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Post by deb193 on May 11, 2007 14:50:19 GMT -5
Our local club is discussing a kid's mini mine for the local show. What is the sand generally salted with? Small screen tumble rough? Bits of crystal and mineral? Anyone have a good source for small 1/4 to 3/8 in gemstones, crystals, or fossils in bulk?
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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 May 11, 2007 15:08:21 GMT -5
Daniel: We have that game in our club show kiddie booth and it's very popular. We salt the sandbox with mini-tumbles, tiny turquoise nuggets or other pretty copper ores, tiny crystals ( garnets, pyrite, quartz etc) and small sharksteeth. My wife tells me the sharks teeth are the single most popular item followed by the clear tumbled stones like clear quartz, ammey,peridot, garnet etc. She says it's funny but the fancy colored tumbles like jasper, agate etc are not as popular as plain white or clear pieces. Most our material is donated by members ( I turn out maybe 20# of tiny tumbles every year as tumbler filler) but some of the stuff like sharksteeth when we run our of local teeth, comes from E-Bay or Quartzite sources....Mel
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Post by catmandewe on May 11, 2007 15:21:01 GMT -5
When is the show? I would be willing to tumble up some small stuff and send to ya, I am sure others would too.
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Post by deb193 on May 11, 2007 15:30:05 GMT -5
I think I can do the small polished stuff. Getting the small screen crush of identifiable material is the trick. Shark's teeth are a great idea. We have so many mineral hounds in our club, that I know they are going to want more than lapidary material. I figure I can break up some mica, and some calcite crystals. Coppor ore would keep them happy. So would florite. I need to think about where to get some of that. Fire mountian sells chips: www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?pn=H206038NBIf we got 50 packs, it would go down to about 50 cents an ounce. What size screen is best? Should we use hand screens or build a shoot to dump the scoops onto? Should we have them scoop, or make up salted bags? I wish I had paid more attention to mini-mines at outer shows, but I just walked past looking for slabs. Also, how much stuff should be in the scoop/bag? about 2oz? 1oz? We will have between 300-600 poeple based on last years attendance, about 2/5 kids. Any thoughts on how many to prepare for? if it was free, but one per customer? if it was 50 cents?
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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 May 11, 2007 17:18:35 GMT -5
Daniel: This is how the sand sifting mine works at our show. It's a pretty good income generator for us and it's amazing how many adults are lined up for the game too. I suppose you could let them do it free but we have a separate "Treasure Chest " for the free rocks when the kids enter the show. At the sand sifting, for fifty cents they get to take six scoops of sand in a half cup scoop which they place into a sieve which of course, must have mesh coarse enough to let the sand run through ( I know this sounds stupid but last year some of the sand was too coarse for the sieve. Duh!). The kids then sift the sand and they get to choose six specimens from the sieve. We have little plastic bags for their finds and an identification board so they can look up what they've found. Rest of the items go back into the sandbox as it's heavily salted and way more than six items are in six scoops. Just leave the leftover specimens in for the next year. Kids and grown ups actually stand in line for this for most of the entire show *S*....mel
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Post by deb193 on May 11, 2007 20:41:53 GMT -5
Thanks Mel. I will pass this on.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on May 12, 2007 0:52:29 GMT -5
if you ever need a cheap source for education fossils, I'm it. I supply about a half million every year for gem mines, fossil kit makers, etc. Heck, maybe I'll trade you for some nice tumbling rough
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