darcyj76
starting to shine!
Member since February 2021
Posts: 45
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Post by darcyj76 on Apr 30, 2021 21:08:39 GMT -5
Here is aventurine-I posted previously about it, and I realize I started too big with this one! I need more experience! here they are after 9 days in polish. They seem dull, cloudy, white, and sad! I checked on them after 5 days in polish, and they were looking fantastic. I replaced everything and set them for another 4 days, and now they look awful. can anyone tell what I did wrong, and if there is anything I can do to fix it? maybe I used too much or too little water? Too much or too little AO polish? Thank you!
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on May 1, 2021 5:34:12 GMT -5
OK here is my hard fast lesson on AO Polish (this is for rotary tumblers only). AO polish takes time! 2 weeks minimum. 3 weeks are better. What I do is save my polish from my previous (I dump everything into a bucket reserved just for polish, pull out the rocks,let the water settle for a day, dump off water and very top layer of the slurry (it happens naturally), let that dry and then re-use it on the next run). So I add the used polish, and some new to the batch. Add the rocks. Fill with water to the top of the rocks. Add plastic pellets to the rim of the barrel (I only use plastic pellets and save them to re-use and each polish type has it's own pellets- no cross contamination). I run the barrel for 3 weeks (no peeking). OK so what it looks like happened to your batch is grit contamination. Your rocks look too rough to be going into polish. There are a lot of chips, pits, and cracks that can and will hide courser grit (no matter how well you clean them). It really is not anything you did wrong, it lies more in the quality of the rough. Adventurine can be very solid and tumble real nice, or it can undercut and chip and fracture (like what your pictures show). Frustrating to be sure! So there is hope. I would go back to course and start over. Grind these until they are smooth, I mean zero pits, fractures, chips. In your second picture there is a nice piece of orange in the upper left corner- that is the goal out of course. If the rocks won't shape up, set them aside for another day and save all the "uglies" to run together separately so your not risking ruining the good guys. GO through your normal remaining grinds (medium, fine, pre polish). I recommend cushioning the load from fine grit onward. Try the polish run again making sure to cushion and no peeking. As for polish amounts, I use a teaspoon per lb of rock. My polish barrels are 3 lb, so the get a teaspoon of used (that a usually what I have remaining) and 2 teaspoons of fresh. AO polish actually gets better as it is run more, it is a very sharped edge grit, and needs some time to round off and break down. 3 weeks is my magic number (it will vary due to water hardness, barrel speed, material used,etc.) Hope this helps!
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darcyj76
starting to shine!
Member since February 2021
Posts: 45
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Post by darcyj76 on May 1, 2021 7:12:13 GMT -5
Oh that is so helpful!!!!
I am going to take the rougher ones and start over-you are right, there are a couple that are actually good, so I will just keep those going in AO longer!!
THANK YOU!!
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