Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 31, 2018 7:13:46 GMT -5
I have had those two machines for over a year now. They are great fun. The Lortone 3A with the 3 pound barrel is much milder in action. I like to use it for small loads where I don't want to mix different rocks together. Also great for softer material like shells which it does very well. The QT66 with dual 6 pound barrels can be quite aggressive depending on how you fill it. At half full or less, it is a grinding machine, but fill it up over 80% and it will have the same action as the 3A does but on a lot more rocks. I considered getting a 12 pound barrel, but I'm starting to accumulate too many rocks already so I'll stick with the smaller ones. I do have an extra barrel for each machine for the last polish stage. My tumblers are sitting on a couple of layers of foam rubber carpet padding which reduces the noise noticeably. After I took this picture I cleaned it all up considerably . . .
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 30, 2018 6:23:02 GMT -5
Nice Bowls So ... how many bowls of rocks do you have ?
Sometimes I will show a young person my polished rocks and they will pickup a handful and drop them back in the bowl from a foot high. Sure I want them to have fun but don't damage my rocks.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 29, 2018 9:32:10 GMT -5
Do you use any plastic or ceramic media ?
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 29, 2018 9:16:47 GMT -5
I haven't updated in awhile, but it has been more of the same stage 1 grind, repeat as necessary. Gosh these theatrical lenses are hard. On this weeks cleanout I decided to push it all through to the polish stages. Washed it in ivory soap for 2 days cause I was lazy, normally I will only wash a load for just an hour. This morning I rinsed it off and started it in stage 2 using 220 grit. Here are a couple of examples that are about the size of a quarter. Not clear at all but it does almost have some shine to it from the 2 days of washing. Some deep pits can be seen leftover from the course grit.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 28, 2018 18:15:32 GMT -5
Best way to start is to figure out how hard it is. Probably Tough stuff.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 28, 2018 16:43:48 GMT -5
Never open up the barrel and breath in the first air that comes out of it. I'm very interested to see this tumbled. The first piece with the tan top-coat is a more recent color.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 27, 2018 19:41:13 GMT -5
Fossil Road Show & Geology Fest - April 14, Tupelo MS
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 26, 2018 19:57:04 GMT -5
OK I will do a more in-depth overview of Whats In My Batch since this was cleanout day and this is the Photo section afterall. This was a 7 day run with these batches. Here is my Tumbling Operation in the garage on a small shelf sitting on two old computers. I have a great stock of grits with dedicated scoops for each one. This would be the Cleanout Operation about 20 feet away in the backyard. All the rough rocks are under the table. On top are rocks finished with stage 1 plus some tubs of used plastic beads from different grit sizes. The sink has a grit recovery system. This is a freshly opened 3 pound barrel with rocks from the Family Dollar store. I am using bulk-grit from jamesp and some of the larger particles can't breakdown in the small barrel. Here's the rocks after washing and before sorting. This is one of the larger 6 pound barrels that had a lot of the material from the Traveling Rock Box that I had a month ago. The slurry was plenty thick with some stones stuck to the sides. The big grit had broken down almost completely. Here it is washed up and half sorted to rerun course stage or pass on to the polish stages. Finally the barrel is filled with more rough stones to a capacity of about 80% and water halfway up to the top of the rocks. After adding grit and recovered slurry the water level will be more than 3/4 to the top of the rocks. Here is the what the Panama looks like. I chipped it off a much larger piece that alikat218 had put into the Rock Box. A bit of a funny shape and a hard stone. Sent it back to Stage 1. This is the Rock Box material that has been passed on and ready for the Polish stages. The Other 6 pound barrel had rocks and clear glass in it. All of the rocks were set aside, and I added all of the clear and colored glass that had finally passed stage 1 and ready to go on to the polishes. Will do a day of cleaning and then start 220 grit tomorrow.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 26, 2018 14:59:36 GMT -5
Looks like a Seahorse too.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 26, 2018 14:34:27 GMT -5
Got 3 barrels rolling all the time. Right now I have this running . . .
- 6 pounds - Rocks from the Traveling Rock Box. Should be pushing these through to polishing stages today. There are also some rocks in there that I collected in South Carolina last month.
- 6 pounds - Some clear glass lenses from theatrical lighting along with some local self collected rocks . The glass will be added to the colored glass that finished Stage 1 last month and all will start polish stages at todays cleanout.
-3 pounds - This barrel has been rolling rocks from the Family Dollar store in stage 1 for a few months now.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 25, 2018 20:17:38 GMT -5
Another vote for the QT66. I have one. Fast action and 2 barrels. Been doing it a year and the QT66 tumblers make a lot of polished rocks. How many polished rocks do you want ?
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 25, 2018 20:02:26 GMT -5
Good to hear since you have apple and apple Lortone #12's, one at 30 and one at 55. Uhmmm . . . Apple what ?!
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 22, 2018 8:24:40 GMT -5
That looks amazingly like AO 80 is that something I would use in the Gy-Roc Vibrahone B or is it too coarse? AO 80 is fairly course but it breaks down quickly. I don't have a Vibe Tumbler so I can't answer your question.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 21, 2018 21:31:42 GMT -5
That looks amazingly like AO 80
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 21, 2018 11:33:24 GMT -5
The six digit numbers are probably datecodes, like the 339th day of 2006. The rest of it is probably some companies product code. If you think it is for tumbling and it is easy to feel grit, then it might be Aluminum Oxide AO 80 ?
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 21, 2018 10:20:25 GMT -5
Is it course like sand or is it a powder? Where did you get it ?
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 20, 2018 8:01:45 GMT -5
Too Cool Needs more artwork
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 19, 2018 9:33:03 GMT -5
The shaping may not be the greatest, but the shine is pretty amazing, and the photos are really good too. If you don't like them you can always run them through again.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 17, 2018 5:49:51 GMT -5
Doesen't your wife make pendant lamps ? Would be neat to cast some lamps out of art glass or stone . . .
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,431
|
Post by Wooferhound on Mar 17, 2018 5:37:45 GMT -5
Funny you mention this woofer. I was planning on tumbling various minerals and metals to scavenge the slurry for making reactive glass colors. Perhaps rhyolite or andesite glass ? Sure , melting glass is cool But melting your own rocks would give some street-cred
|
|