fatrichie
has rocks in the head
Member since July 2004
Posts: 651
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Post by fatrichie on May 31, 2005 0:01:27 GMT -5
Maybe you could give a few hints. This is my first complete batch, using general instructions out of the Loretone guide. This is the third time I went through the complete process with these stones and finally they don't have a 'roughed edge' look to them. I am SOOO jealous of the beautiful stones you folks get when you are done! I gather, after a bunch of reading here, I need to run my rough grit, for a while longer, recharging every week to work out the imperfections. Run separate barrels, clean, clean, clean, am I on the right track? But how do I clean the polish off the stones? Some folks say to tumble a day in soapy water. I've scrubbed with a tooth brush, and still I have white residue. And what of plastic beads, Where do those come into play?   |
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Post by puppie96 on May 31, 2005 1:41:17 GMT -5
First, I really love the look of these rocks! You sound disappointed and they are really pretty great.
It looks to me like your batch did what mine do sometimes, you got a really nice polish on some of them, less so on others. If some of the rocks are softer or have porous surfaces that can happen. I usually send those back to earlier grinds and sometimes the porous ones will eventually clean up. Sometimes when I've re-run the with a different type polish it has taken them from nice to mirror-finished, so you might want to try that.
As far as polish settling in the holes, yes, a wash in soap and water and borax sometimes helps that, if it wasn't too thick and/or dry. If it really is settled in like concrete you are really SOL unless you go back to an earlier grind. Titanium Oxide was the worst for clean up, in my experience.
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Post by Cher on May 31, 2005 7:47:49 GMT -5
Maybe you could give a few hints. This is my first complete batch, using general instructions out of the Loretone guide. This is the third time I went through the complete process with these stones and finally they don't have a 'roughed edge' look to them. I am SOOO jealous of the beautiful stones you folks get when you are done! I gather, after a bunch of reading here, I need to run my rough grit, for a while longer, recharging every week to work out the imperfections. Run separate barrels, clean, clean, clean, am I on the right track? But how do I clean the polish off the stones? Some folks say to tumble a day in soapy water. I've scrubbed with a tooth brush, and still I have white residue. And what of plastic beads, Where do those come into play? I think you did pretty darn good for a first batch! It's always the worst one to wait for though so give yourself some time for learning. As puppie explained, the hardness of the stone does make a lot of difference in the shine, especially if you have different types of stones together. There's some to that just will never take a shine in a tumbler. It's very important to check the stones over after the coarse grind (which can take weeks). I look at mine wet then dry ... any pits or imperfections, they go back in the coarse again. I tumble mine in borax (20 Mule Team Borax) for at least 2 hours, sometimes I leave it for a day after the last polish stage to clean them. There's some that are just never good. The plastic pellets ... The only time I don't use them is in coarse, after that they go in every load. BUT (this is important) Don't carry them over in each step, use a different batch of pellets for each stage. Keep them in baggies clearly marked what grit they are for. I also wash the rocks and pellets for an hour or so between stages so the pellets are clean for the next batch. Hang in there, you'll soon be turning out beautiful shiny rocks, you just have to get through the learning curve. Cher |
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Post by creativeminded on May 31, 2005 10:01:29 GMT -5
Those turned out great, love the green.
Tami
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