electrocutus
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2020
Posts: 333
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Post by electrocutus on Nov 5, 2020 16:30:45 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I am new to tumbling and I hope to get some tips and recommendations. I have some rough Gaspeite rocks that I want to tumble in a rotary tumbler. I just want to get smooth and shiny stones for my own enjoyment. I am not looking to make jewellery. The rough rocks are not the best quality... that would be too expensive for my level of experience.
There's quite a bit of brown veining and some white'ish crystals included in it that appears quite a bit softer than the green/brown parts. Does anyone have experience with Gaspeite and some good tips on how to get good results with a rotary tumbler?
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 866
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Post by lordsorril on Nov 5, 2020 17:17:12 GMT -5
Gaspeite is a difficult one for rotary only. At Mohs 4.5-5.0 you are looking at something that is around apatite in hardness (which is challenging as it is). I saw your previous post that you are using a Dr. Cool Pro tumbler: The small barrel might help you out in this situation by weakening impacts. I would start at 120/220 Silicon Carbide, and check progress daily and gather pieces that are shaped well enough to move on to the next step. They should be near 'perfect' (in your opinion) coming out of this stage. Any step beyond shaping is going to require cushioning and adjusted slurry consistency--I don't know enough about the specs. on your tumbler to advise you from there. There is a good chance that without additional experience tumbling soft stones that you will not be able to acquire a shiny polish on this material first time (second time...third time....etc), but, practice makes perfect!
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electrocutus
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2020
Posts: 333
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Post by electrocutus on Nov 6, 2020 8:39:07 GMT -5
Gaspeite is a difficult one for rotary only. At Mohs 4.5-5.0 you are looking at something that is around apatite in hardness (which is challenging as it is). I saw your previous post that you are using a Dr. Cool Pro tumbler: The small barrel might help you out in this situation by weakening impacts. I would start at 120/220 Silicon Carbide, and check progress daily and gather pieces that are shaped well enough to move on to the next step. They should be near 'perfect' (in your opinion) coming out of this stage. Any step beyond shaping is going to require cushioning and adjusted slurry consistency--I don't know enough about the specs. on your tumbler to advise you from there. There is a good chance that without additional experience tumbling soft stones that you will not be able to acquire a shiny polish on this material first time (second time...third time....etc), but, practice makes perfect! Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try. I think I'll split them in 2 separate batches so I can learn from the first one :-) One thing I read about regarding the Dr Cool and NG pro tumbler is that even though it has 3 speeds, people say the slowest speed is already almost too fast compared to better tumblers. I think this might make it even trickier to tumble soft stones. I will definitely do daily checks. A couple of stones in my first batch almost disappeared! Thanks.
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