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Post by hummingbirdstones on Mar 14, 2020 9:30:27 GMT -5
I agree. I'm enjoying your project immensely and it provokes good memories of John's Big Crazy and how excited he was about it all.
I'm looking forward to seeing yours go through to completion!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 16, 2020 4:06:46 GMT -5
The 4 inch masonry wheel for the grinder may be less laborious on rocks over 2 pounds. Clamp rock and hold grinder verses having a fixed wheel and holding rock to wheel. Safer too. A hand held 4 inch grinder is designed for welders to bear down hard on 4 inch abrasive wheels. The grinder is ergonomically shaped for applying plenty of pressure with hands and body.
Same rule applies to 4 inch cup diamond wheels. Many of the 4 inch cup wheels are fused to heat conducting alloy backings for heat dissipation. Especially the newer units coming from overseas. In my experience the diamond cup wheels will cut 'x' amount of rock whether you bear down lightly or heavily. The only difference, one way cuts slow, the other fast.
Just beware of silica dust and water management as related to danger of electrical shock.
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Post by MsAli on Mar 16, 2020 5:59:39 GMT -5
All good memories and a little nostalgia.
He was so excited about it. I wish he could of finished it
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 16, 2020 10:29:37 GMT -5
Wow, I was never aware John passed. May he rest in peace.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Mar 20, 2020 23:06:30 GMT -5
Week 6: 36 SiC. 1134g. Running total mass loss: 17.8% Getting closer. Some porosity in places, seems to be all around the rock. I think I'd have to grind the rock down to a pebble to get past them, so they just may become a feature. This second photo with that face seems to be the best looking side of the whole thing. I want to give it just a wee bit more time to smooth out. This is the majorly porous area on the backside that I'm dealing with.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 21, 2020 22:09:33 GMT -5
I feel your pain. Pits and pores are my weekly nightmare and me being a perfectionist doesn’t help any, so I wind up with a ton of pebbles or extra slurry from them finally dissolving. I’m trying to get better with it and just move them on, but it’s so difficult and worrisome. On the plus side, I did just buy a new QT-12 to add to the collection, so now I can run some bigger rocks and try some of these one big rock experiments myself.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Mar 21, 2020 22:18:52 GMT -5
I need some competition!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 24, 2020 2:59:39 GMT -5
I feel your pain. Pits and pores are my weekly nightmare and me being a perfectionist doesn’t help any, so I wind up with a ton of pebbles or extra slurry from them finally dissolving. I’m trying to get better with it and just move them on, but it’s so difficult and worrisome. On the plus side, I did just buy a new QT-12 to add to the collection, so now I can run some bigger rocks and try some of these one big rock experiments myself. If various defects bother you RocksInNJ consider buying stone that has few defects to begin with. Like Brazilian agate. High quality Montana agate. Snakeskin agate. Or look at what the other members tumble to see what they do well with. They may help with sources too. Tumble grade is not often as nice as cab grade but costs less. If someone is going to spend in some cases months tumbling a batch they might as well start with defect free stock. It makes the tumbling experience more pleasant for those that want perfection. Back in the 70's most agates were sold AAA AA A B grades in Lapidary Journal. The good days ! Carnelian agate out of Brazil for instance was often graded back then. Low may be 2 dollars/pound(70's prices), medium 4, and high grade 8/pound. Garage Rocker Randy and Drummond Island Chuck are two that tumble high grade materials. Hey, tumbling can create a near perfect finish. Why not use rocks that are near perfect in their structure. You now have a super fine tumbler. Get it on !
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Mar 24, 2020 4:52:06 GMT -5
Yea, starting off with something good is the way to go. The porosity on this was not apparent when I got it, peeling back the skin revealed it.
This is part of why I showcase these big ones this way - so others can learn from my bumbling adventures!
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Post by Starguy on Mar 25, 2020 17:09:03 GMT -5
Wow I haven’t been on for a while. What a cool project Benathema.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Mar 25, 2020 17:59:25 GMT -5
Thanks! Couple more days till clean out. My Friday night efforts turn into folk's Saturday morning coffee time.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Mar 27, 2020 22:59:55 GMT -5
Week 7: 36 SiC. 1100g. Running total mass loss: 20.3% I think I'm going to push to medium with this. The pores and holes on the back aren't getting any better, and I'm concerned that it may be weakening the stone and could be catastrophic. Lessons learned: Tumbling big rocks is a large time investment, choose wisely. If you're going to pick a big rock to grind, don't pick the one with the caked on mud. Scrubbing wasn't enough to clean it off, but 7 weeks in the barrel getting the crap knocked out of it most certainly got rid of it. Get one where you can see the surface and potential porosity or cracks that would be likely to develop further. Effectively echoing this: If you wanna be picky about the final product, you have to be picky about the initial material. Potential propagation of error otherwise. BUT! All the same, I'm going to finish this one out, because it has a few sides that look good.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Apr 4, 2020 0:11:18 GMT -5
Week 8: 120/220 SiC. 1074g. Running total mass loss: 22.2% Onwards and forwards to AO 500 prepolish!
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 4, 2020 3:22:43 GMT -5
Ahhh yea. Git’R Done!!! Looking good.
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stewdogg
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 388
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Post by stewdogg on Apr 4, 2020 22:13:50 GMT -5
Ahhh yea. Git’R Done!!! Looking good. I kinda feel like it should be Grit'R Done;) Very excited to see this large crazy lace agate get to the finish, it's looking beautiful so far!
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Apr 11, 2020 1:18:45 GMT -5
Week 9: 500 AO. 1069g. Running total mass loss: 22.5% I KNEW these things were heavy! Taken right before cleanout. 12 lb barrel my rear! One more week until it's all polished up!
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shardy
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 110
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Post by shardy on Apr 11, 2020 6:19:50 GMT -5
Are you running cleaning tumblers between Ben? Or hand washing?
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Apr 11, 2020 14:29:15 GMT -5
It's mostly by hand. I have a 1/12 sized classifier that goes on a bucket, strain the rocks, rinse a few times. Then I transfer them into a wash tub, like the 2.5 gal Rubbermaid ones, full of water. I hand mix the rocks in the water to get most of what's left of the slurry off. I then transfer handfuls of rocks into a strainer sitting in a small container with running water and swirl a bit so any little particles fall through, then transfer them over to dry.
Since I try not to push rocks forward that have cracks and holes, I don't really have to scrub them. Im hesitant to run washings in the barrel itself for prepolish and polishing stages since there isn't a thick slurry. The above process may sound complicated but it really only takes a couple minutes with the big barrels.
Big rock gets pulled first, before I dump the barrel in the classifier, and is hand washed with a toothbrush and soap. For when the load comes out of polish I put an old bandana down on the classifier to help keep the rocka from scratching.
For the barrels themselves I put these little craft poms in the barrel with soap and water and let them run to scrub the barrel up. I like this trick the most cause it does well at getting into the 90 degree corners.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Apr 18, 2020 0:37:30 GMT -5
It's done! Week 10: polish AO. 1069g. Running total mass loss: 22.5% (no change detected from last week based on digital kitchen scale) Smalls that came along the way, battered and bruised according to standard operating procedure. Mass loss over time. Shiny video. Brace yourself for what comes next!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Apr 18, 2020 5:23:55 GMT -5
Awesome sauce. The SiC 36 sure went linear for 5 weeks. Makes good sense, weight loss in beginning of coarse grind is faster in my experience even in this case rolling with a finer 45/70. It would be interesting had you tried a recharge of 45/70 in say week 4 to 5 to see if 45/70 removes material faster. Got a strong shelf for the giant collection ?
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