habbie
starting to shine!
Member since February 2011
Posts: 48
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 9:44:33 GMT -5
Post by habbie on Mar 31, 2011 9:44:33 GMT -5
I was looking at different websites the other day and one of them said to use sugar in the pre polish and final polish, said to use equal amount of polish and sugar.
Has anyone ever heard of this?
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 9:51:14 GMT -5
Post by stefan on Mar 31, 2011 9:51:14 GMT -5
DON'T DO IT. Years ago someone had a barrel explode from this. It was a HUGE mess. THe idea of using sugar is to thicken the slurry and prevent the rocks from damaging each other. There are much better (and less messy) ways of doing this. My favorite method is to use plastic pellets. Others will use powdered soap, ceramic, heck I think one of the Jacks (either Yorkshire or Lapidary) uses wallpaper paste flakes.
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 9:57:06 GMT -5
Post by jakesrocks on Mar 31, 2011 9:57:06 GMT -5
In my early days of tumbling I tried the sugar trick. As Stephan said, "DON"T DO IT". The sugar ferments, causing a gas buildup in the barrel. Not only does it cause the lid to blow off, but the mess stinks something awful. I use Borax as a thickener now. Don
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habbie
starting to shine!
Member since February 2011
Posts: 48
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 10:36:41 GMT -5
Post by habbie on Mar 31, 2011 10:36:41 GMT -5
thank you Stefan and Jacksrocks glad I didn't try it, would hate to blow up the place, I have borax and plastic so will stick with them.
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mikew
off to a rocking start
Member since March 2011
Posts: 12
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 20:40:18 GMT -5
Post by mikew on Mar 31, 2011 20:40:18 GMT -5
I've only done three batches so far, but I've used sugar each time in the polish stage. Never got even the slightest amount of gas. The only time I get a gas build up is at stage one. I let the barrel burp on day two. I would think that the only way the sugar would ferment and give off gas would be if there was yeast in with the rocks too. That's not likely to be the case. Maybe this is a case for Myth Busters.
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 20:56:22 GMT -5
Post by gr on Mar 31, 2011 20:56:22 GMT -5
habbie, I use 3 - 4 cups of sawdust in my 12lb barrels to soffen the banging together. Thickens up the mix pretty quick and when you open up it's gone so you don't have to mess with it. Also helps as a grit carrier
gary
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habbie
starting to shine!
Member since February 2011
Posts: 48
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 21:57:33 GMT -5
Post by habbie on Mar 31, 2011 21:57:33 GMT -5
thanks Mikew and Gary I might experiment one of these days, have a friend who has a cedar yard and sugar is cheap right now LOL. If you hear a loud explosion might be the sugar!!
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playin4funami
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since March 2011
Posts: 87
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sugar
Mar 31, 2011 22:32:13 GMT -5
Post by playin4funami on Mar 31, 2011 22:32:13 GMT -5
since wild yeasts abound and are everywhere keeping them out of a batch would be impossible for any type of equipment I have ever seen used in rock tumbling, you would need a sealed room with a positive purified air inlet to change out a barrel. air-lock, whatever you want to call it. I worked for years in ethnol production and keeping wild yeast strains away from the alcohol batches is not only time consuming and expensive, but requires lots of specialized equipment. any way there seems to be so many other cheaper methods, why mess around , unless you like to experiment, and clean.
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sugar
Apr 1, 2011 16:27:50 GMT -5
Post by rockrookie on Apr 1, 2011 16:27:50 GMT -5
i used to uses cornsyrup .. never had a blow up .
but, man is it STICKY , and a waste of money . and no noticable differerence in shine . and did i mention STICKY . --paul
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MikeS
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2009
Posts: 1,081
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sugar
Apr 2, 2011 9:39:50 GMT -5
Post by MikeS on Apr 2, 2011 9:39:50 GMT -5
I never had a blowout, but when I tried it, the slurry set up like glue, made a gooey mess
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emyhro4048
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2007
Posts: 396
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sugar
Apr 4, 2011 20:42:56 GMT -5
Post by emyhro4048 on Apr 4, 2011 20:42:56 GMT -5
I have never used sugar. I use the plastic pellets to cushion the stones. Work's well for me. Ed M.
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