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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 19, 2017 13:58:48 GMT -5
I have posted pictures of how shiny some of my batches are after 500 in the loto in the past but here is a refresher. I just ran these this week. recipe for the rocks in the photos 46-70 as long as needed 120-220 2 days 500 A/O 5 days So after 46/70 these ran 7 days which is the exact time frame as my normal procedure just one or two less clean outs. A loto clean out from start to finish takes about 5-10 minutes. agates and jaspers may do fine in this scenario but the 3 step is just not for me. I run too many mixed hardness batches and I will always be left wondering if a batch could have been better if I followed the tried and true grit cycle. I do remember back a few years ago when I was rotary tumbling and would have loved it if batches looked like this after a week of 120/220, a week 500 and a week of polish. Chuck
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Post by wigglinrocks on Mar 19, 2017 18:24:29 GMT -5
I am sure liking all these 3 step choices .
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 19, 2017 18:54:14 GMT -5
I am sure liking all these 3 step choices . The one thing they have in common is that just like jamesp I would only recommend it on mohs 7 and up rocks. Rocks of that hardness break the grit down better and take a shine without much effort. Chuck
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Post by wigglinrocks on Mar 19, 2017 19:01:06 GMT -5
I have the AO 80 and will give this a try in a month or so . Been a long winter not hearing tumblers running . Will definitely have an indoor clean out set up next winter .
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 20, 2017 9:13:27 GMT -5
In my small mind I must say that all beginners should start out with Mohs 7 rocks. Many a pro tumbler has been very frustrated with tumbling soft stuff. i may not be a pro but have fair experience and soft rocks are a pain to tumble.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 20, 2017 9:30:52 GMT -5
In my small mind I must say that all beginners should start out with Mohs 7 rocks. Many a pro tumbler has been very frustrated with tumbling soft stuff. i may not be a pro but have fair experience and soft rocks are a pain to tumble. That is a catch 22 situation. Most beginner tumblers do not go into it with enough patience or knowledge to properly do stage one on mohs 7 stuff. I think that is why all the rock kits that come with tumblers are full of softer materials. Those carnelians in the pictures above have been in stage one since December (about 10 weeks) and a bunch still are not ready for stage two yet. I also think barrel size is a key factor. Have you ever tried to stage one tumble your busted up coral in a 3 pound barrel? I find the smaller barrels with less rock in them take much longer then larger barrels with more rock. Chuck
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ChicagoDave
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2016
Posts: 720
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Post by ChicagoDave on Mar 20, 2017 10:07:18 GMT -5
Drummond Island Rocks, I think you hit the biggest issue with rock tumbling as a hobby. The really nice rocks take a LONG time in the rough stage and most of these rocks aren't the "found in my backyard" type of material. Factor in a instruction sheets saying 1 week per grit, weird mixes of soft/hard rocks and small tumblers with a questionable "grit pack" and people are bound to fail. I haven't done that many finished batches, but the full run of grits sure does produce some nice tumbles. Plus this message board can be very overwhelming with everyone having a different way of getting to the finish line and a new/improved experiment being started every other week. I eventually just sent a message to a couple of users I most wanted to "be like" and adopted their way of tumbling.
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Post by captbob on Mar 20, 2017 10:16:21 GMT -5
Hey Chuck, I'm a little confused. You mention/list 3 steps then show a nice shiny batch of rocks. Are those rocks like that after the 500 AO step or did they go through a polish run as well?
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Post by Garage Rocker on Mar 20, 2017 10:26:42 GMT -5
In my small mind I must say that all beginners should start out with Mohs 7 rocks. Many a pro tumbler has been very frustrated with tumbling soft stuff. i may not be a pro but have fair experience and soft rocks are a pain to tumble. Have you ever tried to stage one tumble your busted up coral in a 3 pound barrel? I find the smaller barrels with less rock in them take much longer then larger barrels with more rock. Chuck Very true. I've all but quit using my 33B for tumbling rocks. I leave one barrel filled with steel shot mix and water for tumbling jewelry pieces. It just sits there unused most of the time. The other one I might use to run some obsidian or something soft, but it just takes a while to get much material through at 3 lbs. a pop. After using the larger barrels, I hardly feel it's worth the time to run the smaller ones.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 20, 2017 10:38:29 GMT -5
Have you ever tried to stage one tumble your busted up coral in a 3 pound barrel? I find the smaller barrels with less rock in them take much longer then larger barrels with more rock. Chuck Very true. I've all but quit using my 33B for tumbling rocks. I leave one barrel filled with steel shot mix and water for tumbling jewelry pieces. It just sits there unused most of the time. The other one I might use to run some obsidian or something soft, but it just takes a while to get much material through at 3 lbs. a pop. After using the larger barrels, I hardly feel it's worth the time to run the smaller ones. I use my 33B as well as the bigger QT66. I don't notice a huge difference. I notice some, but not enough to quit using the smaller barrels.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 20, 2017 10:41:13 GMT -5
Hey Chuck, I'm a little confused. You mention/list 3 steps then show a nice shiny batch of rocks. Are those rocks like that after the 500 AO step or did they go through a polish run as well? When I run rocks in my Lot-O. I do two days in each stage. After two days in 220 and two days in 500, my rocks are looking pretty darn shiny. More days in 500 would make them look even better. I can't say that there's a huge difference between the end of my 500 run and the end of the polish run. They're definitely shinier, but it's not a striking difference.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,666
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 20, 2017 11:01:48 GMT -5
Wow wow wow!!! Those are beautiful!!!! Liking that recipe too......Taking notes!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 20, 2017 11:30:56 GMT -5
Hey Chuck, I'm a little confused. You mention/list 3 steps then show a nice shiny batch of rocks. Are those rocks like that after the 500 AO step or did they go through a polish run as well? No polish Bob. 5 days in 500 and that was the final step. Chuck
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Post by captbob on Mar 20, 2017 11:48:19 GMT -5
No polish Bob. 5 days in 500 and that was the final step. Chuck Okay, I'm impressed! Them Lot-O gizmos really do a fine job. Too bad over half of the rocks I tumble wouldn't fit in one. Wonder that a UV-18 can do size wise. MrP you ever go big in your UV-18? jamesp what is the biggest you successfully run in your Viking?
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Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 20, 2017 14:22:12 GMT -5
No polish Bob. 5 days in 500 and that was the final step. Chuck Okay, I'm impressed! Them Lot-O gizmos really do a fine job. Too bad over half of the rocks I tumble wouldn't fit in one. Wonder that a UV-18 can do size wise. MrP you ever go big in your UV-18? jamesp what is the biggest you successfully run in your Viking? There might be hope for you, Bob. You'll come over to the vibe side one of these days.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 20, 2017 16:14:57 GMT -5
Hey Chuck, I'm a little confused. You mention/list 3 steps then show a nice shiny batch of rocks. Are those rocks like that after the 500 AO step or did they go through a polish run as well? When I run rocks in my Lot-O. I do two days in each stage. After two days in 220 and two days in 500, my rocks are looking pretty darn shiny. More days in 500 would make them look even better. I can't say that there's a huge difference between the end of my 500 run and the end of the polish run. They're definitely shinier, but it's not a striking difference. I always plan on 2 days for stage two but I use 120/220 mix and have a real hard time thinning it enough to keep it moving the second day. I wonder if your straight 220 is creating the mud at a slower pace. Believe it or not I have never tried straight 220. My other issue is that I run on a strict 7 day schedule. All of my rotary clean outs are on Sunday so I fill the loto back up every Sunday. If I am skipping 1000 then I do 1 day in 120/220, 3 days in 500 and 3 days in polish. If I am going to run the 1000 then I go 1 day in 120/220, 2 days in 500, 2 days in 1000 and 2 days in polish. I would like to try some straight 220 and run 2 days 220, 2 days in 500 and 3 days in polish. Chuck
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 20, 2017 17:53:44 GMT -5
One thing I never could accomplish is a polish with AO 500 in a rotary. No problem with a vibe. I think I may have run a rotary like 3 weeks in AO 500 and they did not get past a low matte. Said rocks out of rotary with sic 220.
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Post by captbob on Mar 20, 2017 18:04:19 GMT -5
There might be hope for you, Bob. I appreciate the optimism, but I rather doubt that on many levels. You'll come over to the vibe side one of these days. Maybe to visit, but it's nowhere I want to live.
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Post by MrP on Mar 20, 2017 18:29:07 GMT -5
No polish Bob. 5 days in 500 and that was the final step. Chuck Okay, I'm impressed! Them Lot-O gizmos really do a fine job. Too bad over half of the rocks I tumble wouldn't fit in one. Wonder that a UV-18 can do size wise. MrP you ever go big in your UV-18? jamesp what is the biggest you successfully run in your Viking? captbob I haven't really used that one for large rocks because I have the Viking tumbler, like jamesp has to do the large rocks in. I do larger slabs in both my UV-18, UV-45, and the Viking. I can do 7-10 3"x4" in the UV-18, 7-10 4.5"x 6" in the UV-45, and have did 4 6"x8" in the Viking. If things go right the slabs will stay apart most of the time. Brazilian agate are the best to do because they never seem to get frosted edges.................................MrP
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 20, 2017 19:19:10 GMT -5
The Viking's rotation method makes it a perfect fit for big rocks up to 4 inch cylinder about 10 inches long. Like a 4 inch stick of pet wood 10 inches long.
Build a bigger hopper and it will probably polish a bowling ball.
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