ubermenehune
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 293
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Post by ubermenehune on Mar 20, 2017 21:41:59 GMT -5
Coarse grind in rotary - SiC 60 for as long as needed. My standard Lot-O procedure:SiC 120/220 - 1 TBS; 18-24 hours SiC 120/220 - 1 TBS; 18-24 hours SiC 500 - 1/2 tsp; 36-48 hours AO 1000 - 1/2 tsp; 36-48 hours AO 14K - 1/2 tsp; 18-24 hours AO 80 Test: AO 80 - 2 tsp; ~3 days AO 14K - 1/2 tsp; 18 hours The Verdict after two test batches: It works. However, stones that require any additional grinding or material removal may benefit from a protocol that includes SiC 120/220 (no surprise). You may notice from the pics, some micro-pits in the glare. Those aren't normally present after I run my standard process. Additionally, my test batches included some river rock and other pre-rounded material that skipped coarse grind entirely. Those stones didn't come out nearly as flawlessly. To be fair, the issues may be due to my procedure, duration and grit amounts I used. I'll certainly do some more experimenting and tweaking to find optimal performance. Pros: Cost, simplicity, shorter duration Cons: AO 80 may not remove material as effectively as SiC 120/220. Potential accelerated wear on rubber barrel. Here are some pics. My lighting sucks and I haven't mastered iPhone photography yet. Apologies for the quality. 1. What dis? 2. Mary Ellen 3. Some sort of petwood. I believe i got this from Sabre52 . Palm? 4. Mushroom rhyolite and miscellaneous cobble from Peruano .
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 21:48:04 GMT -5
#1 seems to be broken. Pretty sure I can fix it. Please send it here. Nice results! Well done.
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Post by Toad on Mar 20, 2017 22:00:35 GMT -5
Don't know what #1 is, but it is AWESOME!
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Post by MrMike on Mar 21, 2017 5:16:38 GMT -5
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 21, 2017 11:37:20 GMT -5
Great job. I can not finish most rhyolite with my vibe., it frosts it. Mary Ellen on the edge of frosting, and it has hematite that finishes matte. Again, I like tumbling Mohs 7 rocks. Hard glassy agates. Makes everything easier except coarse grind takes longer than softer rocks.
Those look like some large rocks. What percent media did you run w/them in the Lot-O ?
Great experiment/comparison.
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ubermenehune
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 293
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Post by ubermenehune on Mar 21, 2017 12:04:55 GMT -5
Great job. I can not finish most rhyolite with my vibe., it frosts it. Mary Ellen on the edge of frosting, and it has hematite that finishes matte. Again, I like tumbling Mohs 7 rocks. Hard glassy agates. Makes everything easier except coarse grind takes longer than softer rocks. Those look like some large rocks. What percent media did you run w/them in the Lot-O ? Great experiment/comparison. I typically stick with 6.5-7, but wanted to see how other things would respond. I didn't snap any pics, but I also had some mahogany obsidian in the batch (which turned out surprisingly well). I went 50/50 with ceramics; Each batch had 2-3 larger stones, with the remainder 1" or smaller. I like this method a lot for the shortened duration and convenience. Just need to make some tweaks with my measurements & ratios. Everything that spent time in the rotary first turned out really nice.
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 21, 2017 14:02:29 GMT -5
Were they rough shapes to start or river rounded? Most vibes won't alter shapes so coarse does more harm to bowls than to the rocks. I've used coarse in mini sonics to remove matrix from fire agates etc. but never tried rounding rocks.
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Deleted
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Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2017 15:10:12 GMT -5
Were they rough shapes to start or river rounded? Most vibes won't alter shapes so coarse does more harm to bowls than to the rocks. I've used coarse in mini sonics to remove matrix from fire agates etc. but never tried rounding rocks. Hi John; He used rotary for shaping. SiC 60 It's the first line of his post. So remote from the amazing stones you forgot it!
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ubermenehune
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 293
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Post by ubermenehune on Mar 21, 2017 15:16:59 GMT -5
Were they rough shapes to start or river rounded? Most vibes won't alter shapes so coarse does more harm to bowls than to the rocks. I've used coarse in mini sonics to remove matrix from fire agates etc. but never tried rounding rocks. Everything that goes into the vibe is either rounded in my rotary first, or rounded naturally. The river/ocean-weather rocks did not come out quite as flawlessly, presumably b/c I skipped coarse grind in the rotary. They were already rounded, but slightly more textured. They still took a nice shine, but there were a few more micro-pits on the surface. AO 80 is the largest grit i've ever tried in my Lot-O.
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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 Mar 21, 2017 22:30:42 GMT -5
When I used AO 80 in the Lot O I got a bit of barrel wear as evidenced by the black specks of rubber at clean out. YMMV
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 22, 2017 5:48:30 GMT -5
When I used AO 80 in the Lot O I got a bit of barrel wear as evidenced by the black specks of rubber at clean out. YMMV Keep in mind you can run the AO 80 in a rotary for 10-12 days and then do polish in the Lot-O if you are having wear issues.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 22, 2017 5:50:11 GMT -5
ubermenehuneAs I mentioned to rastageezer, you can run these steps in the rotary. It takes 10-12 days using AO 80 in the rotary without touching it. Then straight to polish in the vibe. Looks like the stepped process in the Lot-O takes 5-6 days: SiC 120/220 - 1 TBS; 18-24 hours SiC 120/220 - 1 TBS; 18-24 hours SiC 500 - 1/2 tsp; 36-48 hours AO 1000 - 1/2 tsp; 36-48 hours I had collected 2-10 pound cobbles of agate and wood in Texas. I normally saw them into 1-1.5 inch slabs and then break them into tumbles. Thick slabs makes hammer work easy. A good many of the cobbles had pits and tiny air bubbles in them all the way thru. Fine colors, patterns, etc Point being, many rocks have these tiny voids in them and will not tumble out. In this photo the red agate at upper left came from a large 8 pound cobble. The conglomerate at bottom from a 5 pound cobble. Both of them have small pits throughout. No way I could tumble them out, the pits ran throughout. However, the 3 tumbles across the middle have about zero pit issues as can be seen in the glare. Also from larger cobbles. Perfectly solid material is not easy to find. Brazilian agate, Montana agate, many woods, often very solid w/no pits. Perhaps your #1 and #3. #1 being well healed with chalcedony and the #3 Texas wood/palm/fern are fine candidates. There in lies the trick to perfect tumbles with 'zero defects' if that is ever a motive.
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 22, 2017 13:39:54 GMT -5
Usually best to run ocean pebbles in at least a short run of coarse grit. Helps to remove any organic matter and those deep scratches that get more noticeable in later steps. I used to run 60/90 for about 5 days on well rounded beach rocks. The beaches we collected had so much rock ou could be really selective about picking up good rocks without voids or deep flaws.
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Post by pghram on Mar 30, 2017 19:45:16 GMT -5
Fantastic shine and great colors.
Peace Rich
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