jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 29, 2017 23:40:42 GMT -5
Just thinking. The rubber part part of the pads may get in the way. I don't know, soak them in acetone a the rubber and diamonds may separate. Acetone may not affect that rubber so something else may need to be used... Xylene? Will see spice. Toss em in there and see what happens.
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Post by spiceman on Jan 29, 2017 23:48:22 GMT -5
That works. Testing can be a long process and you do a good job.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 29, 2017 23:55:40 GMT -5
That works. Testing can be a long process and you do a good job. Ha, pretty simple spice. Chunk it in there and sit back. Not much rocket science on that one. Oh yea, cross fingers...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2017 0:05:32 GMT -5
I just searched Ali for synthetic diamond grit. Looks like $40/kg is the going rate now.
$0.008/carat
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 8:10:17 GMT -5
I just searched Ali for synthetic diamond grit. Looks like $40/kg is the going rate now. $0.008/carat 1 Pound = 2260 Carats At a penny per carat 1 pound = $23 The price seems to be leveling out from (30-50) to 1000+ grit. Maybe. The bigger grits needed for coarse grind may be where the price increases. Beware. If you see any 4 or 5 inch rubber diamond pads with 30 or 40 grit please tell me. It is possible that bigger than 50 grit does not work in rubber matrix. OR 30 and 40 grit diamonds are more expensive. Noticed that Alibaba minimum order was averaging 1/2 kilogram. Prices will continue to drop. Don't trust abrasives. The tighter range of size dictates the cost in the aluminum oxide business. I have a reputable tumbling company's 1 pound bottle of AO pre-polish. Pre-packaged and neat, marked 'pre-polish'. This pre-polish is particles from AO 200 to AO 1000, trash from an aluminum oxide manufacturing furnace. Feels like AO 220, actually coarser. Rock Shed pre-polish would be by most tumbler's standards AO 1000. Rock Shed's 1000 is very fine and looks to be true AO 1000. Afore mentioned tumbling company is fully aware of the break down potential of aluminum oxide in a tumbler. Said AO 200 pre-polish laid down a wicked wet polish in the vibe-hint. Keep your eye's open. Good chance we will be coarse grinding with diamond one day. Sharp abrasives is the key to fast grinding. How sharp can sharp get ? Like modern Gamakatsu fish hooks. Laser sharpened for a reason. Will stick into you finger with the slightest touch. Super sharp diamond grit that stays sharp will be the way to go in a tumbler for rounding rocks fast. It may be in the form of diamond impregnated media for easier recapture at clean out. Softly dragging one of these 50 grit diamond pads across an agate will make your toes curl. (going too far haha, call the shrink) Minimum pressure with extreme cutting.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 9:25:42 GMT -5
Largest diamond sintering I have found to date. Marked up in price by US retailer to $1300. Don't be surprised if Walmart is selling standard 6 inch diamond grinding wheels for $50 one day. 6 inch diameter and 1.5 inches wide. 1 inch hole. Expensive precision hub for glass industry.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 9:30:39 GMT -5
If this tire was made out of diamond impregnated diamond rubber the slippage would grind rocks like no tomorrow. OR, diamond pads could be vulcanized to the inside of the tire....
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Post by tims on Jan 30, 2017 9:31:12 GMT -5
Are those pads rubber, or resin?
I'm assuming the backing will wear off, which if they're completely impregnated with diamond would seem similar to rolling smalls covered in grit, as long as the surface diamond doesn't all detach. And assuming they mix well and don't float or conglomerate or something. Glad to see this experiment got the green light.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 9:51:52 GMT -5
Are those pads rubber, or resin? I'm assuming the backing will wear off, which if they're completely impregnated with diamond would seem similar to rolling smalls covered in grit, as long as the surface diamond doesn't all detach. And assuming they mix well and don't float or conglomerate or something. Glad to see this experiment got the green light. Rubber pads Tim. I have used them on 3600 RPM grinders with water and ground/polished hundreds of Mohs 7 slabs. They last forever on hard rock. They have a short life on concrete because the loose sand particles eat away at the rubber matrix. Doubt they will make sand from our rocks, just super fine particles that comprise tumbling slurry. I don't know what the fabric backing will do in the tumbler. I ground the velcro off on an 8 inch grinder. Not the base fabric though. I could have ground the base fabric off but the rubber started smoking and I got a buzz from the fumes. Mixing and longevity yet a mystery. when the shipment arrives I will grind off the velcro, cut the pads into smaller pieces, and chunk them in the rotary. Specific gravity of average rubber is 1.2 to 1.3, so heavier than water(SG = 1.0). But, there is 30 carats of diamond(SG = 3.5) in each pad. Float test = they sink like a rock. So they do not float. I will NOT run them with slurry thickener since they are not so dense. Hopefully they will be happy hanging out at the avalanche at the top of the pile where most of the grinding takes place. When running chunks of SIC grinding wheels I have run them 1/4 grinding wheel chunks and 3/4 rocks. But the chunks time release. They also grind against each other-another (problematic)consideration.
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 30, 2017 12:02:04 GMT -5
The homemade varieties such as the the Tire Tumbler and the 5 Gallon are the ones that might really test this out on. Especially the Tire as those rocks would really roll against the diamond pads.
Now...I wonder if I can sneak an old truck tire home and into the garage and get it built without my wife seeing it!!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 12:17:33 GMT -5
The homemade varieties such as the the Tire Tumbler and the 5 Gallon are the ones that might really test this out on. Especially the Tire as those rocks would really roll against the diamond pads. Now...I wonder if I can sneak an old truck tire home and into the garage and get it built without my wife seeing it!! Yes Henry, with the slipping and random rolling action. Alway thought a rock tumbler operating with an abrasive surface with random rock rolling and constant slippage would be the way. Maybe the pads could simply be screwed to the tire with short(wood) screws from the inside. (Trying to give you ideas ha ha) If I send some Dallas cheer leaders over ?
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Post by HankRocks on Jan 30, 2017 15:47:24 GMT -5
You may as well send the Cheerleaders over, putting another "rock contraption" in the garage is already going to have in the doghouse.
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ChicagoDave
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Post by ChicagoDave on Jan 30, 2017 15:52:26 GMT -5
I tried putting a bunch of plastic tile spacers in with my competition rocks since I didn't have any other "soft" rocks to fill the barrel. I used the same amount of grit and cat litter. After a week of tumbling, it looked like nothing happened. The grit was still there and didn't look like it broke down at all. I wonder if the same thing will happen here?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 16:12:05 GMT -5
You may as well send the Cheerleaders over, putting another "rock contraption" in the garage is already going to have in the doghouse. Early in the marriage I built large doghouses with heat and air. Tools and door locks. Planning is everything.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 16:31:47 GMT -5
I tried putting a bunch of plastic tile spacers in with my competition rocks since I didn't have any other "soft" rocks to fill the barrel. I used the same amount of grit and cat litter. After a week of tumbling, it looked like nothing happened. The grit was still there and didn't look like it broke down at all. I wonder if the same thing will happen here? Sometimes the grit just does not take for some unexplainable reason. No idea how the spacers effected your tumble. That is a mystery. I have had a water slurry go a week and the grit did not break. Usually because there was too much water, amateur mistake. Maybe you could look at it in a density format. If each little rock in your barrel weighed a pound and your 6 pound barrel weighed 100 pounds the break down of grit should happen fast because of sheer grinding force. Like tumbling garnets, they weigh 4.0 and quartz weighs 2.7. so your 6 pound barrel would weigh 4/2.7 X 6 = 8.5 pounds filled 3/4 with garnets. But if you start putting plastic in you change a density of the 3/4 fill a lot. These pieces will have diamond molded into the rubber. Hope that they will do a lot of rubbing against the rocks and abrading them. Not sure what is going to happen Dave, a mystery at this point. I hope to have very dirty slurry in a hurry.
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ChicagoDave
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Post by ChicagoDave on Jan 30, 2017 16:39:10 GMT -5
Good assumption on the grit actually being in the rubber as opposed to just circling around in the barrel. Keep up the experiments! I'm curious to see how this goes.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2017 16:54:16 GMT -5
Good assumption on the grit actually being in the rubber as opposed to just circling around in the barrel. Keep up the experiments! I'm curious to see how this goes. Man I hope it speeds up the coarse grind. I had been waiting for the diamond pads to lower in price. 10 years ago they were $10 a piece. Theses at $1.60 each. Opens the door if you know what I mean. If we were using straight diamond grit say 45/70 it would probably never break down. A tumbler probably does not generate enough force to crack it like SiC. Diamonds are wicked tough. And Mohs 7 rocks probably will probably not dull it one iota. So you would have a half cup of grit you could probably use over and over 100 times. Imagine that. You would have to screen it very careful so as not to loose it at clean out though. Maybe the rubber will bind it for many tumbles. maybe maybe
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Post by spiceman on Jan 30, 2017 19:27:43 GMT -5
That works. Testing can be a long process and you do a good job. Ha, pretty simple spice. Chunk it in there and sit back. Not much rocket science on that one. Oh yea, cross fingers... Please NO SMOKING.
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Post by spiceman on Jan 30, 2017 19:38:07 GMT -5
Yes, let your experiments run true. Because, at my surplus store those same diamond pads only cost 2 bucks. You go I just use drill and a Velcro backing pad. The shine looks good. But lots of work.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 31, 2017 8:47:03 GMT -5
Yes, let your experiments run true. Because, at my surplus store those same diamond pads only cost 2 bucks. You go I just use drill and a Velcro backing pad. The shine looks good. But lots of work. $2 is cheap. Hope they work, you'll have a source. Make sure they have 50 grit..
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