huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Mar 9, 2017 21:26:39 GMT -5
I have really missed the boards and seeing what everyone is up to, and what jamesp is experimenting with now! =) Lots of stuff going on and just haven't even had time to lurk. Over the holidays, I started playing a little with Fordite, and I made some keychains for my team at work. I REALLY enjoy working with that stuff! I had found some awesome chunks of Corvette Fordite on eBay at a great price, and then I found out that a few guys in OH are trying to corner the market on it, and they are asking WAY too much IMHO for their tailings. That's another topic for another time... Here are a few pics of the keychains:
Then I stumbled upon Bowlerite, and that is also REALLY neat to work with.
I like working with those materials because while I have to wait for weeks for my tumbles to process, I can work with this stuff and get more-immediate gratification. Plus, I can work with it using pretty simple stuff, almost like woodworking. I just use my slab saw to rough-cut it, and then start with 80 grit sandpaper and work my way up to 1500. Then I use car polish to get it to the final shine. Turning bowling balls into bowlerite is good fun, too, but MAN what a mess!!!
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Post by melhill1659 on Mar 9, 2017 22:08:48 GMT -5
What is bowlerite? I know I should probably just google it. The key chains are cool!
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napoleonrags
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Member since October 2015
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Post by napoleonrags on Mar 9, 2017 22:18:16 GMT -5
Awesomesauce. Good work. Is Bowlite made from bowling balls's over spray?
Gather no moss, Colin
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vera
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 259
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Post by vera on Mar 9, 2017 23:21:44 GMT -5
I think he is busting up or sawing the bowling balls to get the bowlerite.;-)
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Post by Garage Rocker on Mar 10, 2017 1:14:39 GMT -5
Nice work, Rick. Is that a Ken Onion knife in the first pic?
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Post by tims on Mar 10, 2017 1:48:31 GMT -5
Those are cool. Stopped for a second at "car wax" and had to un-rock my brain before it made perfect sense. Bowlerite, you must share a pic if you have one.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Mar 10, 2017 5:56:05 GMT -5
Nothing that exciting. MORE photos, gotta see your shop bench. Tell it !
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Post by MrP on Mar 10, 2017 6:08:04 GMT -5
What is bowlerite? I know I should probably just google it. The key chains are cool! melhill1659 Bowling balls. I used a skill saw to cut the ball apart then you have to knock the insides out and cut up the outer plastic. Makes a mess to start with but makes nice lightweight pendants and earrings. My wife buys any fancy colored ball she can find cheap at rummage sales or thrift shops. I need the weather to warm up before I cut up anymore. Sorry don't have a pic of the ones I made..............MrP
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Post by melhill1659 on Mar 10, 2017 7:20:28 GMT -5
MrP Thanks for the description. Now ain't that a hoot. You boys will saw anything!
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Mar 10, 2017 9:29:12 GMT -5
What is bowlerite? I know I should probably just google it. The key chains are cool! melhill1659 Bowling balls. I used a skill saw to cut the ball apart then you have to knock the insides out and cut up the outer plastic. Makes a mess to start with but makes nice lightweight pendants and earrings. My wife buys any fancy colored ball she can find cheap at rummage sales or thrift shops. I need the weather to warm up before I cut up anymore. Sorry don't have a pic of the ones I made..............MrP DING DING DING!!!! I used my angle grinder with a cement-cutting blade to cut up the first one I did, and it looked like it snowed in my back yard. Definitely a project for good weather, old clothes and a respirator. Initially, I bought some chunks of bowlerite off from eBay, but then I figured I could probably just buy some old bowlin' balls myself, and so I did. I bought two pink ones, and after getting started I realized that I will have enough material to make about 17,000,000 pieces of something. I also learned that making your own is fun, but only in small doses. It takes a LOT of work to gut/filet a bowling ball. I tried to make sure I didn't waste too much material, so I probably made about 3X the dust I needed to. I think for the next one (I have four more balls out in the garage waiting for a nice day), I will do a lot more rough cutting and maybe not try to be so precise with a Roto-Zip. They are AWESOME tools, but they make a giant mess! If you want to try yourself, I bought the first two off eBay and paid more in shipping than for the balls. Then I swung by a Goodwill here in town and got two for $7 each. Admittedly, they aren't as cool as some that are on eBay, but $7 vs. $50 means I can get some cheap thrills. I think a Sawzall would probably be a little less mess since you have a much thinner blade. I don't have one, but I can give my jigsaw a shot and just take my time. I will have a BUNCH of this stuff if anyone wants to play. I have two shades of hot pink, some marbled grey and I *think* a marbled navy blue. I'll post some pics when I get more of the rough cut up and can put together some boxes.
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napoleonrags
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Post by napoleonrags on Mar 10, 2017 9:53:53 GMT -5
Do you tumble them in the normal fashion?
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 10, 2017 10:58:02 GMT -5
Welcome back! The Fordite and Bowlerite are looking great!!!! NICE!!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 10, 2017 12:58:37 GMT -5
Cool Pieces. If you have any ZAM polish you might want to give it a try on a muslin buff. I use that as final polish on both of those materials with good results. I think I have that same Gerber knife. Does it have a belt clip on the other side?
Chuck
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Mar 11, 2017 21:22:31 GMT -5
Do you tumble them in the normal fashion? napoleonrags , I have thrown a few pieces in the Lot-O for grins to see how it comes out, and it wasn't pretty. The Fordite came out *OK*, but the Bowlerite doesn't typically fare very well with the rocks and ceramics. I just rough cut it on my slab saw and then shape it with sandpaper. It's pretty rudimentary, at least how I do it, that's kinda why I like it. For the keychains, I take it through 60/80 grit sandpaper, then up through 100/120/150/220/320/400/600/800/1500 with the last five being wet-sanded. Since the keychains will likely get abused, I put a couple coats of Krylon clear on them out of a rattle-can and then sand/polish that as well. I wear a cheapo dust mask when I sand, just because with Fordite, Lord knows what you're inhaling with that dust, especially on older stuff. I don't make a ton of dust, but plenty-nough that I feel better with a modicum of protection. Then I use car polish (I have three grades of that as well) and car wax on them. The Fordite pieces probably took about 8 hours or so each, but much of that was just learning how to work with the stuff and having to re-do multiple steps in the process to get all of the scratches out of it. @drummond Island Rocks, Chuck, I will take ANY advice I can get on working with that and making it look good. God is in the details on that stuff, and if I can knock a few stages out of the process and/or make it polish out better, I certainly wouldn't complain. With the bowlerite especially, I am finding that when I look at it through a loupe, I am leaving plenty of scratches in it, even with polish. I would guess that the Zam would probably fix that. For anyone who does woodworking at all, you probably have most of the tools you would need to work with either already. The diamond saw is REALLY nice for cutting them both down because the mineral oil grabs the dust, and it goes through it like a hot knife through butter. After that, if you have sandpaper, you can make some pretty nice stuff just with that.
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Post by MrP on Mar 11, 2017 22:01:03 GMT -5
napoleonrags I took my bowlerite to 600 on the wheels then 500AO in the UV10 with mostly ceramics . Took a while in the UV but they came out nice. I did find that there were pinholes in part of the ball which kind of surprised me..............................MrP
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Mar 13, 2017 15:12:31 GMT -5
napoleonrags I took my bowlerite to 600 on the wheels then 500AO in the UV10 with mostly ceramics . Took a while in the UV but they came out nice. I did find that there were pinholes in part of the ball which kind of surprised me..............................MrP That's exactly what I saw as well. I took some that I had hand-sanded to 1500 and put it in with polish, if memory serves, and it had pinholes as well.
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metalsmith
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Post by metalsmith on Mar 13, 2017 17:01:33 GMT -5
I looked into Bowlerite some time back. A UK seller here seemed to promote the idea that only old bowling balls were bowlerite; this doesn't seem to feature in any of the information material on this thre/ad. Is there anything to steer towards or keep clear from?
Just spent up for this month anyhow (existing commitments excepting)... bowlerite will have to wait a while.
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