Post by Joseph Hoffman on Mar 4, 2021 10:52:39 GMT -5
Well, I finished up my batch of self collected rocks in my new Model B that I got for Christmas. I've been collecting rocks my whole life but I've only been tumbling them for about a year, so in that sense I am still very much a beginner. So with the help of this forum, I went into this tumble with high hopes and a good amount of knowledge.
I had about 16 lbs of rocks collected up and I curated what I thought were the "good to tumble" rocks, which ended up being about 14 lbs, and started the tumble!
Coarse grind took about 3 weeks, adding a few new tablespoons of grit after each week until I ran out of coarse grit and moved on the the next stages. The next stages had an average time of 2 weeks, with a grit recharge halfway through.
Finally, about 12 days ago it was time for the polish stage. I burnished the rocks with borax and dish soap and ran them (accidentally) for 3 days. I was very confident in my patience with these rocks. I had a few that I was very excited for from the beginning and even some that were already a little shiny from the pre-polish. I loaded up the barrel with my rocks, which took up significantly less volume at this point, only filling about 3/8 of the barrel- not good, even though I added ceramic media, the barrel was barely half full.
But when I opened up the barrel, instead of the milky white polish slurry that I was used to finding at the end of this stage, the slurry was a disappointing gray. Yikes. Something was wrong.
With that being said, I have very mixed results. A small amount of my rocks have an incredible polish and I couldn't be happier with. The majority of them have a mediocre polish which I may be able to fix with more tumbling. The last remaining amount of rocks are horrible, coming out of the polish stage worse than when they went in.
But enough from me, here are my rocks, good ones and bad:
The favorite from the batch:
I didn't mention this one, but it a stone I've had since I was a boy. I bought it somewhere out west. So I did not find it, and I certainly did not find it in Michigan, but I did polish it. It turned out great although I have no idea what it is.
Funny little agate, didn't polish very well.
My small amount of knowledge wants to tell me that these are agates but I don't know. It is pretty hard to distinguish detail in them even in good lighting.
Interesting rock, matte finish.
This one is cool! Don't really know what to call it. I see banded jasper, but I also see agate characteristics. Pretty neat.
This one is humble, I like it.
I'm more confident to call these agates. All the "agates" I find are so hard to identify. The big one is very strange to me.
Little bits of jasper, one of which hosts banded iron. Also a tiny little puddingstone I forgot that I tossed in.
I like the green and red rocks.
Banded chert I found in Williamsburg, MI on Lake Michigan. I really like these!
This one took a great polish. Reminds me of a dragon egg. Again, it's weird and I don't know what to call this rock.
These ones are much more blue in person. I was disappointed that they didn't take a great polish.
Epidote.
Here are the outtakes. I was super sad that my unakite didn't polish well. I had high hopes, and I still do. I think I can make this one still work in another tumble.
Here is a shot of all the good ones, again.
Here are all the rocks that didn't make it. The ones near the bottom are better than the rest, but still not great.
For some reason I was really excited for this one. Even after the pre polish this one had a shine to it. But it came out of the polish stage worse than when it went in. I see pitting with the orange mineral down the middle. Why isn't this more obvious in the earlier stages?
My poor unakite.
Lessons learned:
1. Granite is beautiful. I love it, but I can't polish it.
2. I can't throw all my rocks into one tumble. I need more to be able to keep the volume constant.
3. I need more ceramics.
4. Respect the Moh's scale. I knew that but I didn't listen.
Enjoy!
I had about 16 lbs of rocks collected up and I curated what I thought were the "good to tumble" rocks, which ended up being about 14 lbs, and started the tumble!
Coarse grind took about 3 weeks, adding a few new tablespoons of grit after each week until I ran out of coarse grit and moved on the the next stages. The next stages had an average time of 2 weeks, with a grit recharge halfway through.
Finally, about 12 days ago it was time for the polish stage. I burnished the rocks with borax and dish soap and ran them (accidentally) for 3 days. I was very confident in my patience with these rocks. I had a few that I was very excited for from the beginning and even some that were already a little shiny from the pre-polish. I loaded up the barrel with my rocks, which took up significantly less volume at this point, only filling about 3/8 of the barrel- not good, even though I added ceramic media, the barrel was barely half full.
But when I opened up the barrel, instead of the milky white polish slurry that I was used to finding at the end of this stage, the slurry was a disappointing gray. Yikes. Something was wrong.
With that being said, I have very mixed results. A small amount of my rocks have an incredible polish and I couldn't be happier with. The majority of them have a mediocre polish which I may be able to fix with more tumbling. The last remaining amount of rocks are horrible, coming out of the polish stage worse than when they went in.
But enough from me, here are my rocks, good ones and bad:
The favorite from the batch:
I didn't mention this one, but it a stone I've had since I was a boy. I bought it somewhere out west. So I did not find it, and I certainly did not find it in Michigan, but I did polish it. It turned out great although I have no idea what it is.
Funny little agate, didn't polish very well.
My small amount of knowledge wants to tell me that these are agates but I don't know. It is pretty hard to distinguish detail in them even in good lighting.
Interesting rock, matte finish.
This one is cool! Don't really know what to call it. I see banded jasper, but I also see agate characteristics. Pretty neat.
This one is humble, I like it.
I'm more confident to call these agates. All the "agates" I find are so hard to identify. The big one is very strange to me.
Little bits of jasper, one of which hosts banded iron. Also a tiny little puddingstone I forgot that I tossed in.
I like the green and red rocks.
Banded chert I found in Williamsburg, MI on Lake Michigan. I really like these!
This one took a great polish. Reminds me of a dragon egg. Again, it's weird and I don't know what to call this rock.
These ones are much more blue in person. I was disappointed that they didn't take a great polish.
Epidote.
Here are the outtakes. I was super sad that my unakite didn't polish well. I had high hopes, and I still do. I think I can make this one still work in another tumble.
Here is a shot of all the good ones, again.
Here are all the rocks that didn't make it. The ones near the bottom are better than the rest, but still not great.
For some reason I was really excited for this one. Even after the pre polish this one had a shine to it. But it came out of the polish stage worse than when it went in. I see pitting with the orange mineral down the middle. Why isn't this more obvious in the earlier stages?
My poor unakite.
Lessons learned:
1. Granite is beautiful. I love it, but I can't polish it.
2. I can't throw all my rocks into one tumble. I need more to be able to keep the volume constant.
3. I need more ceramics.
4. Respect the Moh's scale. I knew that but I didn't listen.
Enjoy!