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Post by oregon on Oct 27, 2016 1:07:23 GMT -5
Great idea and that is the same recipe I have cobbled together based on all the recommendations. Skipping the borax in the 120/220 stage made a big difference with how much water I had to keep adding!! yeah, far from an expert but I find that often the rocks aren't moving too well by the end of 2 days in 120/220 ( I usually spray some water in after day one, but unlike the AO stages where the slurry thickens and things keep moving at relatively the same pace... Maybe the SiC is really all pulverized and there is not much left to 'grab' the rocks to keep em moving? Drummond Island Rocks
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Post by oregon on Oct 26, 2016 15:44:11 GMT -5
I don't keep my lot-o running full time, and always seem to forget T or t or days or.... so I printed out a business card, laminated and stuck it on the machine. Printed a sheet at the same time, so I have a half dozen spares, happy to send one your way, just pm me with your address. of course there is no one perfect recipe, I've been using, gleaned from several posts - here's whats on the card: Amnt Grit Borax Hours 1 2 T 120/220 SiC None 24-48 2 ½ t 500 Al2O3 1 T 24-48 3 ½ t 1000 Al2O3 1 T 24-48 4 ½ t Polish Al2O3 1 T 24-48 5 - - 2 T 3-5Cheers.
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Post by oregon on Oct 16, 2016 18:11:54 GMT -5
yeah, I remember the first time I sandblasted glass, they said to cut a mask out of masking tape with an exacto knife. I thought yeah right, this thing peels rust no problem, how is the masking tape ever going to hold up, but it does. I imagine it's the same on a small scale, that the sand bounces off the tape, elastic vs inelastic collisions or such... So what about a single big rock in larger 12-15lb barrels? any tests there?
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Post by oregon on Oct 16, 2016 17:06:07 GMT -5
Seems like the big rock really grinds things, but might be a bit too aggressive (if your goal is just tumbling the entire batch as efficiently/quickly as possible rather than just polishing the large rock). So I've always wondered if just some large steel ball bearings would speed things along, Denser than most rock, should be hard steel for bearings, and present smooth surfaces. other than that, what about adding a 1-2lb excersize dumbbell weight that is vinyl/rubber/neoprene clad - not sure of the longevity, but? thoughts? Thanks for the experiments.
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Post by oregon on Oct 16, 2016 16:38:43 GMT -5
why not, always up for a puzzle...
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Post by oregon on Oct 15, 2016 15:13:05 GMT -5
Fun stuff! The World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay (California ) has a winner. 1910 pound pumpkin grown in Washington. Largest pumpkin in the Half Moon Bay contest history was a 2058lb pumpkin grown in 2014. ALL pumpkins grown outside. World record was 2625 lbs. entered by s Belgian grower in Germany. Grown in a greenhouse. Thought you ought to know! Lol. No crown for Oregon this year Interesting to look at the history and speculate how large pumpkins can get - Looks like no sign of stopping yet! Past history data - cut/paste that into excel:
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Post by oregon on Oct 13, 2016 2:43:34 GMT -5
667.8
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Post by oregon on Oct 6, 2016 12:05:56 GMT -5
With such nice mirror polishes, auto focus can be tricked into focusing on the reflection - ie the tree reflection above. Try a manual focus if that's a huge problem, some phones will let you do this, but not all. It'd also be good to pay attention to the possible reflections so that different parts of the rock are not seeing very different surfaces in the reflection. eg, I can see your dark phone, and bright sky in some above.
In the same vein, I'd also suggest a paying attention to the background, if you don't want to do studio lighting, try to keep the background less busy, maybe just grass, or a table or leaves behind the rock, it'll greatly help the rock stand out.
Looks like you're hand holding both the camera and rock. Set the rock down, Tripods can help hold the camera as well, you can use a smaller aperature= larger DOF=slower exposure. You might try to just have a little stand and bright light in the corner of the shop and angle the slabs/camera till you get results you like. Once solved that'll be much more reliable than worrying about the variable conditions outside.
2cents...
practice you'll get better, it's way easier than getting such nice polishes!
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Post by oregon on Oct 6, 2016 11:35:25 GMT -5
Are all the quick ways dry? Richardsons,bull wheel, ... I try to avoid rock dust as much as I can, but would love a quicker way to deal with Thunder eggs. Vibrating flat lap might be ok, but afraid I'll forget to check it and it'll go dry overnight or such, certainly not quick to work through all the stages.
Any pics?
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Post by oregon on Oct 3, 2016 14:32:40 GMT -5
If you don't enjoy the tinkering aspect, buying a replacement, if you can find one, is probably the best bet. We debated, but seemed like a good shop project for my son to figure out. We did go from some pictures with a ruler from an original part, so his dimensions weren't just guessed at. Using the full width on the back end is good, but we thought you also want some room for the heel of the vice to rotate, so you need a bit of a gap on the front end. The pin width is also pretty well dictated by the height under neath and the width (we thought you also want some slop here for the heel to be able to rotate. at least as much as the heel/table will let it)
His part is working great, not to hard to fab. In hindsight, the threaded rod (we used a stock size that was at hand 1/2" maybe) shouldn't be too long or you loose some width because you won't be able to close the lid of the saw. It was a pretty easy fix to shorten that! And the threaded portion of his block could probably be half as long as it is.
We did case harden the part when complete, hard to imagine the other one above bending so much and not 'popping' loose?
I think in the 'public space' use, the clamp gets barely backed out, then the next person comes along and instead of unscrewing all the way and moving the assembly as close as possible, they tend to go from where it's at, eventually someone's pushing on that back bar to tighten it and it breaks. It seems like a very robust design, but it's not intuitive to someone who just walks up and is used to a regular work bench/shop vise screw clamping things down. I've seen a couple busted like that. And if I do remember right, on the newer HP's this whole mechanism was narrower, the push bar and the tracks on the vise table, I think that's why the part above seems so narrow. That also played into the decision to fab one if I think.
Have fun.
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Post by oregon on Sept 27, 2016 22:59:08 GMT -5
Excuse the mess. My oldest saw is in bad need of a cleanup. Thanks, that saw looks cleaner than a rock saw should to me! Appreciate it.
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Post by oregon on Sept 27, 2016 13:32:05 GMT -5
Looks like you have had about the same experience with posting from google photos that I have had. NONE. Hey, that's odd, yesterday I could certainly see the images here and in my other post, not this morning. Updated links, can you see the image above now? Strange. The image I linked in your google thread from several days ago was still visible to me when I linked it yesterday, but not today. Certainly hope google isn't changing links, but I wouldn't put it past them, it's all about $, driving traffic through their site... ---- Aye - if I reload the image page, Google gives me different unique links every time, and it seems like those expire. so what worked a week ago now seems like it will be impossible if all the drive links are dynamic and constantly changing. sad.
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Post by oregon on Sept 26, 2016 14:27:57 GMT -5
Anyone interested in this drop me a line, shipping + an optional interesting rock or slab... The wax pot is missing but maybe if you have one you can use the 5 candles, or cut the bottom off a cupcake pan for a pot.. Lortone GDS-1 In the mail thx.
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Post by oregon on Sept 26, 2016 13:22:30 GMT -5
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Post by oregon on Sept 21, 2016 1:52:54 GMT -5
It was funny to hear all of the rocks tumbling as the waves came in and out. It is so peaceful and soothing... Plan your next trip to Oregon, make sure to stop by Cobble Beach on Yaquina head... here's someone's video, Winter has better waves, but be careful, round basalt cobbles are not very stable and the angle of repose is steep... travelOregon blurb:
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Post by oregon on Sept 19, 2016 13:56:18 GMT -5
for some reason the rock trimmer link in your original post looks like regular text rather than a link on my screen?
agree with Jim, looks slow. I like tile nippers, though they do tend to fracture things occasionally in my hands. I think I first saw them on the Hans Gemma jasper video and it seemed so much quicker than a trim saw. But I've also broken plenty of pcs using them, so don't always reach for them.
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Post by oregon on Sept 19, 2016 13:18:30 GMT -5
Picture link?
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Post by oregon on Sept 17, 2016 21:31:55 GMT -5
ahh needed a puzzle to solve, this used to be a bit easier.... Try this, worked with one of mine below. Right click on the image, 'copy link location' then hit the insert image button, paste the link, add "?.jpg" to the end of the link. here's a web page that explains better than me www.rainsberger.ca/2016/02/19/direct-link-to-image-in-google-photos-for-html-image-tag/(you might have to have the image shared/public on the google photos page, not sure about all those settings) Been wanting to solve that for a while thx. Photobucket is ok, but this will make life a bit more convenient)
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Post by oregon on Sept 14, 2016 10:11:10 GMT -5
Great find Oregon....How far south was you?? South - Down at Boardman State Park, one of my favorites... The name of the beach was "Secret"
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Post by oregon on Sept 14, 2016 1:39:44 GMT -5
Oh that's nice! Is the black metallic like hematite? Funny, down on this beach there were areas of really black (sparkly) sand. It was unique enough that I gathered up a small jar, seems the wind had sorted it very well... When I got home it seemed very dense, and is great to play with a magnet on the side of the jar - assumed that was hematite... The magnets do not seem to have any attraction for this rock. At first I thought the back was just oxidized/weathered black, but I don't that's the case. Wonder if I could get to a slab that had more black and red...hmmmm
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