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Post by Starguy on Jun 19, 2023 20:00:01 GMT -5
There are a lot of darkish rocks in this batch. The polish is a little better than average. It would be hard to find a towel uglier than this one. Some glass cutter Brazilian slabs Bots and LSAs. The small LSAs in the back and right are what I’ve been using instead of ceramics. Alimajos and maybe Bots? The unknown ones have a lot of micro-fractures. I may have pushed it through the saw too fast. My favorites under different light and flipped once. The best one in the batch. Teepee from my friend jasoninsdThis is a complicated post for me. I hope it works. Sorry for typos and poor photography. Thanks for looking.
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dillonf
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Post by dillonf on Jun 19, 2023 20:07:11 GMT -5
Looks amazing!
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chris1956
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Post by chris1956 on Jun 19, 2023 20:10:25 GMT -5
Fantastic polish! No disagreement on the favorite one.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jun 19, 2023 20:22:55 GMT -5
Brent, your tumbling and polish is so amazing...all the time! I have my own bias with regards to "which one" is my favorite...but if I'm being honest, they are all tied for the top spot!!
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Post by Son Of Beach on Jun 19, 2023 20:25:09 GMT -5
Mr. Consistency strikes again.
Digging the fingerprint stones and the orange towel...was my go-to backdrop for a while lol
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Post by jasoninsd on Jun 19, 2023 20:28:08 GMT -5
Mr. Consistency strikes again. Digging the fingerprint stones and the orange towel...was my go-to backdrop for a while lol I was going to let the orange towel go... LOL
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Post by Starguy on Jun 19, 2023 20:50:39 GMT -5
Thanks. It was a fun batch to watch the progress. Fantastic polish! No disagreement on the favorite one. Thanks. Rocks from friends always beat eBay rocks. Rock shop rocks are usually pretty special too. Brent, your tumbling and polish is so amazing...all the time! I have my own bias with regards to "which one" is my favorite...but if I'm being honest, they are all tied for the top spot!! Thanks Jason. I used a different camera, (iPhone). The pictures are pretty big, but you can zoom on them. I’m trying to up my photography a little. Your cab pictures kind of inspired that. Mr. Consistency strikes again. Digging the fingerprint stones and the orange towel...was my go-to backdrop for a while lol Thanks Chad. I didn’t even notice they looked like finger prints. LOL, didn’t intend to knock-off your back drop. Mr. Consistency strikes again. Digging the fingerprint stones and the orange towel...was my go-to backdrop for a while lol I was going to let the orange towel go... LOL Wait? Didn’t you send me that orange towel to improve my photography?
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Post by jasoninsd on Jun 19, 2023 20:57:59 GMT -5
Thanks. It was a fun batch to watch the progress. Fantastic polish! No disagreement on the favorite one. Thanks. Rocks from friends always beat eBay rocks. Rock shop rocks are usually pretty special too. Brent, your tumbling and polish is so amazing...all the time! I have my own bias with regards to "which one" is my favorite...but if I'm being honest, they are all tied for the top spot!! Thanks Jason. I used a different camera, (iPhone). The pictures are pretty big, but you can zoom on them. I’m trying to up my photography a little. Your cab pictures kind of inspired that. Mr. Consistency strikes again. Digging the fingerprint stones and the orange towel...was my go-to backdrop for a while lol Thanks Chad. I didn’t even notice they looked like finger prints. LOL, didn’t intend to knock-off your back drop. I was going to let the orange towel go... LOL Wait? Didn’t you send me that orange towel to improve my photography? I didn't think those pics were taken with your iPad! They came out really really well!! If I would've sent you a towel, it would have been a dirty white one! LOL
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Post by Starguy on Jun 19, 2023 21:26:04 GMT -5
jasoninsd. How did you like the light box? It’s a plastic tub for dishwasher tabs. I want to get some more (clean) ones and paint the insides different colors.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jun 19, 2023 21:40:35 GMT -5
jasoninsd . How did you like the light box? It’s a plastic tub for dishwasher tabs. I want to get some more (clean) ones and paint the insides different colors. I think that came out genius!! When I used a white background in my lightbox, I can't keep it from washing out the colors. Yours doesn't look like it washed out. The different colors would be cool! I found my "best" pics seem to turn out when I have a "gray" background (it's a piece of felt).
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jun 19, 2023 22:24:31 GMT -5
Beautiful stones, Brent! There's nothing wrong with your pictures. I think they're great.
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Post by Starguy on Jun 19, 2023 23:15:28 GMT -5
Beautiful stones, Brent! There's nothing wrong with your pictures. I think they're great. Thanks Robin. You know how it is. A picture may be worth 1,000 words but it’s rarely as good as the real thing.
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rocknewb101
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 20, 2023 7:34:44 GMT -5
Beautiful polish and rounding. Your finals are always spot on.
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Post by Starguy on Jun 20, 2023 9:18:37 GMT -5
Beautiful polish and rounding. Your finals are always spot on. Thanks Peta. It was a fun batch.
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rocknewb101
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 20, 2023 9:48:39 GMT -5
Beautiful polish and rounding. Your finals are always spot on. Thanks Peta. It was a fun batch. Starguy - you mentioned you don't have a vibe - this polish is all from rotary? Makes it double-amazing
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Post by Starguy on Jun 20, 2023 10:21:31 GMT -5
rocknewb101It’s funny. I was running low on polish so I put in half my usual amount. The polish turned out better than my average. Agates are almost too easy to polish. I’m developing a theory that the polish isn’t abrading the rocks, just allowing them to rub against each other without doing too much damage. I’ve done two rotary coarse batches where I forgot to add the coarse grit. The rocks in the gritless batches turned out polished. There were a couple quartzies in this batch that got pretty beat up. They went back to coarse. I don’t know why I don’t toss quartzies earlier.
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rocknewb101
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 20, 2023 10:54:50 GMT -5
interesting!! I wonder what polished the rocks without grit - I've seen that the grit just breaks down more and more if you let it go, but without grit...I guess the rocks make their own - that makes sense as I talk it out lol...I love love love quartz when it works out - but more often than not i struggle with it. I did send some back that were in a barrel that blew a hole in the lid - they were banging on each other, no liquid. ugh.
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Post by Starguy on Jun 21, 2023 12:13:13 GMT -5
interesting!! I wonder what polished the rocks without grit - I've seen that the grit just breaks down more and more if you let it go, but without grit...I guess the rocks make their own - that makes sense as I talk it out lol...I love love love quartz when it works out - but more often than not i struggle with it. I did send some back that were in a barrel that blew a hole in the lid - they were banging on each other, no liquid. ugh. My theory is that the rocks being tumbled are actually doing a large part of the polishing. In my pea-brain, the polish is acting as a very thin spacer between rocks. The polish lets the rocks come into contact enough to let them shine each other but spreads the weight at higher loading to prevent microscopic scratching/gouging of the surface. It’s only a theory but it’s based on quite a few finished 3 lb batches. Last year the 33b polished 11 batches. If you figure an average of 2-3 polished three pound barrels per year over 30 years, we’ll, you get the idea. The theory started because I was wondering why the polish is better when all of the rocks are the same hardness/type of material. It seems if it was strictly abrasive action, all rocks in a batch should have roughly the same polish regardless of their hardness and durability. You and ashley among others are running vibratory tumblers. I’d be interested to know if you think this is the same in the vibes. In general, it looks like a gentler action in a vibe compared to what I imagine is going on in a rotary.
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rocknewb101
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Post by rocknewb101 on Jun 21, 2023 13:41:12 GMT -5
Starguy - I'm not sure I've ever really noticed. The only softer rock I usually tumble with the agates/jaspers is obsidian. I pull it when it's shaped nicely, and then it seems to do quite well in the vibe. My last batch, one of the few that wasn't polish stained/cracked was a piece of obsidian. Polished up quite nicely. I would agree the action is gentler, as long as the tumbler is working as it should.
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Post by Starguy on Jun 21, 2023 13:53:44 GMT -5
rocknewb101 I think I was tumbling agate and rhyolite together for a while. It seemed like neither polished well combined but both did well when separated. That made me think that the rocks themselves must be contributing to the polish. The couple times I ran coarse batches and forgot the grit kind of reinforced that thought. I’m wondering if Rick gemfeller has any thoughts about this topic.
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