Tumbling in 6 inch Schedule 40 PVC Barrels

That can't be right, almost all Texan's are aware of the business end of a barrel.

Back to the main subject.



Most rocks are some variation of SiO². As it tumbles the rocks break down to ever finer pieces of sand.

jamesp found that sand isn't helpful in speeding up the tumbling process. It took months.

From time to time someone would discover a better way as txrockhunter pointed out in the Clay Thread with Old Miser from Covington

Other than an occasional item like that, SLURRY was never on anyone's radar. That gooey stuff was just an unfortunate mess that was part of polishing rocks. Wash it off and good riddance!

Then along came jamesp .

We are still waiting for Critical Mass. Will it happen this time?

So the Coral made you do it! Thanks for sharing the coral photos. I hope you will do the same with Rios.

The coral about had it's own instant slurry thickener.

The Rios, add you own.

But - What Clay? - That is being considered over in the Clay Thread. Hopefully Billy - toiv0 will soon have some answers for us.

The Clay Minerals - hydrated aluminum silicate - are a part of a general but important group within the phyllosilicates that contain large percentages of water trapped between their silicate sheets. Most clays are chemically and structurally analogous to other phyllosilicates but contain varying amounts of water and allow more substitution of their cations.
It is more the physical characteristics of clays than chemical and structural characteristics) that define this group.

Clay minerals are divided into four major groups. These are the important clay mineral groups:
The Chlorite Group
The Illite Group(or The Clay-mica, basically a hydrated microscopic muscovite)
The Kaolinite Group

And the one we are interested in:
The Montmorillonite/Smectite/Bentonite Group
This group is composed of several minerals including pyrophyllite, talc, vermiculite, sauconite, saponite, nontronite and montmorillonite They differ mostly in chemical content. The general formula is (Ca, Na, H)(Al, Mg, Fe, Zn)2(Si, Al)4O10(OH)2 - xH2O, where x represents the variable amount of water that members of this group could contain. Talc's formula, for example, is Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. The gibbsite layers of the kaolinite group can be replaced in this group by a similar layer that is analogous to the oxide brucite, (Mg2(OH)4). The structure of this group is composed of silicate layers sandwiching a gibbsite (or brucite) layer in between, in an s-g-s stacking sequence. The variable amounts of water molecules would lie between the s-g-s sandwiches.

The primary ingredient in Montmorillonite/Bentonite is hydrated aluminum silicate. Other constituents include calcium, magnesium, and iron (the composition varies according to the geographical location in which it is found).

What is Bentonite?





We think the clay we want has magnesium in it to be sticky enough to do a good job.



I think the charged particles is what makes the clay stick to stuff is:

I like the looks of that material, told my co worker and she is going to test the two samples you send, at least for silt sand and clay content. We never get into the mineralization of the materials.

I got pics somewhere of my 17 inch tires looking like they are 24 inch fat tires.
Not fun to get stuck in that mud. In Willis tx I got a 4 yard loader stuck to the belly on a Sunday, only took me 6 hrs to find someone to get me out.

Believe it or not, I miss that GA clay.

Peace,

Rich

I got the samples yesterday and will forward on to our lab tomorrow. The in house lab works on a when they have time basis so it might be a while. I will try and rush them. I like the feel of the clay, need to wet the tumbling clay to braille it.

It is nice clay. Not sure what you guys need but it is homogenous all over that area.

Color says baseball field.