workonwood
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 5
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Post by workonwood on Feb 23, 2018 15:30:57 GMT -5
Hello, been ten years since I've tumble....Can anyone help on a gate recipe? Course grit 2 table spoons per pound?? And how about the other grits? Thanks!!!
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workonwood
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 5
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Post by workonwood on Feb 23, 2018 15:31:34 GMT -5
Running a 17lb tumbler with ten pounds of agate.
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Post by aDave on Feb 24, 2018 0:26:30 GMT -5
Using my smaller barrels as a guide...1.666 level tbsp of grit per pound of barrel capacity for all stages until polish. At the polish stage I use .75 to 1 tbsp per pound of barrel capacity. There are online calculators for tbsps to cups to potentially make measuring easier.
Don't know if you need time frames or not, but here's what I do.
Stage 1 (Coarse) - Perpetual run until rocks are shaped the way I want them. Full clean outs and new grit weekly. Considering the weight of your material, you might want to check at five days to see if you still have grit remaining. Rocks, when ready, are pulled and replaced with new material to keep the volume up.
Stage 2 (Medium) - 7 to 10 days. No grit added or changed out.
Stage 3 (Fine) - 14 days. No grit added or changed out.
Stage 4 (Polish) - 3 weeks.
I'd be curious to see how 10 pounds of agate fills your 17 pound barrel. Seems obvious with simple math, but I guess it all depends on the density of your rock in relation to how much volume will be taken up. You should be shooting for 2/3 to 3/4 full. You may need ceramics or other smaller filler to make up volume.
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workonwood
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 5
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Post by workonwood on Feb 24, 2018 19:45:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, My 17lb barrel is 2/3 full. I added larger medium and small agates plus 2 1/2 pounds (half a 5lb bag) of Ceramic. I will run course for a week and then check it out! Will post pics.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Feb 24, 2018 19:57:09 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, My 17lb barrel is 2/3 full. I added larger medium and small agates plus 2 1/2 pounds (half a 5lb bag) of Ceramic. I will run course for a week and then check it out! Will post pics. I’d save the ceramic for the stages after the first stage. The rough stage wears them down too much. They’re too expensive to be replacing all the time. If I I don’t have enough smalls in my rough load, I use some small beach pebbles. If you don’t have anything available, you could try a bag of gravel for an aquarium or for landscaping. Just be sure it’s hard enough rock to hold up for a while. You don’t want to use limestone for example. The ceramics will be useful for the other stages. By the way, welcome to the forum.
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Post by grumpybill on Feb 25, 2018 6:44:47 GMT -5
In my somewhat limited experience, it seems that too many smalls (ceramic pellets, pea gravel, etc.) in the first/rough grind stage slows down the grinding action, evidenced by slower grit breakdown.
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Post by rmf on Feb 25, 2018 8:25:38 GMT -5
Your coarse should be 85-90% full. You will loose most of the rock in the coarse in the form of mud. I personally do not like to add fillers except in the polish stage and then only when I have to due to rocks being too soft.
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workonwood
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 5
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Post by workonwood on Mar 1, 2018 18:37:14 GMT -5
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workonwood
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 5
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Post by workonwood on Mar 1, 2018 18:40:46 GMT -5
Top pic is rough, bottom is one week in the course. Happy with the run ,good slurry. Used 20 Tablespoons of course with 10 pounds of Agate and 2 1/2 pounds of ceramic. QUESTION: can I keep using the ceramic all the way thru the next three stages? Or should I get some plastic pellets? Years ago I used pellets with my agates. These were from a Hunt last week on the Fraser river in B.C.Canada.
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goatgrinder
spending too much on rocks
Make mine a man cave
Member since January 2017
Posts: 368
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Post by goatgrinder on Mar 1, 2018 20:00:54 GMT -5
Eh, my first grind is naked. SiC costs money and is destroyed in the first week of grinding so I lite load the barrel with 70% rock and slightly underfill with water. That's it. Let it grind to shape as naked grinding knocks off the sharp edges and knobs thus producing a pretty good (agate)grinding media and slurry mix. After that I can coarse grind for a week or ten days (or longer) for fine tuning the shapes. After that go to medium then pre-polish and final polish. It is what works for me and my Lortone QT12. Best, and welcome.
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Post by aDave on Mar 1, 2018 20:41:51 GMT -5
Eh, my first grind is naked. SiC costs money and is destroyed in the first week of grinding so I lite load the barrel with 70% rock and slightly underfill with water. That's it. Let it grind to shape as naked grinding knocks off the sharp edges and knobs thus producing a pretty good (agate)grinding media and slurry mix. After that I can coarse grind for a week or ten days (or longer) for fine tuning the shapes. After that go to medium then pre-polish and final polish. It is what works for me and my Lortone QT12. Best, and welcome. While my rock fill and water levels may vary a bit, I'm totally on board with no ceramic or plastic in the first stage for "hard" material (agates, jaspers, quartz). Really there's no reason to since the OP is trying to shape this stuff. If one was rolling something like obsidian, I'd suggest a bunch of filler to reduce bruising.
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