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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 14, 2019 21:01:58 GMT -5
I decided I wanted to tumble a couple of slabs I came across in a box. I do not use my mini sonic tumbler very often so I pulled it out for this one off batch. I Added about a pound or so of obsidian and the rest of the load was all ceramic filler. I ran each stage an extended period of time pretty much following tntmom's Loto instructions. One to show off the shine No back lighting shows some faint banding Size reference I keep trying but I hate trying to photograph obsidian. I think they look better in person. Chuck
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Post by aDave on Jan 14, 2019 21:11:18 GMT -5
Great photos and great material. I like the reflection photograph. What are the ones with the clear area? I've got a few that are waiting for medium, but mine are more brown than black like yours. I was originally thinking they might have been cuts from a t-egg, but I'm usually wrong about ID.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 14, 2019 21:13:36 GMT -5
Great photos and great material. I like the reflection photograph. What are the ones with the clear area? I've got a few that are waiting for medium, but mine are more brown than black like yours. I was originally thinking they might have been cuts from a t-egg, but I'm usually wrong about ID. Thanks- Yes I believe that one is a thunder egg slice. Chuck
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jan 14, 2019 22:44:37 GMT -5
Those are cool. I like the thunder egg slice. You don’t see many of those tumbled like that.
Was there an advantage to using the mini sonic over the Lot-O? Was it just about availability of the machine?
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Post by orrum on Jan 15, 2019 4:54:39 GMT -5
Great job on both! Me too on Robs question?
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 15, 2019 7:29:36 GMT -5
Jugglerguy orrumA few reasons to use the mini sonic for those slabs. 1) The mini sonic hopper has a larger opening then the loto. 2) I was thinking the squared off hopper shape would allow better movement of the slabs then the circular loto barrel. 3) I hardly ever use the mini sonic so I wanted to gain some experience. I was a little leery of running the obsidian with these slabs but I think with all the filler they did pretty good. Chuck
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Jan 16, 2019 11:30:54 GMT -5
Some beauties there.... I think Obsidian was always hard to photograph..
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 16, 2019 14:14:41 GMT -5
Thanks fossilman. I think the best pictures I have taken of an obsidian batch was done outdoors in the shade on a sunny day. Trying to keep fingerprints and dust off them is a chore too. Chuck
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Post by TheRock on Jan 20, 2019 13:01:15 GMT -5
As always nice job on those Chuck
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,563
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Post by jamesp on Jan 21, 2019 7:27:32 GMT -5
Nice to see the Mini-Sonic polish obsidian for you Chuck. It has a rolling motion similar to the Vibrasonic referred to as a tub vibe. The other two shapes of vibe hoppers are the donut(like a UV) and the Lot-O egg. The Mini-Sonic has vibration adjustment if memory serves.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 21, 2019 9:34:15 GMT -5
Nice to see the Mini-Sonic polish obsidian for you Chuck. It has a rolling motion similar to the Vibrasonic referred to as a tub vibe. The other two shapes of vibe hoppers are the donut(like a UV) and the Lot-O egg. The Mini-Sonic has vibration adjustment if memory serves. The obsidian was an after thought. I was just looking for some filler for the slabs. I consider getting a polish on obsidian nodules much easier then getting a uniform polish on a 3" flat surface agate slab. The mini-sonic does have adjustable speeds. I am sure that could come in handy but it also introduces a whole new set of variables to worry about. Doe's the same batch ran for the same amount of time come out 10 different ways if done on 10 different speeds? Should a different speed be used for every stage? Should it be started on 7 and then be turned up to 10 after a slurry develops? Chuck
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,563
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Post by jamesp on Jan 22, 2019 8:52:46 GMT -5
Well you found a setting that works on the mysterious obsidian which is a victory. Good point about changing the settings causing mass confusion.
After modifying the Vibrasonic to run glass the counterbalance adjustment was NEVER adjusted again for reasons you mention.
It polishes glass using Borax or sugar but polishes agate just as well using Borax or sugar and just as fast as it did before it was mellowed down for glass. It doesn't seem to matter if a few agates are running with the glass or a whole load of agate is run in the modified machine, it polishes the agate as well as before the mod. Pretty sure the Vibrasonic was similar to many vibes - they are designed to do agates well but a bit too rough for obsidian or glass.
My findings were that there is a much narrower band of acceptable vibration that polishes glass and obsidian without bruising it. It took a lot of modifications to get the Vibrasonic to polish glass. All mods were related to making the action more gentle. The final mod was simply making the hopper heavier and moving it's center-of-mass closer to the counterbalance which reduced the amplitude only. Once the vibe has been adjusted or modified for glass and obsidian the recipes can be varied a lot and still get the same polish whether it was TNT Mom's recipe or my AO 220/AO polish recipe. And it still does harder rocks just as well.
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