Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 9, 2018 16:12:35 GMT -5
Doing some Obsidian in rotary tumbler... Yes,I'm a glutton for punishment... LOL Ran the 90grit,220grit,600grit,1000grit,now in second week of polishing,cerium oxcide... Still no gloss or shine., Will see what happens in another week...
One day,I will buy a vibe... LOL
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 9, 2018 16:33:10 GMT -5
The sooner the better on the vibe purchase. Lol There are a few folks on here that have conquered obsidian in a rotary though.
Chuck
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 9, 2018 17:42:31 GMT -5
The sooner the better on the vibe purchase. Lol There are a few folks on here that have conquered obsidian in a rotary though. Chuck My goal is to conquer.... LOL
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ingawh
starting to spend too much on rocks
The rock wants to shine, I just help it get there
Member since February 2011
Posts: 194
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Post by ingawh on Mar 10, 2018 2:09:29 GMT -5
The sooner the better on the vibe purchase. Lol There are a few folks on here that have conquered obsidian in a rotary though. Chuck My goal is to conquer.... LOL The trick I owe to my friend (who polishes lots of obsidian in his garage-full of over 50 ROTARY barrels), is using 7-mohs quartz and agate as filler, and to get rid of all plastic pellets once and for all. Bingo - the obsidian began to take on a liquid shine. The trick is lots of filler in proportion to the obsidian, and that the filler be already well rounded and highly polished. I think lots of folks on this board know I use large-sized aquarium gravel to make my filler. I also have used ceramic shapes, but I find the best liquid shine comes from the agate and quartz pieces in the rounded gravel. If your slurry is nice and thick, I've definitely seen it work in rotary barrels as well - in fact, like I said, that's where I learned it. It doesn't work in my two-step method, which requires the vibe, so with rotary you still go through all the steps, but the polish stage is where that leap of faith comes in, to go with the 7-mohs filler and no plastic pellets. (If you're tired of hearing about this, my apologies -- I'd just love to see you conquer it!)
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Mar 10, 2018 5:30:24 GMT -5
My goal is to conquer.... LOL The trick I owe to my friend (who polishes lots of obsidian in his garage-full of over 50 ROTARY barrels), is using 7-mohs quartz and agate as filler, and to get rid of all plastic pellets once and for all. Bingo - the obsidian began to take on a liquid shine. The trick is lots of filler in proportion to the obsidian, and that the filler be already well rounded and highly polished. I think lots of folks on this board know I use large-sized aquarium gravel to make my filler. I also have used ceramic shapes, but I find the best liquid shine comes from the agate and quartz pieces in the rounded gravel. If your slurry is nice and thick, I've definitely seen it work in rotary barrels as well - in fact, like I said, that's where I learned it. It doesn't work in my two-step method, which requires the vibe, so with rotary you still go through all the steps, but the polish stage is where that leap of faith comes in, to go with the 7-mohs filler and no plastic pellets. (If you're tired of hearing about this, my apologies -- I'd just love to see you conquer it!) There is a job in this household ingawh. Me and the wife pick thru 3/8 to 5/8 inch quartz pea gravel as needed and get the best solid ones. Once we have picked enough to fill a small rotary it gets tumbled to near polish. Or it is added at a rate of about 30% with a regular batch of tumbles to get a smooth finish, then set aside for vibe media. The landscape yards sell this gravel in bulk for cheap. Like a 5 gallon bucket for $2. It has more junk in it but plenty of AAA quartz graders. I learned an easy way to separate them by piling the raw gravel on a sheet of plywood and raising the sheet. The nice ovals and rounds roll down hill and leaves most of the mis-shaped junk behind. "The trick is lots of filler in proportion to the obsidian" I have a theory about why this is so. Most of our abrasives are Mohs 9. Obsidian is only ~Mohs 5. The quartz media Mohs 7. Ceramic media is Mohs 9. Playing the devil's advocate...if you add silicon carbide to Mohs 3 calcite alone the silicon carbide will probably never break down. If you add 50% quartz or ceramic media you have a material hard enough to break the Mohs 9 abrasive down to a smaller size to assist progressing to a higher finish. By the same token, if diamond abrasive was added to agate it would likely never break down either. Diamond abrasive many times harder than agate. And no progression to finish. However the diamond would sure shape the agate, fine for coarse shaping.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Mar 10, 2018 5:53:12 GMT -5
The sooner the better on the vibe purchase. Lol There are a few folks on here that have conquered obsidian in a rotary though. Chuck My goal is to conquer.... LOL Been there done that lol. Break you obsidian to small 1 inch pieces and smaller. Small obsidian polishes way easier. Add 70% pea sized tumble polished quartz gravel(not shit granite or stream trash) or pea sized tumble polished ceramic media. Sorry, you have to have your barrel loaded with lots of media. A fact of life. Do your 4/5 stages in the rotary. If you put a bunch of big chunks of obsidian in together you will make it much more difficult to get a polish. Or even one big chunk. DO NOT TRY TO TUMBLE LARGE CHUNKS OF OBSIDIAN. No one ever gives this advise. Big pieces bruise and usually on a microscopic level. Will destroy polish attempts unless you have miracle slurry. If you use a lot of pea sized media with a smooth finish you will make your obsidian happy. Keep barrel at 80% fill. Run at least 10 days 220 500 1000 polish each. Not 70%, do 80%.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 10, 2018 9:45:54 GMT -5
Well, it looks like that leaves one barrel out, its cut ends and etc.....The other barrel is rough material I collected at Glass Butte..Easy fix... Thanks all.....
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Post by woodman on Mar 10, 2018 10:05:06 GMT -5
Well, it looks like that leaves one barrel out, its cut ends and etc.....The other barrel is rough material I collected at Glass Butte..Easy fix... Thanks all..... It looks like my pile of Obsidian is going to stay in the pile.
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Post by gmitch067 on Mar 10, 2018 10:09:56 GMT -5
My goal is to conquer.... LOL The trick I owe to my friend (who polishes lots of obsidian in his garage-full of over 50 ROTARY barrels), is using 7-mohs quartz and agate as filler, and to get rid of all plastic pellets once and for all. Bingo - the obsidian began to take on a liquid shine. The trick is lots of filler in proportion to the obsidian, and that the filler be already well rounded and highly polished. I think lots of folks on this board know I use large-sized aquarium gravel to make my filler. I also have used ceramic shapes, but I find the best liquid shine comes from the agate and quartz pieces in the rounded gravel. If your slurry is nice and thick, I've definitely seen it work in rotary barrels as well - in fact, like I said, that's where I learned it. It doesn't work in my two-step method, which requires the vibe, so with rotary you still go through all the steps, but the polish stage is where that leap of faith comes in, to go with the 7-mohs filler and no plastic pellets. (If you're tired of hearing about this, my apologies -- I'd just love to see you conquer it!) Soooo... Pea gravel doesn't work well with Obsidian in a vibe??? (I understand the rotary angle... and will try that... thank you!) I ran 15 lbs of pea gravel (aquarium gravel) through polish in my UV-18, and the smoothness of the action impressed me.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Obsidian
Mar 10, 2018 10:28:21 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Fossilman on Mar 10, 2018 10:28:21 GMT -5
Well, it looks like that leaves one barrel out, its cut ends and etc.....The other barrel is rough material I collected at Glass Butte..Easy fix... Thanks all..... It looks like my pile of Obsidian is going to stay in the pile. I can run those pieces on the poly wheel,but it's no fun..(not a challenge) You know they will get a shine than.. LOL
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ingawh
starting to spend too much on rocks
The rock wants to shine, I just help it get there
Member since February 2011
Posts: 194
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Post by ingawh on Mar 10, 2018 11:55:41 GMT -5
It doesn't work in my two-step method, which requires the vibe, so with rotary you still go through all the steps, but the polish stage is where that leap of faith comes in, to go with the 7-mohs filler and no plastic pellets.src="//storage.proboards.com/1258779/images/QZbHTTdiWPgXiyYVPOkY.gif"] Soooo... Pea gravel doesn't work well with Obsidian in a vibe??? (I understand the rotary angle... and will try that... thank you!) I ran 15 lbs of pea gravel (aquarium gravel) through polish in my UV-18, and the smoothness of the action impressed me. Just meant that the two-step method doesn't work in rotary. Yes the small polished gravel definitely does work in rotary. You just have to do all the steps. Sorry, clearer?
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 10, 2018 12:33:46 GMT -5
Soooo... Pea gravel doesn't work well with Obsidian in a vibe??? (I understand the rotary angle... and will try that... thank you!) I ran 15 lbs of pea gravel (aquarium gravel) through polish in my UV-18, and the smoothness of the action impressed me. Just meant that the two-step method doesn't work in rotary. Yes the small polished gravel definitely does work in rotary. You just have to do all the steps. Sorry, clearer? No worries, we understood...
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,547
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Post by tkvancil on Mar 10, 2018 13:39:04 GMT -5
fossilman I never had any luck with Cerium when I rotary polished. Even used the more expensive optical grade cerium, it was on sale at he time ... Try AO, it worked for me.
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Post by nowyo on Mar 10, 2018 13:48:39 GMT -5
Keep at it, Mike. Heck, even I got some obsidian to come out nice in a rotary, so I'm sure you can!
Russ
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Obsidian
Mar 10, 2018 16:58:19 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Fossilman on Mar 10, 2018 16:58:19 GMT -5
fossilman I never had any luck with Cerium when I rotary polished. Even used the more expensive optical grade cerium, it was on sale at he time ... Try AO, it worked for me. Yuppers that cerium is crazy $$.... I have lots of AO..
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ingawh
starting to spend too much on rocks
The rock wants to shine, I just help it get there
Member since February 2011
Posts: 194
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Post by ingawh on Mar 10, 2018 18:40:46 GMT -5
There is a job in this household ingawh . Me and the wife pick thru 3/8 to 5/8 inch quartz pea gravel as needed and get the best solid ones.
Once we have picked enough to fill a small rotary it gets tumbled to near polish.
Or it is added at a rate of about 30% with a regular batch of tumbles to get a smooth finish, then set aside for vibe media.
The landscape yards sell this gravel in bulk for cheap. Like a 5 gallon bucket for $2. It has more junk in it but plenty of AAA quartz graders.
I learned an easy way to separate them by piling the raw gravel on a sheet of plywood and raising the sheet.
The nice ovals and rounds roll down hill and leaves most of the mis-shaped junk behind.
"The trick is lots of filler in proportion to the obsidian"
I have a theory about why this is so.
Most of our abrasives are Mohs 9. Obsidian is only ~Mohs 5. The quartz media Mohs 7. Ceramic media is Mohs 9.
Playing the devil's advocate...if you add silicon carbide to Mohs 3 calcite alone the silicon carbide will probably never break down.
If you add 50% quartz or ceramic media you have a material hard enough to break the Mohs 9 abrasive down to a smaller size to assist progressing to a higher finish.
By the same token, if diamond abrasive was added to agate it would likely never break down either. Diamond abrasive many times harder than agate. And no progression to finish.
However the diamond would sure shape the agate, fine for coarse shaping. Sorting rocks is my zen! Including my filler media. I may have to try your pea-gravel thing, but the mixes I've seen didn't seem to have enough of the "good stuff." I'll look again... I LOVE your idea of how to start the winnowing process by what rolls nicey! I agree that the breakdown process is the real key, and I think you've nailed it. I use AO rather than SC in the Lot-O, specifically because it breaks down fairly quickly. It's hard, but friable, and reduces at just the right rate for what I'm doing. Definitely it's the good, hard, (at least 7-mohs ) filler that makes the process work. The Obsidian would not get it to break down the same way, and would stay unpolished. I love it that you've taking this idea and really run with it. Now I'm learning cool stuff back from you! Cheers!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,561
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Post by jamesp on Mar 11, 2018 2:48:23 GMT -5
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 17, 2018 13:15:44 GMT -5
Finally I am seeing some results. .. Changed over to AO now.. See what happens...
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napoleonrags
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2015
Posts: 474
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Obsidian
Mar 18, 2018 19:09:17 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by napoleonrags on Mar 18, 2018 19:09:17 GMT -5
Has anyone tried using tumbled,broken pottery shards as a filler for softer stuff like obsedian, glass, flourite, and etc?
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 22, 2018 11:40:59 GMT -5
Has anyone tried using tumbled,broken pottery shards as a filler for softer stuff like obsedian, glass, flourite, and etc? Yes, someone on here did that with some material, but never heard of the outcome of the results.. I got a batch of Obsidian coming out of the tumbler today, crossing my fingers on the outcome!! I ran it in "Ivory" soap for 14 hours, for the last stage roll...
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