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Post by tims on May 18, 2017 21:37:16 GMT -5
Beautiful cabs that's a great batch. Was going to ask about the shaped ones in pic 2 but re-read and got my answer. That laker's a beauty too, the shaping kept a lot of personality.
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Post by tims on May 18, 2017 16:17:12 GMT -5
If they were all "perfect", think how boring that would be! The pet wood with the pores makes me think of palmwood --? Any tips on using marbles in the polish stage? Marbles are just nice for bringing the fill level up to pad the polish stage. I never put them in before pre-polish stage and if so they get carried over through polish so they don't get roughed up. Since they skip the coarse stage they hold up really well.
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Post by tims on May 18, 2017 16:07:31 GMT -5
Nice finds. Are those calcite crystals inside? I think all but the top middle one have calcite crystals. The top center one is different and i'm still trying to figure it out.
Fossilman I haven't tried working with these at all, I just hit them lightly with a water rinse and a soft toothbrush. Might have to try cutting one now just to see what happens
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Post by tims on May 18, 2017 0:51:06 GMT -5
Nice selection of rocks, like the jasper's a lot. I just hate it when all of the sudden those little druzy pockets pop out.But you have to love them for their beauty. Are you using filler? I prefer ceramic but others use plastic. I have some to that I am going to re tumble. That Brazilian is really nice. Good 3rd bunch of rocks. Sometimes it is just the material. Thanks for posting your pictures. I do use filler, ceramics in my 2nd stage and marbles and plastic pellets in polish. I've got a big bag of pea gravel but it's low quality stuff and most of it just turns to mud. ryan i may be mis-identifying some of my material, i usually call it what i've heard it called by family unless i've got a solid ID. Thanks for the pic of that epidote, pretty stuff.
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Post by tims on May 18, 2017 0:39:37 GMT -5
Thanks ryan for the pic, and more for the story.
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Post by tims on May 17, 2017 17:42:25 GMT -5
The top center one seems to be chalcedony replacement but I can't tell if it's just the ends or all the way through.
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Post by tims on May 17, 2017 17:28:43 GMT -5
I've got to add a couple more recharges to my coarse routine, and stop rolling swiss cheese. These are mostly jasp-agate and pet wood from Buffalo Gap SD with a few local NE Wyoming pieces tossed in. Oh and a Brazil endpiece gifted to me.
1 Brazil
2 Banded jasper?
3
4 Mostly pet wood, the black & red stuff has big pores
5
6 quartz eggs
7 misc.
8 jasper
9 jasp-agate I think the stripey one is healed fractures?
10
11
12
13 swiss cheese chalcedony, bleh teepees and misc. I like the brown and gray piece
Thanks for looking!
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Post by tims on May 16, 2017 19:57:40 GMT -5
Love the pet woods and I'm jealous of your collection of smalls. I'm guessing you don't use much artificial filler, that's a nice size load coming out of the QT12.
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Post by tims on May 16, 2017 19:52:25 GMT -5
The motors for the QT/12 run hot by design. When power is lost, the motor stops. Once power is restored, motor will run, but due to the heavy load (QT12)may not start the barrel rolling again. It just needs a push. On the other hand, if power is restored and the motor isn't humming, it's the thermal overload that shut the motor down when it got TOO hot. Solution: Unplug motor, allow to cool all the way down, plug it back in , give barrel a push and you're back in business. Read a thread about someone losing a motor to this when they didn't notice it had stopped and the thermal overload didn't keep the motor from frying. Not sure what make of tumbler it was.
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Post by tims on May 16, 2017 19:47:16 GMT -5
I found a GFCI cord with manual reset that is my price range. Here's the Amazon link with RTH affiliate code (i think): Inline GFCI Cord.Don't think GFCIs will trip due to power loss although I'm no electrician. Go with quartz Larry's suggestion of a start button/switch. The reviews on this state that it trips on power loss, and I see many people in the comments stating that they bought it for just this purpose. It would also be handy for other equipment so i'm gonna give it a shot.
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Post by tims on May 16, 2017 0:37:40 GMT -5
I found a GFCI cord with manual reset that is my price range. Here's the Amazon link with RTH affiliate code (i think): Inline GFCI Cord.
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Post by tims on May 15, 2017 22:04:08 GMT -5
Big storm tonight and the power went out momentarily. I had to run some errands but luckily thought to check my QT-12 before leaving, and it was sitting motionless ... motor whining but not rolling. I reset the barrel and it seems ok, but it got me to thinking, what if it happened when i was asleep or away from the house for hours?
Anyway, does anyone have an economical solution for this situation? I've considered a UPS but i wouldn't trust an inexpensive one to power the tumbler for long, and i don't want to spend hundreds of dollars. Unplugging the tumbler at night and when i'm out of the house also isn't appealing. What do you seasoned vets do to protect your tumblers from a temporary outage?
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Post by tims on May 13, 2017 19:26:23 GMT -5
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Post by tims on May 13, 2017 19:20:11 GMT -5
Nice results. Was also curious about ID on #20 and 21.
On a side note, most people i show my tumbles to have no knowledge of tumbling and just take the rocks at face value. Oddly, they invariably seem to gravitate toward "flawed" stones more than the "perfect" ones. Rinds, pits and fractures sometimes add appealing character. Unless my friends are just trying to make me feel better ...
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Post by tims on May 13, 2017 1:22:12 GMT -5
Looks like a nice mix of sizes and some pretty material. I can't imagine tumbling with a kid, my own impatience is trying enough
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Post by tims on May 7, 2017 1:33:18 GMT -5
discovered Aurora when i started wire wrapping, now they just go together.
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Post by tims on May 2, 2017 14:45:46 GMT -5
I like naturally polished moss agate, and they do shine up a bit the more you carry them. As stated by others it's nice to have a concave side that fits your thumb.
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Post by tims on Apr 25, 2017 1:07:22 GMT -5
Hey Mike, just curious if you could elaborate on "cuts from cheap and/or dull blades that render the slab unpolishable." I'm still using a tile saw and have made some bad cuts, like with multiple blade-thick gouges, or an uneven plateau across half the face. Still, with enough grinding on a lap (or by hand, ouch) they can always be made flat and polishable again. Are you just referring to going straight from cut to polish, or are there ways to completely ruin a slab with a bad cut? Thanks ... maybe you can clue me in to a fatal mistake before i stumble on it myself.
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Post by tims on Apr 22, 2017 2:05:41 GMT -5
Those are gorgeous. Tight, unobtrusive and very artistic. Really nice work.
I would have wrapped that 3rd piece the opposite way with the bindings on the flat sides and then bent out the capture wires on the corners. Your method looks much more secure and less obtrusive. The small prong-like captures on the second piece are also something i'd never think of. Hopefully i can learn by osmosis, thanks for sharing.
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Post by tims on Apr 22, 2017 1:51:06 GMT -5
The slurry pots were pure slurry? Not looking so good now, but i'm assuming at lower concentrations the SiC wouldn't have such a profound effect.
I'm filtering all my mud through sand and charcoal but i still feel uneasy about potential soil contamination. Probably crazy, especially since i live 2 blocks from an oil refinery that often makes the air intolerable to breathe and has occasionally painted my yard white with fallout. It still niggles me.
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