sweetiehound
starting to shine!
Member since June 2004
Posts: 36
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Post by sweetiehound on Jul 2, 2004 1:31:02 GMT -5
Hello rockheads! I'm getting ugly cracks in my finished stones with the rotary tumbler. Any suggestions? Thanks, Sweetiehound
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Post by puppie96 on Jul 2, 2004 1:38:59 GMT -5
Sweetiehound! I musta found a long lost cousin. Welcome to the board! Arf, sniff!
Cracks in rocks: Might have been the result of too rough action in the barrel during polish. Did you use pellets?
Could have been that they needed more rough grinding to begin with.
Could have been that these were very shallow cracks, not visible before put in the polish. I've had this happen a lot. Since the polish is white, I believe it seeps into these crevices and stands out more than the darker colored grit would. Even with lots of washing I'm never able to get rid of all of this. Seems to get down there and stick.
Maybe too much size difference in rocks with a great big one banging around the smaller ones.
These are all I can think of right now....
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Post by puppie96 on Jul 2, 2004 3:53:05 GMT -5
Good point about the continued chipping along the fracture, rollingstone. Never thought of that.
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Post by creativeminded on Jul 2, 2004 9:27:16 GMT -5
If they weren't there when you started then you need to add plastic pellets to your stages. Another thing you might think about is when you put the rough in you usually have no idea what the smooth is going to look like. I have some rose quartz going and I couldn't even imaging what they were going to look like some are clearer and others are more clouded. Tami
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Post by krazydiamond on Jul 2, 2004 18:11:06 GMT -5
there are certain materials the have internal cracks not detectable unil after going through most of the processing. i have found this true with a lot of the blue and brazilian agates as well as some of the amethyst, citrine and rose quartz that i experienced in my first few tumbles. i'm finding i much prefer the jaspers and agates for better results overall. the few pieces of pet. wood i have tried i have removed from the 60/90 cycle as they are almost perfect just the way they are right now and i will hold them back to go stright to polish and they will make gorgeous barrettes.
btw, those few pieces of wonderston i put in a few days back i have also pulled out and may also go straight to polish. so pretty. gonna be shiny.....i should have been a crow or a bower bird in this life?
KD
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