RedWingTumbler
having dreams about rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 65
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Post by RedWingTumbler on Jul 14, 2021 17:30:11 GMT -5
I thought I'd try something a bit trickier. Some rainbow moonstone, labradorite, amazonite, orthoclase, & various other feldspar. All stages done in my National Geographic 3-lb. tumbler. To minimize breakage & bruising, I ran the barrel with lots of ceramics & leaned toward overfilling (about 80% capacity.) Polish was cerium oxide for 7 days.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jul 14, 2021 17:59:07 GMT -5
Oh yeah! Those came out really nice.
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Post by perkins17 on Jul 14, 2021 18:14:20 GMT -5
It looks great!
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treadledad
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2021
Posts: 48
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Post by treadledad on Jul 14, 2021 18:18:23 GMT -5
Looks pretty good! I have tumbled labradorite before and I wasn't happy with the results but I think it had more to do with the heavily fractured rough I'd purchased. While out at Richardson's Rock Ranch a couple weeks ago, I noticed they had some huge pieces of labradorite. Most pieces were in the 20-30 pound range. I think I'll pick one up the next time I'm out there so I can break it up in a more controlled manner and try again.
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,506
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Post by Brian on Jul 14, 2021 19:30:57 GMT -5
Great job! I love the look of that moonstone. I have a feeling my junior tumblers would love those rainbows, too!
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 14, 2021 20:20:59 GMT -5
Dang RW! You captured the iridescence really well!
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jul 14, 2021 22:19:11 GMT -5
Great job on those! They turned out beautiful!
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quartzilla
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2020
Posts: 1,215
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Post by quartzilla on Jul 16, 2021 7:48:31 GMT -5
You are making a great case for the much aligned Nat Geo tumbler. Nice stone and more power to ya!
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RedWingTumbler
having dreams about rocks
Member since April 2021
Posts: 65
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Post by RedWingTumbler on Jul 16, 2021 11:52:02 GMT -5
You are making a great case for the much aligned Nat Geo tumbler. Nice stone and more power to ya! Thanks! I think that this tumbler has two great things going for it. First, the barrel has a large diameter, compared to its height. I think this concentrates the rocks so that they move over each other more efficiently than most other tumblers. Secondly, I think that being able to tumble stage 1 at a very high speed needs to be embraced. The NG at speed 3 takes 4 days to get the same results as my Thumler's AR2 gets in 7 or more. The main thing is that the barrel wants to be 75% to 80% full. After stage 1, I pretty much follow the same recipes that everyone else uses with more standard tumblers.
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catskillrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,270
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Post by catskillrocks on Jul 17, 2021 21:43:00 GMT -5
Another nice looking batch!
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rhof59
off to a rocking start
Member since July 2021
Posts: 3
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Post by rhof59 on Jul 24, 2021 20:23:01 GMT -5
Great results!! I would be very happy with those results
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