rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Sept 16, 2011 23:46:19 GMT -5
I shut down my rock barrels over two years ago, but fired one of them up this summer to tumble some rough glass that I bought last year while on vacation in Oregon. As the grind proceeded I needed to add some snowflake obsidian to keep the barrel filled up. Apart from one blown barrel early on due to gas build up, all was going well until the polish stage. I'd kind of forgotten how to use the sound of the barrel to guide whether to add or remove plastic pellets and although I thought the barrel sounded a bit noisy I'd added a lot of pellets so I just let it run. Sadly, about 2/3 of the stones came out with shiny faces but annoying bruised edges. I couldn't bear the thought of re-tumbling those to clear up the edges, so I took them to the local elementary school last night and scattered them around the playground and bike racks under cover of darkness. The stones pictured below are the ones where the edges didn't bruise -- enough for a small display. -Don The rough came in chunks, so I broke it down into tumbling size with a crack hammer and chisel. I started chiseling it while wearing shorts, but after picking out several pieces of flying glass from my knees, quickly decided long pants were a better option. ;D Here's the finished product: Thanks for looking!
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Post by tntmom on Sept 16, 2011 23:57:50 GMT -5
What you kept looks phenomenal!!!! Bet there will be some super happy kids on Monday ;D
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Post by gr on Sept 17, 2011 0:07:24 GMT -5
I'm not one for the color pink but those are nice and look very good next to the black obsidian. Nicely rounded tumbles with a great shine!
gr
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Post by NatureNut on Sept 17, 2011 8:02:50 GMT -5
Haha... I love that story! Your tumbled glass and Ob batch rocks and so do you! So what are you gonna tumble next? Jo
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Post by rockrookie on Sept 17, 2011 8:07:37 GMT -5
Beautiful batch !! --paul
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Post by tandl on Sept 17, 2011 8:28:45 GMT -5
Werthers ;D Those did come out great , like it mixed with the snowflake
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blessed
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2010
Posts: 329
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Post by blessed on Sept 17, 2011 19:55:24 GMT -5
WOW; I hope mine turns out that good. I am still in course grit. Did you use 1000 grit between pre-polish and polish?
James
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Post by krazydiamond on Sept 17, 2011 20:00:33 GMT -5
glad to see you came out of tumbling retirement, if only for a brief excursion. that batchis lovely, as usual. you haven't lost your touch, for sure.
KD
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Post by Toad on Sept 17, 2011 20:07:18 GMT -5
Too bad you didn't get the finish you wanted. Nice looking batch though.
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Post by Bikerrandy on Sept 17, 2011 20:16:23 GMT -5
Very cool bud, the obsidian is my favorite.
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Sept 17, 2011 21:20:17 GMT -5
Nice tumble,I like the snowflake.
snuffy
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Sept 28, 2011 1:55:43 GMT -5
Thanks all! As for what's next, well I was going to start some Bots rough that I have kicking around but then I realized I still have a bunch of stuff that I'd got through coarse grind a couple years ago but then set aside. So I started a barrel of fine grind 120/220 with a mix of two picture jaspers -- one is Wildhorse Picture Jasper I'm pretty sure, but I don't recall the other variety... it's bluer than Wildhorse but otherwise fairly similar. Pics in a month or so. -Don
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 9, 2011 22:52:37 GMT -5
Very cool looking stuff, Don. Thanks for posting the pics and looking forward to seeing the next batch.
Paul
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mjflinty
spending too much on rocks
Member since September 2011
Posts: 358
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Post by mjflinty on Oct 10, 2011 7:32:34 GMT -5
Yup, those kids are in for a treat! It's like planting Rock Hound seeds!
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Post by rocklicker on Oct 10, 2011 12:42:50 GMT -5
Those pink ones look like candy. Nice batch and good idea keeping obsidian with similar hardnesses. Cool idea scattering them on a playground too! Steve
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Post by frane on Oct 14, 2011 9:54:58 GMT -5
I love this batch! The colors and shine are fantastic! Fran
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