Benathema
has rocks in the head
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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 Jul 17, 2020 22:39:41 GMT -5
This was something I had going in the background, awaiting the outcome to know if it would turn out at all. Lab is a softer stone, prone to fracturing and chipping at cleavage planes. To this end I had to figure out what material I was going to use for smalls. I do have some feldspar/amazonite, but not a lot, and most certainly not enough to sustain the barrel through the entire run. Additionally, as I've read, the longer you tumble, the worse the chipping gets. I wanted to blast through this as quickly as I could without damaging it too badly. I chose to recycle some "sacrificial" quartz that I've amassed - meaning it's material that's already rounded and polished. The idea here was to not have sharp edges in the filler that would chisel the lab. I did 2 weeks at 36 grit, followed by a week each of 60/90, 120/220, 500, polish, for a total of 6 weeks of tumbling ( details of mass loss per stage in the below plot). Well, without further ado, I consider it an acceptable success. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) Week 0: 1565g, 36 SiC. ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951586767_a93c24098d_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951293491_8a9133fd55_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49950792488_02f4867372_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49950792608_2e809db872_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951587342_2d8309e422_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49950792798_57f0cc30b7_b.jpg) Week 6: 1330g, Polish AO, total mass loss: 15.0%. ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124564461_70c358095a_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124786797_7da1e97b6e_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50123991898_6bb99a932c_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124565166_2e451dcee7_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124563411_df2a0f3bcd_c.jpg)
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,426
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 19, 2020 6:56:35 GMT -5
Great Results ! ! Interesting that you used a 2 step Stage 1 process with 36 and 60/90 grits.
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jaime
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2020
Posts: 16
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Post by jaime on Jul 22, 2020 1:30:36 GMT -5
This was something I had going in the background, awaiting the outcome to know if it would turn out at all. Lab is a softer stone, prone to fracturing and chipping at cleavage planes. To this end I had to figure out what material I was going to use for smalls. I do have some feldspar/amazonite, but not a lot, and most certainly not enough to sustain the barrel through the entire run. Additionally, as I've read, the longer you tumble, the worse the chipping gets. I wanted to blast through this as quickly as I could without damaging it too badly. I chose to recycle some "sacrificial" quartz that I've amassed - meaning it's material that's already rounded and polished. The idea here was to not have sharp edges in the filler that would chisel the lab. I did 2 weeks at 36 grit, followed by a week each of 60/90, 120/220, 500, polish, for a total of 6 weeks of tumbling ( details of mass loss per stage in the below plot). Well, without further ado, I consider it an acceptable success. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) Week 0: 1565g, 36 SiC. ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951586767_a93c24098d_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951293491_8a9133fd55_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49950792488_02f4867372_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49950792608_2e809db872_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49951587342_2d8309e422_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49950792798_57f0cc30b7_b.jpg) Week 6: 1330g, Polish AO, total mass loss: 15.0%. ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124564461_70c358095a_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124786797_7da1e97b6e_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50123991898_6bb99a932c_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124565166_2e451dcee7_b.jpg) ![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50124563411_df2a0f3bcd_c.jpg) Beautiful and also very informative. Thank you.
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stewdogg
spending too much on rocks
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Member since January 2020
Posts: 388
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Post by stewdogg on Jul 22, 2020 9:19:13 GMT -5
That turned out great! Seems like you're the big rock guru around here, nice work!
What do you do with all those beautiful big polished rocks?
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Post by greig on Jul 22, 2020 10:04:39 GMT -5
I am surprised the coarse grits in your first two stages didn't wear away more rock. I have tumbled feldspars in the past, but using smaller stones. My stage 1 was usually 60/90 or 220 (if the rocks were pre-shaped) and they were done after 3-5 days. So your project is very interesting. I should try a large rock too. You got a nice result!
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_pink.png) ![*](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/stars/star_pink.png)
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 Jul 22, 2020 10:30:11 GMT -5
Re stewdogg: I decided this last winter that I wanted my display of polished stones to be unique. I didn't know what to do with 10,000 small stones, but a smaller number of large stones seemed like a cool idea. I have a table/shelf where I have them on display.
I may be one of the gurus, but there are a couple others around that got a few more years experience on me. I think one of the more novel things I've contributed has been more before/during/after progress photos and mass losses along the way.
Re greig: I was concerned about too much loss as well and took the gamble anyways under the assumption that the harder quartz filler would probably chew up a bunch of the grit, not just the lab.
Thanks for the kind words all!
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