Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,557
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Post by Tom on Nov 5, 2013 8:45:09 GMT -5
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Post by orrum on Nov 5, 2013 9:01:02 GMT -5
Looks good for suchva wide range of material. Wanna see them pop, get a saw and polish slabbetts! Woot what a bunch of beautys. I have a 6 inch trim saw but folks on here use a $100 tile saw from harbor frieght or Lowes.
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Nov 5, 2013 10:15:53 GMT -5
You have some nice ones in there. Very interesting and revealing I think. My 2cents, it definitely looks like it is mostly a case of mixing rock hardnesses. The rocks in the "nice polish" batch are almost all nice, hard agates. Some of those rocks in the "poor polish" are of a type/softness that will never take a good shine. Try keeping them in these separate groups and running thru final stages again and see if they don't come out quite a bit better.
Is that a couple pieces of lapis in the 2nd group?
Not bad job. You will get even better though with experience with your new equipment.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 5, 2013 11:21:27 GMT -5
Looking pretty good for such a mixed batch. For better results, you need to sort material by hardness and have more smalls and tinies in the load to increase surface to surface contact in the final stages. Also, some of the softer stones do better with lots of plastic pellets, tinies and maybe a different final polish ( I like tin oxide for softer stuff). For softer stones I often add an extra step too and go 60/90, 110/220, 500, tripoli, then tin oxide. And of course, porous or coarse grained stones will never polish well. The hardness thing is the most important issue though. Harder, tougher stones will create little dings or microfractures in softer stuff spoiling any kind of polish results.....Mel
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Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,557
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Post by Tom on Nov 5, 2013 13:31:47 GMT -5
Thanks guys, I totally agree it was a mixed up lot:) Mel thanks for the comments, actually I did have a bag of smalls and tinies that were in with that load I just put them into a separate bag so I can use them again next time do a polish stage. Next time being last night, damb I forgot to use them, I will add them when I get home. This getting old sucks:)
I am certain this next batch will be better, it was already looking shinier than the first batch after only the pre polish stage. I am excited as I have 22 cabs in this batch, should be 25 but they seem to disapear on me LOL
Thanks
Tom
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Post by pghram on Nov 5, 2013 14:09:07 GMT -5
A lot better than my first batch, just keep learning & improving.
Rich
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
Posts: 878
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Post by grizman on Nov 5, 2013 14:09:14 GMT -5
Hi Tom,
I have found that with the single exception of ONE black rock I have picked up to polish, they all end up with a satin polish at best. Not that that is bad, they just don't look like obsidian as I thought they would. I see you have several in your "poor" polish pile. Also, anything that has an obvious composite look will not take a high polish. I found that sometimes they will turn out with a general satin finish with some of the conglomerate pieces (probably quartz) taking a better shine. If the "cement" is too soft you will get a rough surface due to undercutting. I have some that are very smooth, but very little shine or polish.
Keep playing. I learn with every single batch I do. Right now I am struggling with a batch in my Lortone that just don't want to round out. I have only been running them a month, and some folks run a rough batch for 6+ months! Patience is something you will learn quickly if you play with a tumbler or a Vibe!
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Post by 150FromFundy on Nov 5, 2013 16:35:58 GMT -5
You are off to a good start and your problems may be related to the wide variety of rock in your mixed load. However, let me throw a few more possibilities out there.
It looks like you may be getting a little cross contamination of grit. Are you burnishing between loads? In a UV-10, this will improve your results to ensure that you get all the residual grit out of the bowl, off the lid, and off the rocks and ceramic media. Burnish, burnish, burnish! It can't hurt.
Are you using ceramic media as a cushion? The UV-10 is aggressive and hammers rock upon rock. In the final stages (500F, 1000F and polish), ceramic media will cushion the rocks. You can 30%-50% ceramic media for tough rock, and up to 80%-90% ceramic media for delicate cabochons.
Are you using a dedicated polish bowl? This is critical to prevent cross contamination in the final and most critical polish stage. Most vibe users have a dedicated polish bowl. I know it's an expensive accessory, but it is virtually impossible to get a glass like reflection without a dedicated polish bowl.
Darryl.
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riverrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2010
Posts: 1,395
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Post by riverrock on Nov 5, 2013 17:06:46 GMT -5
Wow That is a real nice mix of rock you have there. Looking forward to seeing more post from you.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Nov 5, 2013 19:24:05 GMT -5
It looks like you took your time with the rough grinding. The rocks all look nicely rounded and there aren't any big cracks or holes. I'm sort of a perfectionist and I don't put anything in the vibe with any noticeable flaws. I do see some small cracks and holes in a couple rocks. I don't know how much of a hole it takes to trap grit, but I don't take chances. I'm never happy with those flawed rocks in the end anyhow.
Another thing you can do to prevent contamination is run each stage longer. Grit breaks down to half size every day. So after 24 hours 220 S.C. becomes 440. After another day, it's 880. I always run each stage for at least two days to make sure everything is broken down enough that it won't contaminate even if it doesn't get washed out. Of course if a piece of grit gets stuck in a hole early on, before it has worn down, and then comes out in the next stage, it still hurts the batch. How long did you run each stage and how much ceramic did you use?
The good news is, you can sort these out and run them all again in groups of the same hardness.
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Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,557
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Post by Tom on Nov 5, 2013 22:22:23 GMT -5
Hi everybody, thanks for the pointers, ok
Mark I am pretty certain that those pieces are Sodalite and not lapis
Mel maybe I will buy some tripoli and try that
Thanks Rich and Grizman and river rock and Orrum
Darryl; I am burnishing between stages, after the 220 I rince well, then put in about 3 table spoons of borax and run for a couple hours then rince again. Then I pretty much fill the bowl with water add some Dawn soap and run for a couple hours
Then I put in pre polish add 1.pound of ceramic, I then burnish and wash the same way
Then I use polish in a SEPARATE barrel and use another pound of different ceramic
I am only using 3 stages in the vibe, 120/220', AO500 prepoloiish then AO1000 polish
Juggler, ya I ran them along time in 80/120. The batch that is in polish now is almost flawless, hope that helps. I run the 120/220 and prepoloiish for at least 48 hours, the polish for 6 days per Bikerrandies instructions. I agree that running longer is smart just to reduce the grit which should help to not cross contaminate.
From what Darryl says it sounds like I better buy a few more pounds of ceramic
I pulled a couple rocks from the polish about an hour ago, looking pretty good. I did notice a small chip on one cab, I don't want this to happen and I ate it more ceramic and less rock is the way to go!
Hope I acknowledged everyone and answered all the questions
Thanks again everyone
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bsky4463
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2013
Posts: 1,696
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Post by bsky4463 on Nov 6, 2013 7:52:39 GMT -5
Tom thanks for the thread and everyone's replies. I am also new to using a UV10 and all these comments have been very helpful. I think your right to go way heavy on the ceramic for the cabs. Looking forward to seeing that batch.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Nov 7, 2013 6:57:43 GMT -5
You have some great rocks in this batch and they look well rounded. The good part about all of this is that you can always take some of them back to 120 and try again. I can't comment about anything specific to the UV10 but in my lot-o I recently ran a load of cabs at a rate of one pound of cabs to three pounds of mixed size ceramics and the only cab that was damaged was a turitella agate that was not very stable to start with.
Thanks for posting your pics! Chuck
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Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,557
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Post by Tom on Nov 7, 2013 9:05:39 GMT -5
Hi Chuck,
Yep I need to order a bunch more ceramics:)
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