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Post by fernwood on Sept 23, 2018 7:00:24 GMT -5
Looking for opinions. I traded for these. They have been tumbled some through polish. The actual shell parts have a good shine for the most part. Some areas between the spirals that contain certain filler stone, are pretty pitted and dull. Should I throw them in my 1 lb barrel with AO 12,000 for a while and see what happens? Would need to have the barrel contain about 20% shells and 80% plastic pellets. My other thought was to take a diamond file to some of the shells and try to grind off the filler material. Then throw in tumbler. Thank you. shells 3
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Post by MsAli on Sept 23, 2018 7:40:30 GMT -5
Me personally, I would be tempted to start them from the beginning and see what happens
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Post by fernwood on Sept 23, 2018 7:46:40 GMT -5
I just do not want the good portions to be ground down further. Have never tumbled fossil shells before, so am more than a little apprehensive about this.
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Post by grumpybill on Sept 23, 2018 9:37:10 GMT -5
Think about it... Even if you use filler that's small enough to get into the crevasses, you'll be grinding away some of the "good portions" in a tumbler If it were me, I'd grind the unwanted material away with a small bit in a rotary tool and then try polishing those areas with the same type tool.
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Post by gmitch067 on Sept 23, 2018 10:15:34 GMT -5
Good morning fernwood . I tried to use a dremel on some of my crustier turritella shells... and managed to make a few (very few) more presentable before throwing them in the vibe. Most of the attempts met with failure as the grinding broke into the insides of the shell or found the discolorations to extend well below the surface. In my thread I ended up using a vibe to complete the process by not using any coarse or 220 grits and going straight to AO-500. ontherocks posted pics of her rotary tumble on page-3. It kind of looks like yours have already been tumbled. As you suggest, it probably wouldn't hurt to do an AO-14,000 run to see the results. forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/83089/polish-turritella-shells
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Post by fernwood on Sept 23, 2018 18:10:31 GMT -5
Thanks for the suggestions. I might try using a diamond file to get some of the crustier stuff off by hand. Use dremel with prepolish and very small felt bit. Then put in tumbler with final polish and check progress daily.
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