Post by fernwood on Jun 1, 2018 10:31:50 GMT -5
In the past I was somewhat of mad scientist when it came to tumbling. Back then I had no idea what Mohs Scale was. Just threw rocks in that appeared to be the same hardness. Sometimes would mix in some softer ones and check them often.
Things have not changed. This barrel was a combo of rocks that had been through a course stage and some cabs.
Formula was the rocks/cabs, 1 TBS Course grit, 1 TBS Medium grit, 3 TBS aquarium gravel. The last ingredient I had screened from a load of road gravel received about 10 years ago. Pieces were 1/8” maximum.
Ran for 13 days.
Some of these moved on to straight Medium after a borax clean which included the gravel. Others and a few additions went back in the above. I added a little kitty litter to the mix for these.
I have no idea what some of these would be called. Am liking how the granite is progressing. The banded Iron and Montana’s are looking good along with some others.
The cabs have a pretty large shoulder, intentionally. Minimal or no rounding on top.
Photos are kind of dark as lighting is bad in my utility room when it is cloudy.
Everything:
1
Cabs:
2
3
The rest. Some Amethyst is a lot darker that photos show.
4
5
Another clean out today. Probably should have let some go longer and culled some out, but do not have replacements.
Those in the level 2 pre-polish went to polish. Most of those are pretty good. A couple of the cabs are undercutting. I should have removed them and used the Dremel. Turitella held up very well. Montana’s and banded iron are very smooth, as are what I think is Amethyst Sage, the Pet Wood and Granite. The Amethyst is what I am most amazed with. Always thought chevron Amethyst was a tough tumble, but this is looking great. The Granite was a huge surprise as well. Might try tumbling some nuggets of that with next batch. For sure will be doing more cabs.
I ended up doing a 3 hour Borax burnish, due to picking a neighbor up from hospital. Prior to burnish, I had completely cleaned everything. Ran this batch in tumbler with just water while cleaning up the other barrel. I am doing the “unthinkable” and transferring the gravel and pearler beads to the polish stage. I checked the beads and they have no rough spots. All of the slurry came out of them. Added a TBS of polish and water.
Everything.
pre1
The cabs. The banded iron is not photographing well. It is loaded with color, just showing up darker.
pre4
pre3
First two, second row are the ones with undercutting.
pre2
pre5
What was in level 1 pre-polish is now in level 2 pre-polish. This batch is a variety of chalcedony, some Unakite and Pet Wood, along with banded iron and “cool rocks”. There are also a couple pieces from the Niagara Escarpment.
Added some pearler beads, level 2 pre-polish slurry, 1 TBS of what was labeled pre-polish and 2 tsp of what was labeled as 400/600 grit. The 2 TBS of gravel came along for the ride.
Curious to see how this formula works on all nuggets, as it was great for the combo of nuggets/cabs.
All.
med1
A few.
med3 by Fernwood Acres, on Flickr
med3
The one in the center is one of my favs. A coral fossil that is coming along great. I was concerned how the quartz areas would polish. Now that I know how the corals respond, will be using Dremel to do some pre tumbling refinement.
med2
Yes, I know I am breaking all the rules here. So far, so good. Have not destroyed anything. My tumbler is holding up well. Running pretty cool. I did add some boards under it. As of now, the side closest to the motor has a piece of wood, 7/8” thick by 2” wide by 4” long. This is covered with the heavy duty tool drawer liner. The other end has a piece of wood 1 7/8” thick, by 2” wide by 4” long with drawer liner. This is duel purpose. It prevents the barrels from sliding down to the end without the motor. Took a level to my dryer (which the tumbler is sitting on) and discovered it is not level. I cannot move it to level myself. The dryer also has the shelf liner on top. The wood is also allowing for additional air flow under the tumbler, which seems to be helping with keeping the motor cool. The vibrations from the tumbler are minimal, so it is not moving from the boards.
Thanks to those who are coming along on this adventure. Appreciate all the suggestions and support.
These went from Pre-polish to polish on 6-24.
all
2
1
3
4
fc2
The other batch in polish needs to go a little longer.
Final clean out today. These were all rough rocks, with no shaping. What did I learn?
Some shaping is needed in the future. Here is all of them.
all
Certain rocks did great with no shaping.
1
Each Montana reacted differently. The first one lost about 1/3 of size. The second two lost only about 20%
mt1 mt2
Lots more learned about specific rocks. On to the next batches.
Pet wood, Fossils, Jaspers and other Chalcedony. Added ¼ C new screened aquarium gravel mix to this. Gravel size ranges from 1/16” to 5/32”. Was almost out of rough grit, so just used 1 TBS grit and slurry from previous batches. Also added additional rocks of the same to fill barrel to 2/3.
pet wood1
Apache Tears and a variety of cabs. Will be checking this batch daily. The Tears had been run through rough grit previously. Added 2 TBS aquarium gravel that had been through final polish stage, medium slurry from past tumbles and a TBS of new medium grit.
AT Cabs 1
Will post final results of these batches in a different thread. Expecting 6-8 weeks total time, maybe more for the pet wood mix.
Thanks for looking.