Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 5, 2020 15:41:03 GMT -5
Hey all pretty new to tumbling here.
Since we started tumbling, my wife and I agreed we would take turns picking new rough material for each new batch.
Our first complete batch of stones should be finishing up in about 2 more weeks, so she started looking at materials, and has tentatively selected Sodalite for our next tumble.
So I've started to do some reading about it, and it's a bit softer than our current tumble (quartz, amethyst, emeralds, bunch of other stuff we dug up in Hiddenite)
So I guess I'm looking for recommendations on how to approach it, so we don't totally screw it up.
We have a standard Lortone 3A tumbler, and the guy that sold it to us told us the standard recipe.
Stage 1 3 tbs 60/90 S/C for a week Stage 2 3 tbs 120/220 S/C for a week Stage 3 3 tbs 600 S/C for a week (Starting this stage today) Stage 4 3 tbs Polish for a week (I'm not sure what the polish I bought from him was, it says something like 44/H4 Oxide on the top, but it's handwritten and difficult to decipher)
With regards to tumbling sodalite, any recommendations on how I should change the way I'm approaching this?
Also want to make sure I've got this right, but a 3 lb tumbler, I should buy 4 lbs of rough material (so I can do stage 1 twice), so after stage 1, I'll have enough material to go through 2-4?
Edit: By the way, what spacer material do you recommend I get? The guy who sold me the tumbler said he usually uses safety glass, and I've seen talk about plastic spacers here?
Thanks in advance
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Apr 5, 2020 20:05:15 GMT -5
I think your recipe looks fine. The polish is likely an Aluminum Oxide Al Ox polish. I wouldn’t change the recipe for Sodalite, just don’t run anything else harder than Sodalite with the batch. Just buy 3 lbs and run it through. No need to add more later. I use a non abrasive ceramic media. You can buy it from any lapidary vendor. I bought both the large and small cylinders at first, now I only use the large ones. They turn small eventually. Don’t mess with plastic beads unless you are tumbling something really delicate. Some folks use small pea gravel type quartz rocks as filler. They are cheap and eventually take a polish. Good luck.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 5, 2020 20:19:04 GMT -5
Thanks for advice. I'll look into getting the ceramic cylinders. My local shop is shut down since the coronavirus quarantines hit our area, so I'll probably just have to order it online.
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Apr 5, 2020 20:25:18 GMT -5
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 5, 2020 20:31:48 GMT -5
You’ll want to use an 500AO over SIC for stage 3 prepolish and same with stage 4 polish. Careful with your polish. I’m not sure what it is, but some vendors push off 1200AO as a polish. You’ll want something that’s like 12000-15000 for polish. I use polish from The Rock Shed, but Kingsley probably has a suitable AO polish as well.
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Post by aDave on Apr 5, 2020 21:05:14 GMT -5
Stage 1 3 tbs 60/90 S/C for a week Stage 2 3 tbs 120/220 S/C for a week Stage 3 3 tbs 600 S/C for a week (Starting this stage today) Stage 4 3 tbs Polish for a week (I'm not sure what the polish I bought from him was, it says something like 44/H4 Oxide on the top, but it's handwritten and difficult to decipher) I've never tumbled sodalite alone, so as far as I know, take this with a grain of salt. One week in coarse? Not sure about that. It really depends on what you want your rocks to look like at the end of the day. The first stage will dictate this. Whatever shaping you get out of this stage will be what they look like when they are done. If you are not happy at the end of one week, keep them rolling. Clean the rocks, inspect them, and add new grit if need be. In all honesty, it seems like your vendor is merely parroting the typically lacking instructions that come with most tumblers. , Sure, sodalite is softer than much of the material that most start with, but I'm not sure one week is sufficient in the initial stage. Shape the stuff to your satisfaction at the outset. That's what you'll end up with. From there, don't be disappointed if this stuff doesn't polish well when you are done with everything. This stuff is soft and may not be the sort of material that can be well finished in a rotary tumbler. Then again, I'm speaking from a personal lack of experience in dealing with this stuff, so I can't say for sure. As an aside, and as it relates to much harder material, my tumbling times are far longer than what your vendor provided. Those times above above are exceeingly lacking IMHO.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 6, 2020 22:46:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice. I'll take that under advisement. We'll check and see how it looks after a week, and play it by ear from there. I appreciate all the input. I really don't know up from down here yet. I'm aware it's pretty soft, after reading a couple threads on it. The pitting does leave me with some concerns on how the final product will come out. Wish I had a vibe tumbler, but we're way too early in this hobby right now for me to justify the additional outlay of cash for it to the wife. Question about that, since neither Kingsly or The Rock Shed identify the grit level of the AO polish, but since you endorse, is it safe to assume it's somewhere in that 12000-15000 range? I'll pick up a bag of 500AO for the stage 3, thanks for the info. Thanks Joshua for the ceramic recommend. I purchased a bag.
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Post by aDave on Apr 7, 2020 0:13:05 GMT -5
Prov , in a phone conversation I once had with the owner of the Rock Shed, I was told their AO polish is 1.5 microns (13,000). It's all I've ever used, and I've not been disappointed.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 7, 2020 20:37:29 GMT -5
I use the polish from The Rock Shed, but the polish from Kingsley should be fine as well. Good luck with your tumbles and let us know how you make out.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 8, 2020 19:37:41 GMT -5
Thanks, I'll purchase the polish from the rock shed.
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Post by greig on Apr 9, 2020 11:18:36 GMT -5
Good luck with the tumble. I cannot add anything to the excellent advice so far. I am looking forward to hearing your experience and results. I have some sodalite from the Princess Mine in Ontario, Canada that I haven't had the heart to cut and tumble yet. I should have grabbed more when I had the chance.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 19, 2020 19:51:31 GMT -5
Just about ready to start up the Sodalite tumble. Finished our mixed bag of rock from our dig in NC. Before I proceed I wanted to pick up some tips. Results here: imgur.com/a/mn1YJ7tSo a few things I've noticed now that they're dry. They're pretty foggy, so I assume that it's hard water issues. They didn't polish up very well, which is a bit disappointing. Looks like there were definitely issues with particulate. I tried to weed stuff out that looked bad between phases, but I think have so many varying hardnesses in there was doing me no favors. For water, I have a water filter, should I use the filtered water from my tap, boil my water, or just go out and buy distilled water? Hoping that in this tumble if all the rock is the same, I should have fewer issues, and hopefully an easier time at weeding out the bad stuff.
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Post by joshuamcduffie on Apr 19, 2020 20:02:08 GMT -5
I don’t think it’s a water hardness issue. I think it’s a mixed rock hardness issue, or maybe need longer in prepolish and polish steps.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 19, 2020 20:20:41 GMT -5
I'll keep this original tumble off to the side, kind of as a monument to where I started. Hopefully as an inspiration to keep improving.
A few more thoughts that struck me. I've read in some threads about tumbling rocks for longer and moving them on when they're ready. My experience is basically nonexistent, so I'm not sure what "ready" really is. I want this tumble to go better than the last one, so I'm looking for targets to improve on, and criteria to work off of to make my final product better.
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 19, 2020 22:05:52 GMT -5
Move on when ready is when you’re happy with the way it looks. Mainly in the first stage. Some people like perfection and others don’t care about a few pits or fractures. So when you’re happy with them, move them on to the next stage.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 26, 2020 16:33:06 GMT -5
First tumble on the sodalite completed, edges haven't worn down the way I was expecting, so I decided to throw em in for another few days.
One thing that I think didn't help was that I overpacked it with ceramic filler between layers of rough, and there possibly wasn't enough room for them to tumble adequately. I remarked how quiet the tumbler was the first day, and when opening most of the barrel came out easily, but the bottom of the barrel had congealed and needed a little coaxing.
I'll be giving them another look Wednesday evening and with any luck they'll be ready to move on to the next stage.
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MommaGem
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2019
Posts: 312
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Post by MommaGem on Apr 27, 2020 9:12:42 GMT -5
Hi Prov! I wasn't very successful with Sodalite my first try, but I eventually did achieve results I was really happy with on my second try. Here is my process tumbling Sodalite - I hope it helps!
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 28, 2020 15:58:23 GMT -5
Good lord! Your rocks looked better after stage one, than my first batch ever looked after stage four. I love how these rocks came out though. It's amazing!
I haven't picked up a vibe tumbler yet. Maybe after my next paycheck.
I really appreciate the guide you left here though, I will give that a try.
Luckily, the 3 lbs of sodalite rough I bought, I only ended up using about a pound a half in my tumbler, so I have another shot at it.
Just to verify, you started coarse in the rotary, went to medium in the vibe, and then straight to polish? Or was the fine step skipped in the video?
Just want to be sure I have this down right for my own attempt.
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Prov
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2020
Posts: 116
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Post by Prov on Apr 29, 2020 19:11:54 GMT -5
Got my rocks out of the tumbler today. Looking much better than they were Sunday. I should have pulled them out yesterday though, because man, I can really see what you mean about undercutting, pitting, and chipping. Most of them had some form of slight defect, but nothing so bad that I feel like they need to go out. There was one though that looks like a chunk broke off during tumble, and the pitting was too deep to appropriately smooth out. Had to phase that one out of the next tumble, which sucks because it was a pretty large piece. Did catch a piece or two of sunset sodalite, and another with a band of quartz in the middle. I'm holding off for the next stage until we buy a vibe, which will be in a few days. All in all, very excited about what I've got cooking, and really hope it comes out better than my first try. imgur.com/a/XM9AA4G
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 30, 2020 16:56:25 GMT -5
Great news man. Just make sure your really clean out those pores and crevices, so that you don’t transfer grit to the next stage.
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