vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 7, 2017 11:36:32 GMT -5
The rocks finished their polish stage, but when we unloaded them, cleaned them off and let them dry......they are actually LESS shiny than they were after the FINE stage. Any ideas what we may have done wrong? Is there any chance of running them through another polish stage to help? 1488903601539 by Michael Aldrich, on Flickr
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inbtb
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2016
Posts: 351
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Post by inbtb on Mar 7, 2017 13:55:54 GMT -5
How long did you have them in pre-polish? How long in polish? The little black stone did take a shine at least it looks it in the picture. You can always go back and rerun your last step. I would go back to step 3 and run for another week, then the polish for a week. I would leave out the little black stone it looks done to me and no sense losing the shine on it.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Mar 7, 2017 14:04:08 GMT -5
Is that all the stones in the batch ? Need more stones to make polish work. And plenty of plastic bits I hope.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 7, 2017 14:10:14 GMT -5
How long did you have them in pre-polish? How long in polish? The little black stone did take a shine at least it looks it in the picture. You can always go back and rerun your last step. I would go back to step 3 and run for another week, then the polish for a week. I would leave out the little black stone it looks done to me and no sense losing the shine on it. These were in coarse grit for two weeks, medium for one week, fine for one week and then polish for one week. The tiny black stone is not really shiny, it was just still wet when I took the picture.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 7, 2017 14:11:51 GMT -5
Is that all the stones in the batch ? Need more stones to make polish work. And plenty of plastic bits I hope. These are stones from a 1 lb rotary tumbler, and yes, when they were original, they filled the tumbler 3/4 full, so for stages 3 and 4, I used plastic pellets to get the tumbler 3/4 full. I do not have any other stones ready to add to this batch as the others we have are at coarse and medium stages.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 7, 2017 17:36:56 GMT -5
OK, we are leaving for Ohio tomorrow morning, so I had to make a decision. I took inbtb's advice and put the rocks back in the rotary tumbler with FINE grit, but also because the batch is so small now, I took Wooferhound's advice and made sure to fill the tumbler to 3/4 full with plastic pellets. Hopefully, when we return from Grandma's house, we can move to the polishing stage again. Thank you all for your advice and support.
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osuguy0301
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2015
Posts: 203
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Post by osuguy0301 on Mar 7, 2017 18:29:19 GMT -5
Did you use pellets in stage 3? If so I hope you didn't use the same pellets in stage 4. Use separate pellets for each stage.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 7, 2017 18:32:41 GMT -5
Did you use pellets in stage 3? If so I hope you didn't use the same pellets in stage 4. Use separate pellets for each stage. Yes, we did use pellets in stage 3, but thanks to advice from this forum, we knew not to transfer those pellets to stage 4.
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Post by spiceman on Mar 7, 2017 20:27:14 GMT -5
Also, I don't know where grandmas house is but don't waste too much time looking for cool rocks in Ohio because you may not find any. Granite, Quartz, very colorful flint if your in the right area and digging.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 8, 2017 18:41:10 GMT -5
Also, I don't know where grandmas house is but don't waste too much time looking for cool rocks in Ohio because you may not find any. Granite, Quartz, very colorful flint if your in the right area and digging. HA! That figures, as there is NOTHING else in West Liberty either!
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 19, 2017 16:39:56 GMT -5
OK...I am losing my daughter's interest as our rocks simply will not get a shine on them. Can anyone tell me based on my original pictures if perhaps these rocks simply will never shine? I think some are granite and some are a form of agate, but at this point, we are at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2017 17:14:55 GMT -5
I'm guessing stone choice is the mistake.
What are they?
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 19, 2017 17:28:19 GMT -5
I am no geologist, so I truly do not know. They are rocks that she has picked up around the house and around her playground at school here in Virginia.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Mar 19, 2017 18:38:41 GMT -5
I am new and have not produced a Wet Shine yet. But after reading here about cross contamination I am sure that is what the problem is and I am doing much more to eliminate this problem. I am cleaning the rocks between stages and twice between stage 3 & polish, cleaning the barrels more, watching where the tumbler parts rest, and using different colanders for each stage of grit. Am also even adding another AO 1000 step before polish, also making sure that the polish barrel is separate from all other barrels and hugely clean, plus half full of plastic pellets and 80% full, maybe less. Today I am starting Polish on a batch of rocks using all of these methods and will make sure to post the results.
I am struggling just like you but I'm discovering that it is much more work than a 4 step process . . .
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Mar 19, 2017 23:12:25 GMT -5
My guess is that these rocks are just too soft to take a shine. While cross contamination may be an issue, it won't result in your polish stage producing rocks less shiny than the pre-polish stage. From my experience, even with some cross contamination, you should still get some shine unless your rocks are just not suitable for polishing.
I would recommend buying some easy to tumble rocks such as agates from an online vendor and tumbling those. I wouldn't start with self collected rocks unless you have more experience and know what will take a polish.
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ChicagoDave
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2016
Posts: 720
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Post by ChicagoDave on Mar 20, 2017 6:58:40 GMT -5
Maybe you should buy some already shiny rocks and sneak them into a batch. That way you have something shiny to pull out until you're able to get some rocks that will take a polish.
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Post by spiceman on Mar 20, 2017 17:59:15 GMT -5
Maybe you should buy some already shiny rocks and sneak them into a batch. That way you have something shiny to pull out until you're able to get some rocks that will take a polish. I like that idea. Your not trying to fool her just trying to make her happy ( that's dad's job). Until the process gets worked out.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 20, 2017 19:47:01 GMT -5
Thank you all for your input. While my daughter's initial "amazement" at rock tumbling came from the fact that she could claim these were all just rocks she found laying around.....I may go ahead and try to find/buy some easy ones that will take a good shine, just to keep her interest.
In the meantime, with our existing rocks, we decided to take a couple of steps back and put the "polished" stones back in medium grit for a week, then we added some of "medium" grit stones we had tumbling to the Lortone 33B barrel and added "fine" grit to the bunch. We will let them run for another 7 days. Hopefully by next weekend, we can move them on to the polish stage and we may just have to accept the results we get as I cannot see anything we are doing wrong. We are cleaning our barrels and rocks with a toothbrush between stages, so I do not believe cross contamination is an issue, but if there is a special barrel brush out there that I should invest in, please let me know!
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 21, 2017 11:52:26 GMT -5
Some rocks won't polish but that doesn't explain why they were starting to shine after pre polish and were dull after polish. What polish did you use? Sounds like you are keeping barrel full enough which is the most common problem with newbies. It could be the tiny tumbler needs longer runs to accomplish success as there could not be much rock movement. I secnd the easier batch to start. Try the Rock Shed for an agate tumbling mix.
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vayank5150
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2017
Posts: 118
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Post by vayank5150 on Mar 22, 2017 19:26:49 GMT -5
Some rocks won't polish but that doesn't explain why they were starting to shine after pre polish and were dull after polish. What polish did you use? Sounds like you are keeping barrel full enough which is the most common problem with newbies. It could be the tiny tumbler needs longer runs to accomplish success as there could not be much rock movement. I secnd the easier batch to start. Try the Rock Shed for an agate tumbling mix. Being quite the novice at this hobby, and also being an Amazon.com kinda guy, I bought grit (including polish) from www.twinpinestradingpost.com. The bag of polish is labeled as "The Fundamental Rockhound: Rotary Tumbler: Step 4: Alumina Tumble Polish". Does anyone know if this is what I should be using?
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