck Thank you for the info. I swear I thought I read 7 days. Hope I didn't cause any damage by keeping than in there for four days. Guess I will go buy some borax and polish email up!
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Fritz
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2016
Posts: 77
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Post by Fritz on Oct 1, 2016 10:33:48 GMT -5
Nice banding on some of those, what kind of agate are they?
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Oct 1, 2016 14:04:59 GMT -5
Nice banding on some of those, what kind of agate are they? I was told Lake Superior but to me they look different. All of them were hounded by me in Mississippi. Strong River
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Oct 19, 2016 9:55:03 GMT -5
Well its been awhile since I updated. So hears a quick one. I was trying to wait until my burnishing was completed to update with pictures but I ran into a problem. My vibratory tumbler took a tumble. Basically a washer was missing from my Central Machinery Vibratory Tumbler. The 3rd night of my final stage I didn't realize it but the container was slowly (very slowly) spinning. Well to make a long story short when I woke up the container was no longer attached to the unit. It had spun and got so tight it tore through the plastic bowl. No problem though. My rocks were essentially done with the exception of burnishing. So I brought the tumbler back and they exchanged it. When I got home I loaded it up and started it. Maybe I was gun shy but the container started turning again when the bolt was snugged down. So I emptied it and cleaned it up and returned it for a refund. So now all I have is my rotary. (I'm saving for a Lot-O but it might be a month or two) I don't have any media to put in with my polished stones in the rotary so they have been sitting in water waiting for the burnishing.
Can I use river pebbles as media? My initially thought was no cause my polished rocks have a nice lustery polish and I imagine river pebbles would dull the shine. I had bought this "Doll Filler" to try as a media during prepolish and polish. It seemed to work well but it was a pain in the back side as I had little balls all over the place when trying to remove rocks...clean up...etc So now I'm just being patient until I can go buy some media to burnish and complete my first tumble. I'll snap some pics to post so I can show post-polish and pre-burnish.
Cheers J
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Post by orrum on Oct 19, 2016 16:31:43 GMT -5
Looks like u gonna make it a great batch!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 19, 2016 16:48:26 GMT -5
I had bought this "Doll Filler" to try as a media during prepolish and polish. It seemed to work well but it was a pain in the back side as I had little balls all over the place when trying to remove rocks...clean up...etc So now I'm just being patient until I can go buy some media to burnish and complete my first tumble. Cheers J Looking forward to your finished photos. I'll start by saying I never liked the plastic filler either back in my rotary days. The trick I used was to dump the barrel with the rocks and pellets into a bucket then add about a gallon of water. Swish the rocks around under water and every pellet will float to the top. At that point it is really easy to scoop them out leaving just the rocks at the bottom. A skimmer or fish net work great. Chuck
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Oct 19, 2016 17:19:35 GMT -5
I had bought this "Doll Filler" to try as a media during prepolish and polish. It seemed to work well but it was a pain in the back side as I had little balls all over the place when trying to remove rocks...clean up...etc So now I'm just being patient until I can go buy some media to burnish and complete my first tumble. Cheers J Looking forward to your finished photos. I'll start by saying I never liked the plastic filler either back in my rotary days. The trick I used was to dump the barrel with the rocks and pellets into a bucket then add about a gallon of water. Swish the rocks around under water and every pellet will float to the top. At that point it is really easy to scoop them out leaving just the rocks at the bottom. A skimmer or fish net work great. Chuck I have started flushing them to the top with water and pouring them out as much as possible into a sieve before I remove any rocks. If you dump your barrel into a bucket and spray off the rocks and then fill it up a bit further with water, the beads will all float up and then just pour that off into a sieve. I clean up the rocks in the bucket a bit, and then put them into another sieve to finish off. Then I let the slurry settle to the bottom of the bucket and pour off the water and let it evaporate to where it is pretty solid. Not saying this is "the best" way to do it but it works for me. I will say, however, that little plastic pellets in random locations have just kinda become my new reality.
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Oct 20, 2016 12:21:47 GMT -5
Thanks for the ideas! Ill try that in a little bit. If I can get them separated and then thoroughly rinsed I will start the burnishing today. I noticed 2 or 3 of my quarts had tiny chips in them which to me meant somewhere there were tiny chips of quarts in the doll beads that I didn't want in the burnish stage. I didn't want to contaminate it since my rocks are shaping up to be nice (pun intended)
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Oct 20, 2016 16:37:22 GMT -5
Just wanted to post a pic of a few of the rocks before they went into burnishing. I just selected these at random. Saving my favorites for the final reveal
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stonedape
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2016
Posts: 116
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Post by stonedape on Oct 21, 2016 11:17:38 GMT -5
Oh yeah....Drummond Island and Huskeric....thanks for the info...the little doll beads were easy to corral with your helpful information.
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