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Post by HankRocks on Feb 17, 2017 14:44:11 GMT -5
For the past 3 or 4 months I have been adding about 2 cups of dried tumble slurry to both the 46/70SiC and the 220 SiC stages in the 15lb Rotary. After 10 - 11 days in the 220 I go to soap for 3 hours and then to the Vib Tumbler for Polish, skipping the 600SiC altogether. It occurs to me that the tumble slurry does have very fine SiC in it, maybe ultra-fine and that is probably helping the 220 stage get to a nice pre-polish condition. The 220 will break down almost in half every 2-3 days as I remember reading out here so that means after 10 days it's between 800 - 1000, joining the ultra-fine from the tumble slurry.
Wonder how fine the SiC can go to? May have to ponder that further this afternoon around beer-thirty.
H
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Post by adam on Feb 17, 2017 14:49:20 GMT -5
Eh, I supposed the SiC can go to the stars. Would there be a limit as to how fine the grit can become?
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Post by captbob on Feb 17, 2017 14:52:23 GMT -5
Might add another beer or two to your pondering and think on this -
If left to run, would SiC break down enough to polish the rocks? Talking full on polish.
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Post by HankRocks on Feb 17, 2017 15:31:53 GMT -5
Because SiC breaks into smaller sharp edged particles, it would not be as effective Aluminum Oxide which apparently breaks down into rounded particles. Of course it does seem as SiC broke down it would be capable of producing at least a dull shine. As I speculated earlier, using the tumbler slurry is producing a super charged pre-polish mix.
As tempted as I am to try the AlO 80 method, my current method is working. "If it's not broke, don't fix it". That and since I am using the SiC 80, 220 and 600 in the Vib-Lap will just keep buying the same grit. Maybe when I get my garage in better order will try the AlO, of course Satan may be ice-skating at that point.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,424
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Post by Wooferhound on Feb 17, 2017 15:32:53 GMT -5
Has anyone run a barrel for 5 weeks without opening it
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Post by HankRocks on Feb 17, 2017 15:38:22 GMT -5
The only problem is that a lot of us don't have the patience, we want to get the rocks down the road to polish. Waiting 10 days instead of 7 already seems like an eternity. It is probably a good idea to see what happens and I would guess that someone in this group has tried it.
H
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Post by captbob on Feb 17, 2017 15:41:23 GMT -5
Has anyone run a barrel for 5 weeks without opening it YUP. Guilty. Don't care and the rocks certainly don't care.
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ChicagoDave
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2016
Posts: 720
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Post by ChicagoDave on Feb 17, 2017 15:44:25 GMT -5
I thought I read orrum say he ran his barrels for many months unopened.
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Post by captbob on Feb 17, 2017 16:54:16 GMT -5
Might add another beer or two to your pondering and think on this - If left to run, would SiC break down enough to polish the rocks? Talking full on polish. Was just out running errands and got to thinking about this. I had left a barrel of Stone canyon charged with 60/90 running undisturbed for a couple/few months. When I got around to checking on it, I noticed that the rocks looked pretty close to polished. But, they were not shaped as I wanted due to the grit having broken down so far and no longer grinding. Just threw more 60/90 in the barrel and went on my way. Didn't inspect the rocks super closely as I was just going to continue the coarse grit grind, but they were shiny. Maybe not full on polish shine, but enough that it got me thinking that coarse grit - given enough time - could polish rocks. May have to do that again in a more closely monitored experiment when I have a barrel not doing anything for half a year. Coarse grit to desired shape then leave it run for a few months. Just to see if it would work. Not that I would recommend that method of polishing rocks - ever.
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Post by orrum on Feb 17, 2017 17:14:55 GMT -5
Tony/catmandew on here let's the huge barrel he has roll for months and got a straight to polish in a vibe. They r very nice when he finishes.
I let mine roll at least 2 months, sometimes I wonder if they grind themselves down once the grit is gone. I am like Capt/Bob in that slow and steady goes a long ways without brea king a sweat! LOL
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Post by MrP on Feb 17, 2017 17:23:59 GMT -5
Might add another beer or two to your pondering and think on this - If left to run, would SiC break down enough to polish the rocks? Talking full on polish. Was just out running errands and got to thinking about this. I had left a barrel of Stone canyon charged with 60/90 running undisturbed for a couple/few months. When I got around to checking on it, I noticed that the rocks looked pretty close to polished. But, they were not shaped as I wanted due to the grit having broken down so far and no longer grinding. Just threw more 60/90 in the barrel and went on my way. Didn't inspect the rocks super closely as I was just going to continue the coarse grit grind, but they were shiny. Maybe not full on polish shine, but enough that it got me thinking that coarse grit - given enough time - could polish rocks. May have to do that again in a more closely monitored experiment when I have a barrel not doing anything for half a year. Coarse grit to desired shape then leave it run for a few months. Just to see if it would work. Not that I would recommend that method of polishing rocks - ever. captbob I think that some of the sellers of the colored polished rocks that you find in tourist traps just use sand and tumble for a long time. I have noticed that there is a great variation in the quality of polish on those rocks. I have felt some that a person would think would take a great shine but they do not have that slick feeling to them. I read about one person that had a large, cement type mixer, that he ran dry, no water, for long periods of time. With the colored rocks I am not sure how or at what point they do the coloring. Most young children know nothing about quality only that it appears shiny.....................................MrP
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rastageezer
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 169
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Post by rastageezer on Feb 17, 2017 20:32:20 GMT -5
rotary tumbling the rocks until they are nicely rounded and without flaws (I use 46/70 SIC) and then shifting to the loto vibe with the 80 grit AO (1/2 tbs + 1 tbs borax) for 4 days works wonders. Then off to polish for a couple of days. Try it, you'll like the result.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Feb 17, 2017 20:47:26 GMT -5
Tony/catmandew on here let's the huge barrel he has roll for months and got a straight to polish in a vibe. They r very nice when he finishes. I let mine roll at least 2 months, sometimes I wonder if they grind themselves down once the grit is gone. I am like Capt/Bob in that slow and steady goes a long ways without brea king a sweat! LOL I was curious about what would happen without grit and ran a barrel with just rocks and water for three weeks weighing them every week and did observe consistent weight loss. It was substantially slower than the barrels with grit.
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
Posts: 878
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Post by grizman on Feb 17, 2017 23:16:31 GMT -5
For what it's worth, I had something of interest happen to me. I had about 1/2 load of very rough rock that I wanted to round up for final polishing down the road. Rather than take the time to sort some similar rock to add to the half load for my 12# rotary I noted that I had a bunch of pretty well worn medium ceramics that I had put in a can as I sorted them out. I must have dumped 3 full cups + of the medium sized ceramics into the half full 12# barrel along with the 36-70 grit.
I let it run for 7 days and opened it up to find that the grit was all gone, the rocks had some good rounding on the edges, AND they looked like they had a full polish when I rinsed them off. Yes, I know wet rocks will look polished, but these were also as smooth as glass. They were not actually polished, but could have gone right to a polish stage.
I have to assume that the large amount of ceramics with the 36-70 grit was able to complete the pre-polish. There were a few that were actually ready for a polish, but most of them still needed some pits, chips, flaws and odd edges further removed. I am anxious to see if it is possible to go from a coarse grit in 7 days, direct to a polish in the vibe with the use of LOTS of ceramics? I have never seen this happen before...but I have never filled a barrel 1/2 full with ceramics before either! I guess we learn new stuff with each mistake or experiment.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Feb 18, 2017 10:40:42 GMT -5
Tony/catmandew on here let's the huge barrel he has roll for months and got a straight to polish in a vibe. They r very nice when he finishes. I let mine roll at least 2 months, sometimes I wonder if they grind themselves down once the grit is gone. I am like Capt/Bob in that slow and steady goes a long ways without brea king a sweat! LOL I was curious about what would happen without grit and ran a barrel with just rocks and water for three weeks weighing them every week and did observe consistent weight loss. It was substantially slower than the barrels with grit. How much was the rate of weight loss without any grit compared to the coarse grit? Like 10 or 20%? Interesting that you found that the rocks can basically shape themselves slowly in the tumbler without grit.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,175
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Post by jamesp on Feb 24, 2017 17:24:06 GMT -5
39don runs SiC 80 in a Vibrasonic vibe for 8 days, then goes to polish in a Vibrasonic. I have tumbled with SiC 30 in coarse for 3 weeks at a fast 55 RPM with Georgia red clay slurry and got a fine polish in the vibe using AO 14,000. But Georgia red clay has a lot of aluminum oxide in it naturally and may have helped with the polish base. Keep in mind, large grit breaks down faster than small grit particles. That is why you can use 14,000 polish over and over and not large grits like 30 to 1000. The smaller it gets the harder it is to break.
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scottyh
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2007
Posts: 181
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Post by scottyh on Feb 24, 2017 18:17:10 GMT -5
I see no problem with re-using slurry. Two points of caution, 1)if you are using the slurry during 220 and finer stages you really need to make sure/be confident that there are no larger grit particles left in the slurry and, 2) I would only really try to do this in larger tumbler barrels (just my personal opinion formed with experience with my own equipment. You can if you have patience, take rounded prepared agate and (that is ready to move to 220) and load up the barrel with slurry and 80 grit and then let it run for 2-3 weeks and then go straight to tin oxide and get a really good finish (competition grade). I have done this on a few occasions in 14-50lb barrels when I have run out of 220 grit and really want to shift a load.
Cheers Scott
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