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Post by adam on Jan 13, 2017 8:39:03 GMT -5
Nah, my tumbler didn't dry out, had enough water, my slurry is never too thick. The stones looked fine after the third stage, after pre-polish. Quite a few stones had the AO residue. I'll just have to start over and plan ahead better.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Jan 13, 2017 8:51:46 GMT -5
Nah, my tumbler didn't dry out, had enough water, my slurry is never too thick. The stones looked fine after the third stage, after pre-polish. Quite a few stones had the AO residue. I'll just have to start over and plan ahead better. Did you run a cleaning step immediately ? As soon as you have your stones polished you should pour the polish slurry out and immediately replace with some kind of soap and fresh water and run them. Where did you get your AO ?
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Post by adam on Jan 13, 2017 10:58:37 GMT -5
Of course I use hot tap water, dish soap, and a tooth brush to clean the stones--only after dousing the stones in a bucket.
I got my aluminum oxide from Lortone. I do use a lot(about six to eight spoonful's) of AO polish when I run final stage. Perhaps I should consider other brands in the future?
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jan 13, 2017 11:05:54 GMT -5
The cracks have to get gone unless you want them. adam, Dave is right. If you don't want any polish left in cracks, you have to tumble until the cracks are gone. Some quartz is full of fractures and is difficult to get a blemish free polish anyway.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Jan 13, 2017 11:24:19 GMT -5
I always polished in the rotary with 2-3 cups sugar/10 pounds rock in the polish step Adam. The sugar and polish did get caught in cracks and tiny voids. However the sugar would dissolve under hot water a greatly helped releasing the undissolvable AO polish from the cracks. I don't think I ever ran an AO polish load in the rotary without Karo Syrup or white sugar. Sorry that I forgot to mention that. Been a while polishing in the rotary. I find Borax/AO polish in the vibe to be a real problem getting caught in voids/cracks. Not using sugar with polish, just Borax with polish. To solve the Borax/polish problem I run on the wet side. But that is a vibe issue. My problem was not so much cracks, but hundreds of tiny druzzy pockets in petrified coral.
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