Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 8, 2018 14:21:43 GMT -5
Look in the hardware store in the ceiling fans, get a Motor Speed Control
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 8, 2018 3:39:03 GMT -5
If you are looking to buy grit in bulk locally, look for Sand Blasting Media. Also check out the Abrasive Armory ebay store.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 6, 2018 20:47:44 GMT -5
When tumbling in a Rotary Tumbler, the barrels are sealed against leakage. If pressure builds up inside the barrel it can pop off the endcap dumping the contents and making a big mess. When tumbling glass you should break the seal and equalize the air pressure every couple of days or if you see the barrel bulging. I have been tumbling Pyrex from theatrical lighting fixtures and that stuff can be quite hard, but is still easy to frost-up and round the edges. Are you talking about the tempered glass that breaks into a zillian little diamond shaped pieces ? Different grits will give you different results, larger grits like 46 or 80 will give you very fast results and do the most rounding. Medium grits like 120 or 220 will be great at frosting but milder at rounding the edges. Fine grit like 500 or 600 will frost the glass shallowly and leave a sheen on the glass. Smaller grits greater than 1000 are generally used to make the surface shine.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 6, 2018 18:23:51 GMT -5
1> What is the issue with gas? 2> Should I pre-heat the glass prior to tumbling to soften it some? If so, suggestions on how? Would 500 degrees in a household oven do enough? Or do I need to go the kiln route? 3> Using a mixture of sand, regular pea gravel, course grit, salt, and water. Suggestions for changes/ratios? I thought the gas issue was discussed very well in this thread, complete with informative scientific links.
Glass is already plenty soft, in most cases, softer than rocks, no need to soften them up anymore.
Use Grit, Gravel and Water, Sand and salt won't help any
Are you just wanting to frost the surface of the glass or, are you wanting to round it off some ?
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 6, 2018 18:01:21 GMT -5
My initial intention was to recover unused grit. But having this cleanout sink with grit recovery has greatly simplified my cleanouts. Plus it takes less than an hour to cleanout 3 barrels including a 15 minute washing step between stages.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 5, 2018 18:14:15 GMT -5
In my mind, I want some SiC that is large like Sand, not sure how big that is ?
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 5, 2018 16:39:21 GMT -5
Going to try using 30 SiC Grit in the Rotary Tumbler for awhile. I have been using Bulk SiC that jamesp sold me last December. It had some rather large pebbles in it so I screened it through 1/8 inch hardware cloth to get the bigger pieces out. So the grit was from 1/8 inch and less. I have totally loved this time release grit and always had grit to recover after every week at cleanout in my QT66 Barrels. The bigger 1/8 inch pieces were really tough and would last over 3 weeks before becoming powdered enough to get past my recovery system.
But I only have about 3 more weeks of the bulk grit left and so I decided to get the biggest grit that Kingsey North has to offer. I have seen them selling 16 grit before but don't see it available now. So I got 10 pounds of 30 SiC Grit this time. Looking at it in my fingertips it seems really small compared to the bulk grit, and not much larger than the 46/70 that I had been using most of last year. When I started out I was using lots of 80 SiC grit. Would still like to get access again to the 16 grit that I'd seen before.
So, we will see what Staying Power the 30 grit has and how much I recover after a week in the QT66 ... News at 11:00 . . .
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Aug 1, 2018 8:17:45 GMT -5
-- Update --
I forgot that yesterday (Tuesday) is my normal cleanout day, so I did cleanout before Sunrise this morning. Weather radar showed rain coming so I had to go early and fast since the cleanout sink is outdoors. This was preventing me from taking any pictures again, but it's not looking exciting yet anyway.
In the last update I mentioned that I loaded the barrel 85% full with 220 grit, and it rolled for almost 8 days. When the barrel was popped open I was surprised that it was only filled about 50% now. The Blue glass was getting very small and the parallel lines that were molded into the lenses was almost completely ground away. It's a big difference from the first batch of theater glass that I did earlier which seemed much harder. A large reduction of material but the stuff is rounded wonderfully.
Did a 20 minute wash in plain water and filled to the 50% level using 600 SiC without using any plastic beads. I had hoped to have a fuller barrel through the polish process but still want to try this polish without any plastic beads this time.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 29, 2018 7:46:10 GMT -5
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 28, 2018 10:02:59 GMT -5
Fast speed equals fast results but rough tumbling leading to damage/bruising Best for hard stone and First time tumblers to see things happen more quickly
Slow speed equals slower results but more gentle on the contents Best for shells or softer Stones that are easy to bruise or damage
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 27, 2018 6:02:16 GMT -5
I brought home some more glass from some different lighting fixtures, and plan to run this stuff for the next coupla months or so. The last batch ran in Stage-1 Course for 2 months or more. The glass lenses are made of Pyrex which appears to be some very tough stuff. I will not be so concerned about Rounding on this batch and will probably push everything through to polish stages sooner than the last batch.
Got it started this morning and will keep y'all informed . . .
How is the other batch coming along?
- Ali -
I never tried to get a better shine than what I posted last. That glass was hard and it just needed a bit longer in the last coupla stages in the rotary. I'm still really happy with the results and my stagehand coworkers think it is really cool too.
- Update - (sorry, no pictures)
Did a cleanout on the New batch a coupla days ago on Tuesday. Most of the glass had been running stage 1 course for 2 weeks, but some of the clear had only been rolling for just 1 week. It all rounded off much more quickly this time, the glass was softer, or could be that there was less material in the barrels for stage 1. Decided to pass it All through to the polish stages. So now it's rolling in Stage 2 using 220 SiC.
The barrel is about 85% full and I am going to do the polish stages Without using plastic beads this time, just glass and grit.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 27, 2018 5:19:45 GMT -5
I have a Lortone 3A with the same problem, even modified the chassis to get more tension on the belt. Carefully grab the Driveshaft roller and see if you can stop it by hand, that will show you if it is a belt or motor issue. If you think the roller is strong to drive the barrel then you need to rough-up the barrel and make sure the outside surface is not slipping on the driveshaft. On the 3A that was giving me the problem, the trouble is the barrel slipping on the shaft. My fix was to tip the whole tumbler over toward the driveshaft so the weight of the barrel is more On Top of the driving roller. Works great now.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 27, 2018 5:03:22 GMT -5
I was so excited when I got my first tumbler in December 2016, about 19 months ago. After unpacking the machine I went out in the garden and got a buncha random rocks and tumbled them dry just so I could hear & see it working. It was rather loud here in the house too.
But now you're in trouble like I am now, You will never be able to just casually walk past a rock again . . .
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 25, 2018 8:19:48 GMT -5
kk , will you do glass ? I see clown fish in your future ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) I can do that melt MsAli ![https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ0NjUwNjY1OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzYwNTc3Mw@@._V1_SX1777_CR0,0,1777,961_AL_.jpg](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ0NjUwNjY1OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzYwNTc3Mw@@._V1_SX1777_CR0,0,1777,961_AL_.jpg)
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 24, 2018 4:06:54 GMT -5
I have been using some Ungraded SiC in my QT66 for a few months now. I personally ran this grit through some 1/4 inch hardware cloth to remove all of the SiC pebbles that were in it, The big 1/4 and 1/8 inch grit bits take about 3 weeks but they all eventually breakdown. The Large grit pebbles bigger than 1/4 inch form smooth round little nodules and last a very long time in a QT66.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 22, 2018 17:02:39 GMT -5
I think one of those pictures burned a hole in my monitor screen
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 22, 2018 10:42:40 GMT -5
I prefer the taste of the Karo Syrup
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 17, 2018 15:55:01 GMT -5
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 11, 2018 19:15:54 GMT -5
At least you're not a Goat Hoarder !?
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,428
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Post by Wooferhound on Jul 11, 2018 10:34:54 GMT -5
Jamesp was using Diamonds
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