jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 1, 2015 16:41:02 GMT -5
I hunt coral from a boat. This batch was chipped out of coral right on the rivers on a rock bar sitting in a chair with a lap board. There was a lot of waste because they had to meet certain criteria. No fractures, good tumbling shape, no pre-grinding required, somewhat pendant shape, thin and light weight, decent color, some to qualify for heat treatment, plenty translucent, some bi-tones and good markings. They rolled for a long time in a rotary, nothing fancy, and only polish was done in the vibe with sugar and no filler. Found no chipping or bruising on the sharp edges. I suppose they made the shine club the whole 14 pounds Back lit with big sodium vapor bulb I made a mistake by not saving the extremely thin chips. They tumbled fine. The coral is able to be tumbled very thin. The markings in it are more visible when thin and display translucence better: Some of the shapes that were sought after. Being stored for future jewelry smithing www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157651102059731
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Post by snowmom on Mar 1, 2015 16:45:10 GMT -5
so beautiful! Interesting how varied it is, just so many forms, colors, combinations. sigh. lovely!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 1, 2015 16:51:33 GMT -5
so beautiful! Interesting how varied it is, just so many forms, colors, combinations. sigh. lovely! Me or the coral ?
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Post by snowmom on Mar 1, 2015 16:54:07 GMT -5
YES! LOL
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Post by Pat on Mar 1, 2015 17:17:28 GMT -5
Beautiful backlit! Hmmmm, we'd like to see YOU backlit!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 1, 2015 19:16:59 GMT -5
Beautiful backlit! Hmmmm, we'd like to see YOU backlit! Better off with the coral Pat.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,681
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 1, 2015 19:40:11 GMT -5
Holy Molly! Nice.......
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,341
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Post by quartz on Mar 2, 2015 0:36:21 GMT -5
Shine club; you're in. Well done.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 2, 2015 0:45:05 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments.
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Post by iant on Mar 2, 2015 11:38:28 GMT -5
Super! I like the golf ball pattern on one in 4th picture. White lower left of centre! All are spectacular though. You are getting on very well with that vibe!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 2, 2015 12:29:15 GMT -5
Super! I like the golf ball pattern on one in 4th picture. White lower left of centre! All are spectacular though. You are getting on very well with that vibe! To get a wet shine on the coral it had to roll about two weeks in the rotary. In the vibe about a day and a half. And the polish was still not as good. 14 pounds in the rotary-14 cups of sugar and a heavy dose of polish. 14 days 14 pounds in the vibe-2 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of polish. 2 days Clean outs and inspections easier w/the vibe. The vibe does eat electricity. No comparison Ian. I have been roughing with chunks of grinding wheels. Funny, the more broken up chunks of grinding wheels the faster the grind. I am running 5 cups of grinding wheel chunks with 16 pounds of rock and getting much faster grind rates. And always have rounded chunks of grinding wheels left over. If 5 cups of loose grit were used it would likely not distribute and paste to the barrel. Never had luck overdosing w/loose grit. Will miss those grinding wheels when they are used up. It would be a great manufactured product if they would sell fused SiC 60 in 1/2-3/4 inch balls or cylinders. They may exist. Maybe casting SiC in epoxy or cement would get it done. Portland is wicked strong. We could cast them in your wife's ice cube trays
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Post by fantastic5 on Mar 2, 2015 13:23:10 GMT -5
We could cast them in your wife's ice cube trays [/quote] Or you could go to the Goodwill or Dollar Tree ...just say'in
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 2, 2015 14:04:07 GMT -5
We could cast them in your wife's ice cube trays Or you could go to the Goodwill or Dollar Tree ...just say'in [/quote] I was trying to find out who wears the pants at the Scottish castle. And trying to get iant in trouble. More accurately, checking if the other gender wears the pants in Scotland too. Those fused or bonded SiC wheels have to be strongly bonded. The repercussions of them coming apart on a 3600 RPM grinder are serious injury. Not sure what it would take to keep those things together in a tumbler. I would say that Mid South has 2-3 tons of AO wheels. They work fine on soft stuff. But useless on agate. Making 'media' out of concrete makes sense, but concrete can be strong, and a pain to work with. And very alkaline. I have tumbled it and the ammonia will burn your eyes and the slurry will cook your hands. Some of it when properly mixed and well aged tumbles slow, which would be a good thing. They do imbed it in white porcelain ceramic. But the ceramic wears too slow I believe. I have no idea how they fuse that stuff in a grinding wheel, but there is no cement or bonding compound visible. Maybe making kaolin clay balls with it and firing it in a furnace. SiC mud ball media LOL Look up the chemical ingredients of kaolin sometime. From what I can tell it has a high aluminum silicate/oxide percentage.
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Post by iant on Mar 3, 2015 2:41:13 GMT -5
We could cast them in your wife's ice cube trays Or you could go to the Goodwill or Dollar Tree ...just say'in I was trying to find out who wears the pants at the Scottish castle. And trying to get iantiant in trouble. More accurately, checking if the other gender wears the pants in Scotland too. Those fused or bonded SiC wheels have to be strongly bonded. The repercussions of them coming apart on a 3600 RPM grinder are serious injury. Not sure what it would take to keep those things together in a tumbler. I would say that Mid South has 2-3 tons of AO wheels. They work fine on soft stuff. But useless on agate. Making 'media' out of concrete makes sense, but concrete can be strong, and a pain to work with. And very alkaline. I have tumbled it and the ammonia will burn your eyes and the slurry will cook your hands. Some of it when properly mixed and well aged tumbles slow, which would be a good thing. They do imbed it in white porcelain ceramic. But the ceramic wears too slow I believe. I have no idea how they fuse that stuff in a grinding wheel, but there is no cement or bonding compound visible. Maybe making kaolin clay balls with it and firing it in a furnace. SiC mud ball media LOL Look up the chemical ingredients of kaolin sometime. From what I can tell it has a high aluminum silicate/oxide percentage. [/quote] Looks like I'll have to borrow a couple of cups of sugar off the boss for my next vibe run!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 3, 2015 3:48:32 GMT -5
Sugar a bit of a moot subject at James household iant.
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matt2432
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2014
Posts: 171
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Post by matt2432 on Mar 12, 2015 17:31:48 GMT -5
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Mar 12, 2015 17:57:30 GMT -5
Looks like you found the dope matt2432. The wheels are sure enough bonded 60 grit SiC, or close to 60 grit size. I figured it was some kind of heat + chemical + electrical process. It works. It takes a good shot with a 3 pound sledge to break them up. "Reaction-bonded silicon carbide (RBSC) is produced from a finely divided, intimate mixture of silicon carbide and carbon. Pieces formed from this mixture are exposed to liquid or vapour silicon at high temperature. The silicon reacts with the carbon to form additional silicon carbide, which bonds the original particles together. Silicon also fills any residual open pores."
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