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Post by paulshiroma on Nov 4, 2016 19:16:40 GMT -5
Friday's are always great days ... end of the work week, get to spend time with the family, partake in hobbies, hang out with friends, etc. About the only thing that makes it better is to come home and...
...find a box of rocks waiting for you from a friend!
Hey James, what an awesome trip. Thanks for posting all the photos!
About to pass out Paul. In and out w/the sun.
Didn't look like there was a whole lot of shade. What were the temps like? I'll admit to skipping some of the narrative and going straight to the photos.
Wide variety of cows. They stay by the lake during day to take swims and drink. As the sun gets low they swing up to collect rocks. When driving out I have to wait for them to get out of the road. My friend Fernando whom got me a pass to get on these properties had 14 cattle stolen a few months ago. They caught them, I think cattle rustling in Texas will take them past the state jail and down the road to the big Hilton.
Well, I appreciate that they too, enjoy rockhounding. Guess I'll revise my opinion of these animals.
I would leave it on the floor if possible. Even with the slurry thick it will throw a little mess. When I had a lap I happened to find a wooden crate the right size and about 6" taller than the lap. I removed front of crate for air flow. Then I covered the crate top edges with newspaper. As the newspaper got covered with slurry it was easy to replace. If you most have it on the counter you can attach a square frame to table to corral it.
That is surprising. Does this mean that you loose most of your grit while it is working?
I am very interested because I am thinking about making one. I broke my vibrating tumbler and thought I could use it as the base for a flat lap. I don't care about the mess, but do care if the grit and moisture gets tossed away too quickly. I am thinking that maybe I should consider a high container or even one with a lid?
greig - You don't lose as much as it sounds like but the build up over time is rather surprising. You're going to have to constantly recharge this a bit faster than a tumbler as it seems to break down grit a bit faster. Might be my imagination but I do have to pay more attention to this tool than to the tumblers. The tumblers or are sort of "fire and forget" appliances. This one demands some attention as you go.
It's not too bad but it's not in the house. We attached it to the counter and at first it was loud but I put a heavy bucket on the counter and it got quieter. Here it is along with three tumblers nearby. paulshiroma Are the rocks supposed to move around continuously? These seem to stay in one spot most of the time unless I move them.
Hey, congrats, meviva! AWESOME purchase! Yes, the rocks are supposed to sort of rotate around the pan. I noticed that the speed(?) at which they move changes with the grit size. With the coarse grit they sort of just casually move around. Lazy might be a better word. By the time I'm at the cerium oxide stage, they're moving around pretty well. It looks like you're on the initial coarse stage. Keep adding a bit of water now and then and as the grit breaks down and gets a bit "smoother" the rocks will slide around more. It's the sliding action that creates the polishing.
By the way, I might recommend you save up for an additional pan, pad and bumper and keep it solely for the (last) polishing stage. Then you won't be washing one pan out all the time risk any cross-contamination with the grits and the polish. If you decide to do a pre-polish stage with 1000 AO or just aluminum oxide polish, you can use the pad that came with your first pan. I end up not washing out the pads and just bagging them in some large trash bags so that I don't lose any 1000 AO or cerium oxide. My polishing pan and its pad is kept solely for the cerium oxide.
I like John's idea of getting a crate to sit the lap in. That's a great idea. This is one of the more messy tools that I've worked with.
Congrats again! I'm looking forward to trading ideas. Keep us posted on what works and doesn't work for you!
Paul
EDIT: I also neglected to mention a couple of items: 1. Whether or not the lap is level seems to make a difference in how well the rocks move around. Make sure to level the lap before anchoring it. And I still have to fiddle with it between grit changes. 2. Put a little motor oil or mineral oil on the screw that holds the pan in place. Mine got rusted and I couldn't get it out. I had to clip the ends and then drilled it out after which I had to find the right sized bolt, washers and nuts to secure the pan. The latter was easy, but drilling out the rusted-shut original bolt as a pain.
Last Edit: Oct 26, 2016 22:19:02 GMT -5 by paulshiroma
Post by paulshiroma on Oct 23, 2016 16:49:33 GMT -5
Glad you got the issue solved! Nice that your saw has two separate breakers, or at least, that's what it sounded like. Mine does not so when the opportunity arose to replace the main circuit breaker panel on my house, I upgraded the whole panel, showed the electrician the equipment I work with and he installed dedicated circuits specifically for the lapidary equipment.
Never take medical advice from a window salesman. I am not a physician, pulmonologist, epidemiologist, nor an oncologist and I play none of the above on TV.
After that discourse can I ask if you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night?
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Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!
