rocksbro
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2019
Posts: 4
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Post by rocksbro on Jul 23, 2019 13:29:17 GMT -5
Hey, how are ya? 2 things real quick
1. I am just starting tumbling some Baby Blue Aventurine from Mexico. It is in the polish stage currently and has been for a week but still does not have a very nice polish. I am starting to check it daily but have not noticed a great difference. Should i be doing something different?
2. I have Mexican Crazy Lace Agate in stage 1 which it has been for nearly a month. Most of the pieces still look rather rough. I am questioning if i used enough grit or if it just needs more time? Wondering if anyone has experience tumbling this or similar materials?
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 23, 2019 14:52:58 GMT -5
Hi, welcome to RTH!
It’s hard to tell why you’re not getting a polish without a lot more information. It’s possible that you didn’t go for long enough in earlier stages. If you didn’t clean everything really well in between stages, you may have contaminated the following stage. Tell us the exact steps you took along the way and we might be able to help more. How much grit did you use? How much water? How log did each stage run? Rotary tumbler or vibratory?
As for the crazy lace, I did some recently and the first stage took a couple months. I check my rocks weekly and take out only the rocks that are easy for the next stage. I fill the empty space in the tumbler with more rough rocks. I made a video of tumbling crazy lace that you might like.
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Post by aDave on Jul 23, 2019 15:27:21 GMT -5
Welcome, Rob Jugglerguy pretty much hit the big questions. While getting those answers will certainly help, I've got one more for you... What kind of polish are you using? If you're using a prepackaged "grit pack" of something that's labeled polish but is only 1000-1200 grit, that's not fine enough. If, in fact, that's what you're dealing with, you need to get a "real" polish. 1200 grit would only be considered a prepolish. Look to get an aluminum oxide polish in 13,000 - 14,000 grit. Very nice results can be had with that stuff. I only mention this 1200 grit "polish" issue, as it seems to come up fairly often as being the culprit for no shine. Of course, if you're already using a good (fine) polish, then go ahead and disregard everything I wrote.
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Post by Rockindad on Jul 23, 2019 20:38:05 GMT -5
Not going to repeat anything that Rob and Dave said as they are terrific tumblers that you (and me) can learn plenty from. Just want to reassure you on the Crazy Lace. We have been running a 15 lb. rotary barrel of it for close to two months. While many are getting close, as of this past weekend we have only pulled out a handful of pieces. It is tough stuff for sure.
Don't limit yourself to just the current threads, there is a rock tumbling encyclopedia here that goes back many years.
Al
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rocksbro
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2019
Posts: 4
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Post by rocksbro on Jul 24, 2019 7:12:48 GMT -5
Thanks guys!
Regards to the Baby Blue Aventurine, this is how the steps have gone so far
Started with 66lbs of Aventurine with no tumbling medium in a 90 lb Rotary Tumbler
*Stage 1 - 16 ozs of Coarse grit from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled for 5 days
*Stage 2 - 16ozs Medium Grit from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled 8 days - Added 15lbs of corundum pieces for tumbling medium to take up space in tumbler
*Stage 3 - 10ozs Pre-Polish from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled 7 days (Did i use enough pre polish here? i was unsure of the amount to use) - 15 lbs of Corundum still in with rocks
*Polish - 8ozs of Aluminum Oxide has ran for 12 days so far (I wasnt sure on the amount of polish to use, a member of the local lapidary club said not to use too much so i cut back on what i was going to use)
I rinsed and cleaned the stones pretty thouroughly when changing the grits and used a different tumbling barrel for each stage. I ran water through the rocks for around 15-20 minutes to try to fight against contamination because i know this is the most likely culprit in most stones not getting a good polish.
I should mention that i am doing this on a large scale because i work for a company that sells rocks and gemstones and have access to a boat load of rough rocks.
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rocksbro
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2019
Posts: 4
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Post by rocksbro on Jul 24, 2019 7:14:24 GMT -5
I used just enough water to cover the top of the stones in the tumbling barrel
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 24, 2019 7:26:06 GMT -5
I have never used a tumbler barrel larger than 12 lbs. I also do all my stages after the first in a Lot-O vibratory tumbler, so I’m not the best guy to advise you on the last stages. With a tumbler that size, I’d think you would have to be very careful to not damage the rocks as you progress to the later stages. A lot of people use plastic pellets for cushioning in smaller barrels.
There have been a number of people in the past couple of years that use the National Geographic tumblers. I don’t think any of them had good results using the included polish. Those tumblers seem like overpriced garbage to me. I buy all of my coarse grit from Kingsley North in fifty pound bags. You should probably be using 46/70 grit in that monster tumbler or maybe even something more coarse. After the first stage, all of my grit comes from The Rock Shed. They have high quality grit at good prices. Since you’re doing such large quantities, you may want to look for a wholesale supplier of grit.
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rocksbro
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2019
Posts: 4
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Post by rocksbro on Jul 24, 2019 8:02:45 GMT -5
Thanks Rob, by the way, that video is awesome and helped out a bunch. I was looking into different grits and since you are very successful at tumbling, I am going to use the same grits and see if that will help with my polish. Do you feel you get much better results with the vibratory tumblers? From the video, they look like they are much quicker and much more succesful than the rotary for the final few stages. Also, I thought i was pretty particular about rinsing the stones but after watching your attention to detail, I know i will have to be a lot more stringent and take a lot more time with the amount of rocks that I am doing. I will refer to your youtube channel and this forum to try to answer any questions that persist. Thanks you very much for the help!!
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Post by manofglass on Jul 24, 2019 9:07:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 24, 2019 9:17:47 GMT -5
I don’t usually spend that much time cleaning rocks between stages. Those rocks were being moved on with holes in them, so they required special attention. Usually I just rinse them very well, or throw them back in the barrel for a rinse with some borax.
I love my Lot-O tumbler. I think it’s much easier to get a good polish, it’s way faster, and it uses much, much less grit. I would probably quit tumbling if I had to do all the stages in a rotary. You can get a great polish in a rotary, it just takes a little more skill and patience. There are larger vibratory tumblers, like some from Thumlers, but I have not used them. I actually prefer the smaller barrel because it takes so much rock to fill the larger barrel. As you saw in my video, it takes forever in the first stage. So it takes me a long time to accumulate enough rocks to even fill the small Lot-O barrel.
Rob
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Post by Rockindad on Jul 24, 2019 19:55:37 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Regards to the Baby Blue Aventurine, this is how the steps have gone so far Started with 66lbs of Aventurine with no tumbling medium in a 90 lb Rotary Tumbler *Stage 1 - 16 ozs of Coarse grit from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled for 5 days *Stage 2 - 16ozs Medium Grit from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled 8 days - Added 15lbs of corundum pieces for tumbling medium to take up space in tumbler *Stage 3 - 10ozs Pre-Polish from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled 7 days (Did i use enough pre polish here? i was unsure of the amount to use) - 15 lbs of Corundum still in with rocks *Polish - 8ozs of Aluminum Oxide has ran for 12 days so far (I wasnt sure on the amount of polish to use, a member of the local lapidary club said not to use too much so i cut back on what i was going to use) I rinsed and cleaned the stones pretty thouroughly when changing the grits and used a different tumbling barrel for each stage. I ran water through the rocks for around 15-20 minutes to try to fight against contamination because i know this is the most likely culprit in most stones not getting a good polish. I should mention that i am doing this on a large scale because i work for a company that sells rocks and gemstones and have access to a boat load of rough rocks. I think first and foremost you are not using enough grit. We still have a jar of the NG coarse grit from when we first started. Comparing the granules side by side with grits we have purchased from other vendors it looks most similar to 60/90 SiC. Just weighed some 60/90 SiC that we purchased from The Rock Shed, 16 fairly level tablespoons weighed 16.4 ounces. We use more than that in our fifteen pound barrel. It looks like your other grits/polish are off as well. There are plenty of recipes out there already so I won't get into that other than to mention that plenty of them call for 1 1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of grit per pound of rock being tumbled. You can do the math. You do not have access to cheap grit from your employer do you? Also, would love to see a picture of your ninety pounder in action. To think I find cleaning out a fifteen barrel a chore sometimes . Al
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,663
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Post by Tommy on Jul 27, 2019 11:52:32 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum rocksbro! You're in good hands here with the level of talented tumblers that are already chiming in.
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Post by aDave on Jul 27, 2019 18:18:29 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Regards to the Baby Blue Aventurine, this is how the steps have gone so far Started with 66lbs of Aventurine with no tumbling medium in a 90 lb Rotary Tumbler *Stage 1 - 16 ozs of Coarse grit from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled for 5 days *Stage 2 - 16ozs Medium Grit from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled 8 days - Added 15lbs of corundum pieces for tumbling medium to take up space in tumbler *Stage 3 - 10ozs Pre-Polish from National Geographic Tumbling grit set. Tumbled 7 days (Did i use enough pre polish here? i was unsure of the amount to use) - 15 lbs of Corundum still in with rocks *Polish - 8ozs of Aluminum Oxide has ran for 12 days so far (I wasnt sure on the amount of polish to use, a member of the local lapidary club said not to use too much so i cut back on what i was going to use) I rinsed and cleaned the stones pretty thouroughly when changing the grits and used a different tumbling barrel for each stage. I ran water through the rocks for around 15-20 minutes to try to fight against contamination because i know this is the most likely culprit in most stones not getting a good polish. I should mention that i am doing this on a large scale because i work for a company that sells rocks and gemstones and have access to a boat load of rough rocks. I think first and foremost you are not using enough grit. We still have a jar of the NG coarse grit from when we first started. Comparing the granules side by side with grits we have purchased from other vendors it looks most similar to 60/90 SiC. Just weighed some 60/90 SiC that we purchased from The Rock Shed, 16 fairly level tablespoons weighed 16.4 ounces. We use more than that in our fifteen pound barrel. It looks like your other grits/polish are off as well. There are plenty of recipes out there already so I won't get into that other than to mention that plenty of them call for 1 1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of grit per pound of rock being tumbled. You can do the math. You do not have access to cheap grit from your employer do you? Also, would love to see a picture of your ninety pounder in action. To think I find cleaning out a fifteen barrel a chore sometimes . Al rocksbro, in looking back through your thread, I'd have to agree with Al - you may really need to increase your grit amounts. While I haven't looked to be sure, your amounts seem somewhere near what is used in 12-15 lb barrels. Since you're at 90, you may need to increase four-fold. Here is a link to Lortone's 40 lb tumbler. A few pages in, there are grit amounts for that barrel where you could certainly adjust to your situation. As far as polish, you can cut back on that quite a bit and not go by what is listed in the manual. Maybe go with 1/3-1/2 to start and see how that goes. When I was rotary finishing in smaller barrels, I cut back on the recommended polish amount by almost 2/3. End results were still very, very good. cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1783/4633/t/4/assets/C20_and_C40_Tumbler_Instruction.pdf?0
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,685
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Post by Fossilman on Aug 7, 2019 9:49:10 GMT -5
Howdy from Oregon.. Enjoy!
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