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Post by aDave on Mar 14, 2017 17:39:11 GMT -5
After about a 15-20 year hiatus from tumbling, I recently pulled my first completed batch out of the final burnishing step. I used to tumble rocks with my son when he was younger, and we religiously followed the "one week for each grind" instructions that came with the tumbler. Results were good, but I since learned that shaping takes far, far longer. This batch started in early January in the original Lortone 45C. Rocks were of mixed variety, yet allegedly similar in hardness. After about a week or so of watching it run seemingly slow, I transitioned to a newly ordered 45C while awaiting parts to repair the original. Now, I have a perpetual first grind barrel/tumbler, use a second tumbler and barrel for the intermediate steps, and a final barrel for polish/burnishing. Over the coming weeks, I'll be making some adjustments...mainly adding a yet-to-be opened QT-66 and fixing some steps. This is how this batch ran: -Coarse grind with 60/90. Weekly cleanouts with culling and replacing material. I tried a recharge at one point, but everything had caked at the bottom. Will be trying some 45/70 to see how that goes. -One week at each of the remaining steps. Plastic pellets were used to cushion in all phases of tumbling from the 120/220 grind through the final burnish with Borax. Burnishing was done after 500 and after polish for about 6 hours. Will be cutting back on the amount of polish grit as recommended by captbob and others. May also extend polish to two weeks, but I wanted to try to get a baseline. The photos are of all the rocks that came out of the batch. Will be looking to get a light box made up. Lighting in these photos changed due to light clouds. I didn't bother taking any individual photos of rocks, so not a whole lot of "eye candy" to look at. Besides, it's rotary work. A vibe is on the shopping list down the road. Thanks for everyone's help. As always, feedback/critiques are welcome. Regards. Dave
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 14, 2017 18:10:16 GMT -5
Those look really great. Your quartz shows that you had a good amount of cushion. I do not do much rotary tumbling anymore but the few batches I have done recently in the rotary I went 2-3 weeks in polish. welcome back to tumbling.
Chuck
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Post by wigglinrocks on Mar 14, 2017 18:28:57 GMT -5
You did a great job on those , nice shine . Good to get your feet wet again isn't it .
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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 14, 2017 20:12:34 GMT -5
Nice batch. Nice shine.
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napoleonrags
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2015
Posts: 474
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Post by napoleonrags on Mar 14, 2017 20:53:09 GMT -5
Oh tumble shine master, I am not worthy.
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Post by captbob on Mar 14, 2017 23:23:00 GMT -5
TI didn't bother taking any individual photos of rocks, so not a whole lot of "eye candy" to look at. Besides, it's rotary work. A vibe is on the shopping list down the road. Excuse me? You can put out equally nice rocks with a rotary or vibe. I don't believe either offers a polish better than the other. A vibe will simply do it faster. Nice first batch.
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Post by aDave on Mar 15, 2017 0:25:45 GMT -5
Excuse me? You can put out equally nice rocks with a rotary or vibe. I don't believe either offers a polish better than the other. A vibe will simply do it faster. Nice first batch. Thanks captbob . No offense was meant to the rotary folks. In my short time here, I've seen stunning work from vibes, and I know my work doesn't compare. Perhaps it's my technique/procedure that's lacking and not the rotary itself as you noted. I know I have alot of learning to do, and perhaps results will improve over time. Best regards. Dave
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Post by aDave on Mar 15, 2017 0:33:09 GMT -5
Thanks for the nice comments guys. Yes, it is nice to get back in the hobby again. Lot of satisfaction with the outcome. Regards.
Dave
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,685
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 15, 2017 10:23:15 GMT -5
Those are very very nice tumbles!!!!!
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Post by captbob on Mar 15, 2017 12:04:30 GMT -5
Excuse me? You can put out equally nice rocks with a rotary or vibe. I don't believe either offers a polish better than the other. A vibe will simply do it faster. Thanks captbob . No offense was meant to the rotary folks. In my short time here, I've seen stunning work from vibes, and I know my work doesn't compare. Perhaps it's my technique/procedure that's lacking and not the rotary itself as you noted. I know I have alot of learning to do, and perhaps results will improve over time. Best regards. Dave I certainly took no offense Dave. Actually amused at the thinking that a vibe is the Holy Grail of tumbling. Some folks seem to think that a vibe is the end all, be all to achieving a superior polish on their rocks. My contention is that a vibe simply goes through the final stages faster. Not better. Faster is good for many/most, making a vibe a valuable asset in your rock tumbling methodology / madness. Why wait 6 months for a load of rocks to run start to finish if you can do it in 3? So vibes excel in turning out finished tumbles faster than a rotary. Handy tool (machine) if time is a consideration. I bought a UV-10 vibe a couple years back (?), and used it once. Took some rough grit tumbled rocks and went through the 120/220, and 500 grits (maybe 1000 grit as well, don't recall) and didn't even finish the batch in the vibe. Returned the rocks to the rotary to polish. ( Think I was running loads of Dallasite at the time. ) Why? Because I didn't like babysitting the rocks. Check on rocks a couple/few times a day - are you kidding me? LOL - just me. Don't care enough about tumbled rocks to fret over that they are doing. In a rotary, I can set 'em and forget 'em. See ya when I get around to it. The rocks don't care. A lonely and forgotten UV-10 sits on a shelf collecting dust now. May get back to it someday. Maybe even soon as I get all these corals running. May be the perfect machine for the corals. Will think on that... My other consideration was that I can tumble much larger rocks in my rotary barrels. I LIKE big tumbles. No use for small shiny rocks in my world. Don't even add smalls to tumbles, just use ceramics because I don't want a handful or more of smalls with every batch. Funny, but I'd rather pay for ceramics than deal with small rocks. Seems some folks like smalls. To each their own. Anyway, I just prefer a rotary tumbler. I am in no way offended that others prefer different methods. Why would I be? They are probably much smarter than I am by cutting the tumble time in half while getting similar results! With all these 15 lb barrels running here, I could definitely keep that UV-10 full and running constantly, but there is no way that I would want to be dealing with that amount of finished rocks coming out every week or two. Not into babysitting rocks and what the heck would I do with them all -? All I was pointing out was that a vibe isn't going to give you a better polished shine on your rocks than a rotary is capable of. So don't look to a vibe as the way to take your game to the next level, look for it to speed up the game. Maybe a vibe can/will give a polish to those that can't manage it in a rotary - I believe that a perfect rotary polish is an art, not an accident - so nothing to lose by trying different methods. See what works best for ya! Some may be going rotary to vibe and have no clue how to get a high end rotary polish. If that works for them, why change it?
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Post by aDave on Mar 15, 2017 12:10:29 GMT -5
Great advice captbob. Certainly has given me food for thought. Thank you again for the insight. Best regards. Dave
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napoleonrags
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2015
Posts: 474
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Post by napoleonrags on Mar 15, 2017 12:11:23 GMT -5
Captbob wonderful insight. Do you have a specific 15lber for polishing? I'm starting to think about the long roll...Thanks.
Colin
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Post by captbob on Mar 15, 2017 12:44:53 GMT -5
Captbob wonderful insight. Do you have a specific 15lber for polishing? I'm starting to think about the long roll...Thanks. Colin I do now that I have so many 15lb barrels. The reason behind that being that I'm lazy about tumbling (hence no vibe) and didn't feel like changing out (cleaning) the polish barrel all the time. So I just leave the polish mixture (water/plastic beads/polish) in the barrel and remove the rock by hand. VERY seldom that something isn't in the polish cycle. For YEARS I used my two 12 lb barrels for the polish stage only. I love the Thumler's 12 lb barrels for polishing - they are a rubber barrel and I figure much "softer" to polish in. 15 lb barrel seems to be working just fine for polishing, and I'm not sure the 12 lb barrels were actually any better - may have just been in my head that they were... Would normally take starting off two 15 lb barrels of rough rocks would yield one 12 lb barrel worth to go to final polishing. I cull a LOT of rocks along the way that don't pass muster. Have a school a block away, and often go there to dump my rejects in the gravel parking lot while walking a dog. Never seem to be any left on my next visit, so I guess the urchins are picking them up. MY polishing quirk is, and has always been, - cushioning the rocks. Very full barrels, using plastic beads and high water level, to lessen rock impact. No set recipe here, every load is different depending on the rocks.
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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 16, 2017 5:45:18 GMT -5
Nice looking batch! I gotta agree with captbob, the difference between a vibe polish and rotary polish is just time. I will say that I believe vibe polishing is easier if you have time to check on it a couple times a day. Rotary polish is much easier if you don't have that time, just let it roll for a week or 2. A perfect example, I am going out of town this weekend and I have a batch ready for the vibe but I didn't start it because I am going to be gone for 2 days. If I was putting it in the rotary, it would be spinning right now. Jake
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Post by Garage Rocker on Mar 17, 2017 2:51:31 GMT -5
Nice job, Dave. Look forward to seeing more of your work. And some of those Lavic tumbles.
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Post by aDave on Mar 17, 2017 14:50:40 GMT -5
Nice job, Dave. Look forward to seeing more of your work. And some of those Lavic tumbles. Thank you, sir. Lavic will be soon, relatively speaking. I loaded up both barrels of the QT-66 with the stuff this past Wednesday. So, maybe a couple months from now, perhaps.
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Post by pghram on Mar 17, 2017 22:28:28 GMT -5
Nicely shaped and beautiful shine.
Peace, Rich
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