waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 369
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Post by waterboysh on Jun 10, 2021 12:02:24 GMT -5
I've got this rock egg that I've had since I was a little kid, so it's kinda beat up a little bit. Got some scratches on it and (despite appearing so in the picture) is not very shiny. I have no idea what kind of rock this is, but I was wondering if I could run this through stages 2 - 4 in my rotary with a bunch of ceramic media and if it would maintain it's shape.
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Post by manofglass on Jun 10, 2021 12:23:15 GMT -5
I think you will have to add some stone in with it Use small stone I would use pea gravel instead of ceramic
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Post by mohs on Jun 10, 2021 13:09:28 GMT -5
cool rock fragile w/ the mechanical
especially if its a travertine or onyx
I would think
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Post by greig on Jun 10, 2021 15:12:38 GMT -5
It's already rounded. As such, I wouldn't put it into stage 2. If you can scratch with a knife (5 hardness) then I would suggest a very short time in stage 3 before peeking. Then onto stage 4 and burnish.
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reeniebeany
starting to spend too much on rocks
Rotary Only
Member since January 2020
Posts: 125
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Post by reeniebeany on Jun 10, 2021 19:53:13 GMT -5
That looks like a very satisfying handful of rock. Where did you find it? Sounds like you were a rock lover when you were a kid as well.
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Post by rmf on Jun 10, 2021 20:17:14 GMT -5
my guess it that a tumbler may not give good results.
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Post by Bob on Jun 11, 2021 16:04:15 GMT -5
It almost reminds me of very fine grained granite. I have purchased lapis lazuli eggs and they have tumbled fine to improve some of them.
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waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 369
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Post by waterboysh on Oct 8, 2021 9:39:17 GMT -5
I decided to just go for it and see what happens. I know some of y'all said to skip the medium grit stage, but I threw it in with just a small bit of 120/220 and a small handful of dried slurry and let it run for a couple of days. It didn't seem to do any harm and it got the bigger dings out of it. The whole stone felt noticeably rougher. It's now running in 500 AO. I do think it's a fairly soft rock; though I should have tested it with a knife like suggested above. I'll let it run in the 500 for a few days and move it to 1000 AO for a few days, and then polish for a bit. Not sure how long I should run each stage, so I'll probably check on it every couple of days.
I didn't take a picture after the 120/220 stage, but I'll update with progress pics as they come along.
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electrocutus
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2020
Posts: 331
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Post by electrocutus on Oct 8, 2021 10:15:28 GMT -5
I love rock eggs! My wife is from Brasil and we bought many of them at Rio hippy fairs. I never thought of "re-tumbling" to attempt to get a better shine on some of them. Good luck, and post you results. This one is a favourite of mine.
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waterboysh
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 369
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Post by waterboysh on Oct 18, 2021 12:26:05 GMT -5
I decided to not post update pictures because to be honest they looked exactly like the first picture. But, I just pulled the egg rock out of polish this weekend and it shined up really nice and it's completely smooth now.
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