jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 15:53:11 GMT -5
This rock only spent 18 hours in the vibe. AO 14,000 with borax. The rest of the time in the rotary. Two steps in the rotary, SiC 30 to shape about 4 weeks. AO 80 for 9 days with no clay but 80% full with small stones. After 9 days in rotary in AO 80. Looks to be a 2000 to 4000 finish. Biggest grit step I ever experienced. AO 80 slurry after 9 days The whole load washed and wet. Ready for polish in vibe. 8 pounds Almost forgot, pretty media/smalls. Good size for padding big rock. Big rock may have assisted in breaking AO 80 to 2000-4000 No doubts about the AO 80 breaking way down. An AO 14,000 run in the vibe would have never put a liquid polish down if AO 80 had not been like 1000-4000. typical smalls:
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jan 2, 2017 16:03:22 GMT -5
Ooooh.. That's purdy! I like the picture with your camera and fingers.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 16:09:00 GMT -5
Ooooh.. That's purdy! I like the picture with your camera and fingers. Reminds of your old avatar that distorted you.
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Post by tims on Jan 2, 2017 16:18:49 GMT -5
Gorgeous batch. Does AO seem to break down more consistently for you than SiC for going from coarse to fine? Rolling 46-70 SiC my grit seems to wear to nothing in a week but then it just seems to stop working completely, not progress to a pre-polish.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jan 2, 2017 16:21:07 GMT -5
Ooooh.. That's purdy! I like the picture with your camera and fingers. Reminds of your old avatar that distorted you. Distorted? What distortion?
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Post by wigglinrocks on Jan 2, 2017 17:51:26 GMT -5
Another typical batch for you , AWESOME ! Is there any colors not in that batch ?
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Post by pghram on Jan 2, 2017 17:56:01 GMT -5
Great color and a wet shine, hard to believe it went from 80 to 14k!
Peace,
Rich
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Post by captbob on Jan 2, 2017 18:01:49 GMT -5
Nice!
Note to self: Need to pick up some of that coarser AO grit to play with.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 19:26:27 GMT -5
Reminds of your old avatar that distorted you. Distorted? What distortion? Please forgive. Who was the guy that was barefoot skying ? He was a right handsome fellow.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 19:37:19 GMT -5
Gorgeous batch. Does AO seem to break down more consistently for you than SiC for going from coarse to fine? Rolling 46-70 SiC my grit seems to wear to nothing in a week but then it just seems to stop working completely, not progress to a pre-polish. SiC is good for one thing, cutting. It is brittle and breaks into sharp pieces. Not so good for laying down a polish. AO totally different, gets smoother and smoother. Smaller and smaller. Hard particles that do not shatter. AO 80 a good size because it will shave off SiC 30 and SiC 46 scratches. Then slowly converts to almost polish. And oddly, hard to find AO 80 in a tumbling supply company.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 19:42:57 GMT -5
Another typical batch for you , AWESOME ! Is there any colors not in that batch ? Well thanks Rich. those small rocks got sifted from a bunch of different stockpiles. So the variety. About got all the soft type rocks separated into another area. All Mohs 7 rocks, easier that way.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 19:48:46 GMT -5
Great color and a wet shine, hard to believe it went from 80 to 14k! Peace, Rich Nature of the beast Rich. Aluminum oxide is a compatible abrasive for smoothing quartz gems. The AO 80 gets you to a nice pre-polish in the rotary after a week or two. Probably longer for small rocks. The AO 80 will get you to a darn nice pre-polish in a couple of three days in a vibe. In either case you need to final polish with AO 14,000.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 20:04:43 GMT -5
Nice! Note to self: Need to pick up some of that coarser AO grit to play with. This time a bit less water was used and the AO 80 stuck to the rocks and started making the water turn milky after a day. Was hoping to avoid using the red clay. That native red clay has something in it that slows the polish. Remember we were suspicious of that ? Would not go below AO 70 or AO 80. It should be enough to clean up the scratches from SiC 30 or 46. Anything coarser is probably a walk in the backward direction. One of these AO 80 runs I should do a clean out and finish the rocks in the rotary with AO 14,000 polish. OR, run the AO 80 another week or two past 9 days and see if polish happens. a side note, every time I run AO 14,000 in the Viking 2-3 days I get a crappy polish. 18 hours is best. struck me odd. No answer
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quartz
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breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,352
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Post by quartz on Jan 3, 2017 0:17:03 GMT -5
Great batch both in variety and quality. Nice to see you getting a good polish on some larger pieces, know you have been working toward that.
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Post by roy on Jan 3, 2017 11:53:59 GMT -5
sweet!!!!!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 3, 2017 12:10:46 GMT -5
Still can not get over how hard/tough that rock is Roy.
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Fossilman
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Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,709
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Post by Fossilman on Jan 3, 2017 13:12:01 GMT -5
HOLY MOLLY!!! Better than eating a jelly doughnut son!!!!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 3, 2017 13:27:06 GMT -5
HOLY MOLLY!!! Better than eating a jelly doughnut son!!!! Now that might be stretching it.
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jan 3, 2017 13:31:37 GMT -5
That's a nice hunk of agate, James. I like the smalls as well, super shine.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,558
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Post by jamesp on Jan 3, 2017 13:53:42 GMT -5
That's a nice hunk of agate, James. I like the smalls as well, super shine. If you like the color scheme on that agate you should try some for the Lot-O. That thing stripped diamonds of my diamond wheel like it was butter. It is hard and takes a deadly shine. As if you could get a better shine than you already have.
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