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Post by fernwood on Jul 28, 2019 8:37:54 GMT -5
Here is a sample of a batch that was started on 6-30. Did some shaping first. They went through 60/80 and 120/220. Planned on starting 500/600 AO or SIC after the 24 hour bath and toothbrush treatment. Discovered I have no 500/600 grit left. Also have a question about the 500/600. Do you prefer SIC or AO for this stage? What are the merits of each? I have found that the AO is better for softer rocks, but it might just be a fluke. These are pretty smooth, except for some crystal vugs I want to preserve. Do you think it is OK to just put them in the 1200 AO? Thanks.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,685
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Post by Fossilman on Jul 28, 2019 8:47:34 GMT -5
I use A/O... Plus use all stages of grit....
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Post by Rockindad on Jul 28, 2019 9:39:34 GMT -5
We have both 500 AO and SiC. I do believe that the SiC cuts a bit more as the slurry always looks thicker at the end of a cycle. That being said I do not believe it makes a significant difference to the final polished product. When our 500 SiC supply is exhausted I do not think we will bother ordering more.
Jumping from 120/220 to 1200 seems like a lot but I wouldn't hesitate to do it if I ran the 120/220 a week longer longer.
Al
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Post by fernwood on Jul 29, 2019 5:02:11 GMT -5
Was doing some cleaning and found a small unopened pack of Thumblers "Pre-Polish". It is supposed to be 500F (what does the F stand for?). It contained less than 2 TBS, so I added some used slurry. I was not feeling good about skipping this step.
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Post by parfive on Jul 29, 2019 9:51:46 GMT -5
The step to skip is 120/220. Waste of time and effort between 60/90 and 500.
500F means 500 and finer.
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victor1941
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2011
Posts: 1,979
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Post by victor1941 on Jul 29, 2019 11:12:08 GMT -5
Fernwood, I would run the 120/220 an extra 4/5 days and assume a normal grit breakdown as has been suggested. If SiC breaks down by half each 24 hours this seems like a good replacement for 500 AlO. I do only cabs and frequently run extra time but don't have experience with nuggets or irregular shapes.
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Post by fernwood on Jul 29, 2019 11:23:11 GMT -5
The 120/220 ran for 2 weeks. Had a great break down.
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harrym
having dreams about rocks
NH - The Granite State
Member since January 2019
Posts: 59
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Post by harrym on Aug 3, 2019 7:09:54 GMT -5
I asked the same question a few months ago and most responses were AO. I was hoping the answer would be SiC because I already had a lot of that on hand. After buying an ample supply of AO I did experiment batches with both - I really did not see any significant difference between either. Now that I had a lot of both on hand I tried mixing stage 3 at 50/50 and found that it also came out just as well.
I find the nice thing with tumbling is you really can't make major mistakes. Had my results been horrible I could always run them again.
But I wouldn't skip this stage
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