Trylobyte
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 101
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Post by Trylobyte on Oct 29, 2003 15:12:50 GMT -5
I have a large bag of crushed glass (1-2 mm size) that is used as a filtration media, and I'm wondering if it would make a good substitute for the plastic pellets when rolling larger stones.
I'm going through a bunch of red jasper, which is much harder than the glass, and my thought was that during prepolish and polish, the glass would provide a greater surface area against the rocks, and hold more grit against them.
Any thoughts?
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Post by docone31 on Oct 29, 2003 17:25:14 GMT -5
I think it will be smaller than it started. I agree with you in principle. I have never done it that way but I do use the smaller stones for dunnage in my tumbles. Glass is a silicate, so, why not? Sometimes we pay too much for lapidary supplies. Way back when, I was told the pioneers made their own. I use a conventional grinder to make my cabachons. Now with intarsia, I use my faceter for the flat planes, and the grinder to shape the finished stone. To see intarsia, go to Lapidaryjournal.com. They have a tutorial and a shot of what it looks like. I love it. the jaspers make great center pieces, or outer pieces. Opal of course makes the border just right.
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Oct 30, 2003 10:49:08 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure it will do, but you'll want to keep an eye on it as such small fragments won't last too long. One book I read was adamant that each load you tumble should have 30% small media; broken safety glass from car windshields (free!) was what he used.
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Trylobyte
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 101
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Post by Trylobyte on Nov 16, 2003 23:27:20 GMT -5
Follow up.
In the 400 grit (#3 cycle) the crushed glass ended up just grinding down and creating substantial thickening of the slurry. I can't say that I really noticed any difference in the agate/jasper load, so i'm going to bag the glass.
Maybe it has some usefulnes, but I won't waste another load on it...
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Noah
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2003
Posts: 102
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Post by Noah on Nov 17, 2003 0:26:42 GMT -5
Did you use all glass and no pellets?..in theory if you did a half and half mix...it might work better...this is just logic wise though...and i'm not experienced with this yet so i might be talking out of my rear...
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