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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 10, 2020 21:31:39 GMT -5
It's here! That's my Rock Shed haul, in my new indoor tumbling area. I got a bunch of tumbling rough and media with the discount. No time to do anything other than unpack tonight, but she'll be rolling soon enough! Congrats and very nice, but I’m only seeing two different bags of grit. Where’s the other two? You should have something like SIC 60/90, SIC 120/220, AO 500 and AO Polish.
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Mar 10, 2020 21:33:27 GMT -5
Yep. I dabble in metal casting too, and I saw that you can polish metals with corn cob and red rouge and really want to try that on my pieces. They were out of rouge so he sent me the AO polish until they get it backordered. Very nice guy.
The rest of it is 1lb large ceramic media, 5lb 60/90 grit, 5lb corn cob, and 5lb each of their Labradorite, Large Serape Jasper, Mexican Lace Agate, and Small Rutilated Quartz. I was going to throw in some of the rutilated quartz with my rose quartz as "media" since the pieces are pretty small, unless that's a bad idea for some reason.
I believe all of these are the same hardness, so I can mix them together in one batch right?
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Mar 10, 2020 21:36:13 GMT -5
RocksInNJ correct, I just got a lot of 60/90 since that stage seems to take several weeks. I have a couple pounds of the other grits already, so I should be good to go on those for a while. From what I understand, stage one takes several weeks to knock off all the edges and rough spots and then the other stages should only be 1 week apiece. Hence more of the stage 1 grit.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 10, 2020 21:36:15 GMT -5
Yep. I dabble in metal casting too, and I saw that you can polish metals with corn cob and red rouge and really want to try that on my pieces. They were out of rouge so he sent me the AO polish until they get it backordered. Very nice guy. The rest of it is 1lb large ceramic media, 5lb 60/90 grit, 5lb corn cob, and 5lb each of their Labradorite, Large Serape Jasper, Mexican Lace Agate, and Small Rutilated Quartz. I was going to throw in some of the rutilated quartz with my rose quartz as "media" since the pieces are pretty small, unless that's a bad idea for some reason. I believe all of these are the same hardness, so I can mix them together in one batch right? Yup, you can mix them all, but make sure you flip that barrel on the right. You want the knobs on the lids to face the outside of tumbler. Just thought I’d mention it in case you were unaware.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 10, 2020 21:37:26 GMT -5
RocksInNJ correct, I just got a lot of 60/90 since that stage seems to take several weeks. I have a couple pounds of the other grits already, so I should be good to go on those for a while. From what I understand, stage one takes several weeks to knock off all the edges and rough spots and then the other stages should only be 1 week apiece. Hence more of the stage 1 grit. Good to go. Have fun and best of luck and don’t forget to post pics of the results. 🙂
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Mar 10, 2020 21:44:38 GMT -5
Yup, you can mix them all, but make sure you flip that barrel on the right. You want the knobs on the lids to face the outside of tumbler. Just thought I’d mention it in case you were unaware. Good tip, thanks! I hadn't read the manual yet, just threw it up for the photoshoot Good to go. Have fun and best of luck and don’t forget to post pics of the results. 🙂 Of course! I'm having fun and learning a lot by bringing you all on this journey with me. Thanks so much to everyone for the input.
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Mar 11, 2020 19:31:14 GMT -5
Currently running the cleaning stage on the stage 1 results per Wooferhound's recommendation, using a little Dawn dish soap. That'll go for an hour, then I'll rinse off and start up stage 2. I've got about half full of rocks, and I'll add media up to 2/3 or 3/4, then 3 tbsp of stage 2 grit. Since I have the technology now, I'll also concurrently be running another stage 1 with a little rose quartz, plus some labradorite and rutilated quartz. Exciting!
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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 11, 2020 19:34:17 GMT -5
Keep an eye on that labradorite if you're adding it in with the quartz, it's a bit softer.
Otherwise, rock on!
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Post by aDave on Mar 11, 2020 19:36:40 GMT -5
Just a heads up...I think you'll find the Labradorite VERY difficult to work with. Based upon info in old threads, it just doesn't seem to do well when being tumbled. Go into the search box and type "tumbling labradorite." You'll find some threads about different user's experience with this stuff.
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Mar 12, 2020 16:43:47 GMT -5
I've seen a few recommendations to use plastic shot when working with labradorite. Would ceramic work as a substitute? I have both large and small cylinders. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each type of media?
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reynedrop
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2020
Posts: 204
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Post by reynedrop on Mar 13, 2020 0:53:18 GMT -5
I've seen a few recommendations to use plastic shot when working with labradorite. Would ceramic work as a substitute? I have both large and small cylinders. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each type of media? 100% not experienced at all, but from logic: Plastic pellets offer cushioning and decrease rock-on-rock contact. They won’t grind things down though- when was the last time you scratched a rock with a plastic bead? Ceramics can provide some cushioning too, but they are much harder. According to a website I just read but forgot to copy (mobile), most ceramic media now has a Mohs of 7+. Yes, they are not as jagged as a rough piece of quartz, but there is still possibility of scratches there. Yes, even if they are smaller in size. Now, labradorite has a hardness of 6-6.5. So when you tumble labradorite with ceramics, you’re essentially tumbling it with a much harder stone. To me, that doesn’t sound like cushioning- it sounds like a recipe for fractures or other damage to the labradorite as a hard stone hits a fragile one. I’m tumbling labradorite with moonstones and pink opal. My labradorite has ground down quite a bit. My last run (in medium), I decided to add in some plastic pellets. When I put in pre-polish today, I added clean pellets, too. I will probably add even more pellets for my second pre-polish and final polish stages. They just seem to fracture so easily. Somebody who knows more about the technical side of labradorite surely can explain exactly why this is so- but for now I know I personally would not use ceramic with labradorite.
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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 13, 2020 2:24:06 GMT -5
A big factor in labradorite chipping is the cleavage planes. Regardless of the hardness of the stone, once you enter into the realm of crystalline material (depending on what it is of course) you run into fragility issues. A light tap at the right angle could shear a rock half in two. The Amazonite/Feldspar I collected this summer is notorious for doing this while tumbling and can be super frustrating.
Cushioning is another realm where hardness is relative. Sure, plastic is soft but floats. Ceramics are harder but sink. The idea here with cushioning is to put something small enough to fit between the stones and slow down their crashing motion. This is more important in the finishing stages since your abrasives are not going to be able to remove enough material to hide the damage caused from the rocks smacking one another. Hardness is less the objective here, you could use loads of small rocks in place of ceramics if you wanted. This also runs into the discussion of adding things like sugar to the finishing steps to thicken the solution and slow down the rocks. It's trying to take back control of a somewhat chaotic process.
Whether you use plastic, ceramics, or both is up to you. Personally, I've swapped over to ceramics because I like the finish I get with the rocks, and it just seems more straightforward. Some people do keep different ceramics for different stages. I'm not in that camp, they get pushed along with the rocks all the way through polish, then sit in a container until they're needed again.
Plastics can be quick to separate off if you dump everything into a wash tub then decant the beads into a strainer. Having all these different containers for different stages is not my cup of tea anymore. You can tell visually that they should be separate. Medium grit leaves them black, fine takes on a gray color, polish ones are off white, and burnishing are perfectly clean. It becomes a pain when the beads themselves get worn down and you need more - do you take your polish beads and add them to the fine collection, or add fresh beads to the fine grind? Either way, It's just a pain to deal with the plastics, in my opinion.
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Mar 19, 2020 10:59:44 GMT -5
Another week of tumbling is complete! I used the new Lortone, and it's very nice. It runs awfully hot though - my IR thermometer clocked it at 113 F, significantly hotter than my old ball mill. The manual does say it's supposed to run hot to the touch, though. Anyway here is the rose quartz I've been working with, after stage 2: And in the second barrel, I started a stage 1 run of mixed rough from the stuff I bought. Includes rutiltated quartz, labradorite, one piece of prasiolite, and re-runs of stage 1 rose quartz. You're right about the labradorite being too soft to run with quartz. Several pieces have a lot of deep scratches on them still, so I'll put those aside and do a labradorite-only run in the future. This one came out nice though: Some nice rutilated quartz pieces: And the prasiolite. It's got some deep ridges, but I only have the one piece so I'm agonizing over whether to put it back in stage one and making it smaller. Finally on an unrelated note, I went to a rock show this past weekend and bought this BEAUTIFUL big slice of rainbow obsidian. I can't decide if I want to cut this into cabs or keep it as a display piece! I did buy a smaller obsidian piece to practice cutting with, so we'll see how those turn out I guess.
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Post by knave on Mar 19, 2020 11:14:10 GMT -5
Love that rainbow 🌈 obsidian
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Post by RocksInNJ on Mar 19, 2020 19:28:41 GMT -5
Indeed that rainbow is nice. Great job on the tumbles and glad your having fun.
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mrhomescientist
having dreams about rocks
Member since October 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by mrhomescientist on Apr 7, 2020 9:01:25 GMT -5
After about six weeks, I finally finished my first batch of stones! These are all self-collected rose quartz (and one smoky) from Hogg Mine in LaGrange, GA. I put them in an orthoceras bowl I bought at the Smithsonian for presentation: One problem with Hogg Mine quartz is that it's pretty full of cracks. So I think a lot of the remaining white lines on there are from grit that got wedged down in there. Continuing to tumble doesn't get rid of them, it just reveals more cracks. I have some nice solid looking pieces I'm working on now that shouldn't have that problem. I think that the ones with deep fractures just aren't that suitable for tumbling, unless one of you professionals knows different. Still, I'm very happy with the results!
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 7, 2020 20:12:31 GMT -5
Grats on the final polish. Looking nice. I have the same problem with Amethyst continually revealing new fractures and chipping. I’ve just come to accept that some rocks are like that and there’s not much you can do about it.
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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 8, 2020 1:53:01 GMT -5
Grats!
Some quartz is just like that and it's translucent nature makes it glaringly obvious, unfortunately.
Could make a good flowerpot rock, or give it a smack and toss it back in. Or whatever else... Sometimes it just be like that though, and sometimes like that is just be.
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