esmeraldas
off to a rocking start
Member since September 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by esmeraldas on Oct 18, 2011 21:29:58 GMT -5
Hi,
I was wondering if it is possible to polish spheres in a a Lot O tumbler without altering their shape. The spheres will already be pre polished and every single piece in the tumbler will be round (glass marbles).
I am new at using tumblers and I read that the Vib tumblers do not alter the shape of the stones that much, so if that is the case I think as the spheres will only be going into the tumbler for the polishing stage, the shape should remain the same.
Am I in the right track?
Thanks for your help.
Gustavo.
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unclesoska
freely admits to licking rocks
All those jade boulders tossed in search of gold!
Member since February 2011
Posts: 934
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Post by unclesoska on Oct 18, 2011 21:45:12 GMT -5
Makes sense to me, but I could be wrong. It could be a matter of the Moh's hardness of the spheres vs, glass hardness. What kinda spheres and how large? Photos droolingly welcome! Mike.
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Post by jakesrocks on Oct 18, 2011 22:31:00 GMT -5
Don't see why not. But it would be quicker to polish the spheres on a leather polish pad.
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rockhound97058
freely admits to licking rocks
Thundereggs - Oregons Official State Rock!
Member since January 2006
Posts: 760
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Post by rockhound97058 on Oct 18, 2011 22:38:39 GMT -5
I agree with Don - Polishing spheres with leather and a good polish ( I use Super Cerium - aka. French Cerium). My recent post with the obsidian sphere I finished took a mirror polish in about an hour.
Would be a intersting method using a tumbler - Can't say I've ever heard of it being done - would be curious to see the results.
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Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
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Post by Steve on Oct 18, 2011 23:07:58 GMT -5
I polished one sphere in a rotary tumbler. It had a chunk fall out when I was making it round, so I threw it the tumbler. Skip the course grind and start at 120/220. I packed small partially tumbled agates around the sphere. It polished out fine. A friend, just to see if it could be done, polished a sphere in a tumbler. If you can fit it into a Lot-O I see no reason it wouldn't work. I've also polished partial preforms in the tumbler. My wife liked the shape and asked that I stop cutting. So into the tumbler they went. Since I was dealing with flat sides it took a lot of filler and a long time. Other than a bit of rounding on the sparp edges there was no significient change in shape. Here's the spere that had falling apart issues: home.comcast.net/~sscarbor/steves_spheres/pictures/img_0470.htmlAnd here's a partial preform that was tumble polished: home.comcast.net/~sscarbor/steves_spheres/pictures/img_0456.htmlSteve
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esmeraldas
off to a rocking start
Member since September 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by esmeraldas on Oct 19, 2011 7:11:47 GMT -5
Thank you very much for the information.
I will be polishing emeralds and emeralds on matrix spheres mostly. As I am going to do quite a lot of them I am thinking about using the tumbler as it will save me a lot of time. I am also planning to tumble beads, cabs and free forms.
I hope it will work, going by the way the sphere that was polished in the Lot O tumbler looks, I am feeling confident that it is going to work.
I will let you know how it goes and will send some pics.
Have a great day,
Gustavo.
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Post by johnjsgems on Oct 19, 2011 9:57:40 GMT -5
This is a case where size matters. The spheres have to be able to move in the vibe. You may need a large commercial duty vibe like the 40 lb GyRoc or big Thumler's model.
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esmeraldas
off to a rocking start
Member since September 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by esmeraldas on Oct 19, 2011 17:45:42 GMT -5
The spheres that I will be polishing vary in size, they go from 4 mm up to 20 mm so far. I think I will be able to use the Lot O tumbler with this sizes. I also realized that I will have to have a batch for only emerald spheres and a different batch for pieces with black matrix, pyrite, calcite etc.
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rallyrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2005
Posts: 1,507
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Post by rallyrocks on Oct 19, 2011 18:58:36 GMT -5
I could very well be wrong, but I would expect any attempt at running "emerald in martix" stones of any kind in a tumbler to have undesirable consequences due to undercutting and the high hardness of the emeralds.
YMMV, but I wouldn't want to try it...
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Post by jakesrocks on Oct 19, 2011 20:15:31 GMT -5
I agree with rallyrocks on that one. How are you making your spheres ? Do you have a small sphere machine ? If so you could do what I do to polish small spheres. Wire a piece of thin leather over each cup, and polish with French cerium. Use the leather rough side out, and just a very slow water drip on the sphere. Don
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esmeraldas
off to a rocking start
Member since September 2011
Posts: 4
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Post by esmeraldas on Oct 20, 2011 21:41:44 GMT -5
I have managed to successfully polish the spheres using cups, even when the sphere has black rock, pyrite and emerald. I want to try to polish the spheres in the Lot O, to save time. We will soon find out how it went.
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and advice.
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