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Post by fernwood on Jul 13, 2018 6:41:56 GMT -5
Last time I tumbled Granite cabs, there as some undercutting, especially during pre-polish. Trying to not have that happen again. This is a crazy mixture of rocks, but it is working. Rotary tumbler. Everything went into medium mixture on 7-1. On to pre-polish on 7-7. Put everything in polish on 7-12. So far, there has been no undercutting of the Granite cabs. It seems that the Apache Tears are helping to cushion the cabs. The Tears have reduced in size about 50%, which is fine. Most are very translucent, which was hard to capture in the photos. The additional cushioning/filler used was aquarium gravel that had been through polish stage and Perler beads. About 1/3 of materials in the tumbler are the filler/cushioning. Added more with each stage. Did a 2-3 hour tumble cleaning between all stages with powdered dishwasher detergent. Cannot wait until these complete polish stage. Wondering if anyone has insights on why this crazy mix is working? Thanks. Here is what went into medium AT Cabs 1 at 1 ] at cabs 4 Note that some of the cabs ae upside down. This is now in polish. Did not post photos of everything, just a representative sample. tears 1 cabs 2 cabs 1
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Post by grumpybill on Jul 13, 2018 12:23:33 GMT -5
I would attribute the lack of undercutting to the aquarium gravel rather than the obsidian. I do a lot of granite and have decided that any pits that appear after the course grind stage aren't caused by undercutting, but rather by impacts knocking off small chips. Going with a thicker slurry and more itty-bitty pea sized (and smaller) pebbles seems to really help.
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Post by fernwood on Jul 13, 2018 17:29:53 GMT -5
Interesting. This batch had the same fillers as the previous one. I did have more slurry and added some kitty litter. Maybe these rocks have less unseen fractures than the others did. Investigation time...
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