lilacmoth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2015
Posts: 160
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Post by lilacmoth on May 4, 2015 12:46:29 GMT -5
So I'm finally getting my grid today and we'll be throwing or very first batch of beach finds into our brand spanking new tumbler.
One small question - not *all* rocks have to go through the 60/90 stage though, right? If they're already smooth with no imperfections, they can go straight into a higher stage? Because if so, I could put some rough stuff into one barrel and the smooth ones into the other and hopefully have some shiny rocks in less than a month. 8 year old kids are not to patient! lol
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Post by orrum on May 4, 2015 12:52:12 GMT -5
Best read the tumbling instruction thread in the tumbling section. Rotary tumbling ain't rocket science but there are some standard recipes that you need to follow for increased success and reduced stress!
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Post by broseph82 on May 4, 2015 13:12:49 GMT -5
So I'm finally getting my grid today and we'll be throwing or very first batch of beach finds into our brand spanking new tumbler. One small question - not *all* rocks have to go through the 60/90 stage though, right? If they're already smooth with no imperfections, they can go straight into a higher stage? Because if so, I could put some rough stuff into one barrel and the smooth ones into the other and hopefully have some shiny rocks in less than a month. 8 year old kids are not to patient! lol I would say correct. The 60/90 is used to get out the imperfections. Trial and error
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on May 4, 2015 13:20:41 GMT -5
Hard to tell without pictures but if they are nice and smooth you are probably ok to do that. I still run my smooth beach finds through at least one week of stage one to make sure I have a uniform surface all around the rocks but after a hundred or so batches the extra week does not phase me anymore.
Chuck
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,680
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Post by Fossilman on May 4, 2015 13:33:43 GMT -5
PS: No dumb question on or in this forum-That is how you learn...Thumbs up I guess I run all my rocks through all the grit stages,usually for fill,if not anything else..
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Paul
starting to shine!
Member since April 2015
Posts: 38
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Post by Paul on May 4, 2015 14:19:07 GMT -5
My daughter and I are totally new at this as well (our first batch just finished it's first week) and we took the advice to run our beach tumbled finds through a week of 60/90. It definitely made a noticeable difference. In fact, we started with about 5 lbs of rocks and once we saw how much better the stones would be we only selected a little more than a handful we thought were really ready for stage 2. We're running the rest (plus some more filler) for at least another week in 60/90. For us, we don't have any magnifying equipment but once we could see the grit sitting in the small grooves and pits that we didn't think were there it made it more obvious our stones weren't as smooth as we thought. That was our experience anyway.
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Post by orrum on May 4, 2015 14:24:58 GMT -5
You go Paul!
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Post by captbob on May 4, 2015 14:30:02 GMT -5
Good answer Paul - saved me a bunch of typing!
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lilacmoth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2015
Posts: 160
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Post by lilacmoth on May 4, 2015 20:22:27 GMT -5
Thanks, everyone! We ended up filling both barrels with 60/90 and all our little quartz pebbles are now happily tumbling away. I know you should use agates for a first tumble but I don't have that many. I do have lots of quartz though! But now I'm thinking if it wouldn't be time saving to buy a second tumbler, hmmmm, dedicated barrels too! I think I'm infected and we don't even have any shinies yet.
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megalotis
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since April 2009
Posts: 226
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Post by megalotis on May 5, 2015 14:16:38 GMT -5
That does happen. Doggone it anyway!
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KA7EII
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2014
Posts: 6
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Post by KA7EII on May 9, 2015 17:36:44 GMT -5
My wife and I have three tumblers. Lortone QT6 for coarse grit. This one gets the most use as most of my rough goes through many cycles of 60/90 grit. The Lortone 45C is used for medium grit. One barrel on our Lortone 33B is used for fine and the other barrel is for polish only. Great way to prevent contamination between steps and after you have several pounds of smooth stones ready for medium grit, you will be able to get a batch of polished rocks every couple of weeks or so.
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lilacmoth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2015
Posts: 160
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Post by lilacmoth on May 10, 2015 1:22:09 GMT -5
I've already ordered another two barrels for fine grit and polish. We opened the rough grit barrels and they were such a pain to clean that I just had to get dedicated ones! Even after just one week in the rough grit our little pebbles already look so deliciously smooth and beautiful that I just know we won't stop tumbling anytime soon! We have several shoe boxes full of beach collections just waiting their turn in the barrels and we keep picking more every day, lol.
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Post by Starguy on May 10, 2015 17:19:50 GMT -5
lilacmothLike fossilman said, there are no dumb questions here. I don't have a ton of time to clean out tumblers. My preference is a 12 lb lortone dedicated to 60/90, then a 3lb lortone for fine through polish. The 12 pounder is pretty efficient at coarse grinding. Once I get everything going, the 12 pounder seems to keep enough agates ready that I don't have to wait for a full barrel on the 3 pounder too often. On average I'm turning out a 3 pounder every 3-4 weeks. The hardest part is the first month or so to get enough stones through 60/90. Everybody has a different system. I haven't tried any vibe tumblers so far. It's a fun hobby. Everybody does thing differently with great results. This is a great forum for getting advice. Later Brent
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