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Post by aDave on May 28, 2017 19:32:29 GMT -5
Hi all, I was finally able to break out some material from a polish stage. In the event it helps anyone down the road, I'll list details, so please forgive the extra verbiage. With this batch, I was also able to play with a new camera. As such, some of the photos are not the best. I've still got to play with the camera to figure out white balance and other issues, and I still need to figure out a lighting set up. Nevertheless, here's what I pulled out: The entire batch out of a Lortone 45C (yep, no vibe yet): IMG_0002 Lavic material: IMG_0008Unknown Random Rocks from Mix: IMG_0012 Amethyst IMG_0014 Turitella Agate: Tiger Eye: Quartz: Jasper: Adventurine? Beach Rocks: Random Smalls: IMG_0035 The details: First coarse was run in primarily 60/90 in a 45C. After I ran out of that grit I went to 46/70. Rocks were shaped, culled, and moved along when the time came. Cleanouts were done every week with no recharge in-between. I've had no luck with recharging in the past, but when the cleanout was done, I used old sediment/grit as a thickener. This stage was run in a barrel that is dedicated to coarse only. In all, this was not the greatest material to work with, and it gave me fits. The turitella undercut at the shells. The tiger eye pitted at various times, and I just pulled the plug on it before it whittled away to nothing. The Lavic is hit and miss. It undercuts in some spots, pits in others, and while interesting, probably not the best tumbling material out there. The beach rocks were something I picked up and decided to tumble. Medium stage was run with 120/220 and plastic pellets for one week. Fine stage, 500 SiC, was run for two weeks with plastic pellets. No recharge was done. I thought I'd try to take advantage of the grit breaking down instead of adding a pre-polish stage of 1000. After this stage, I burnished with Borax for a few hours before moving on. I used plastic pellets that are dedicated for this stage. The medium and fine stage (and the burnish before polish) were run in the same barrel . As noted above, and to be clear, I used a barrel specifically for coarse and another barrel for the intermediate stages (medium and fine). Polish stage was run for 10 days with plastic pellets in a barrel dedicated for polish and the burnish stage after the fact. On captbob 's recommendation, I cut back severely from what Lortone recommends for the amount of polish. Captbob recommended nothing more than 3 tbsp for me while Lortone recommends 8 tbsp. I used three in this stage, just to set a baseline. I'm pretty happy with the results, as my polish stage slurry was not too thick as compared to when I used 8 tbsp on the last run. In my view, this benefits the run by not being too thick. After the polish stage, I ran a burnish stage with Borax for about 6 hours. Pellets were used here as well, and they had previously been used in this same phase before. That's about it. All told, if it was not clear, 3 barrels were used. One was for coarse, one for medium and fine, one for polish. Pellets were never moved forward, and they were only used for specific stages; every stage got a new batch of pellets that were previously used in the same stage. Please forgive the quality of the photos. I just bought a new camera, and I'll have to play with it to work out things like white balance and other issues. Thanks for looking. If you can offer any help, I'd love to see your suggestions. Best regards. Dave
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rebeccaink
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since May 2017
Posts: 190
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Post by rebeccaink on May 28, 2017 20:04:54 GMT -5
Love the instructions and the pictures. Beauty and brain - what a great combination lol. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Post by wigglinrocks on May 28, 2017 20:17:24 GMT -5
Your photos are fine , the rocks are even better . Super looking batch of rocks .
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Post by gmitch067 on May 28, 2017 20:28:55 GMT -5
Wow! Very nice load... and the pics were super also. Thank you for posting your instructions. I learn a bit more each time I read member's methods and recipes. I have not been able to get a tumbler shine as good as yours - so I will try out some of your ideas. Thank you again!
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Post by morerockspleaz on May 28, 2017 20:30:53 GMT -5
Your rocks look fantastic. I love that you did this with rotary all the way thru. Your patience paid off. I really like the Lavic material. Lots of color and nicely shaped.
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vera
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 259
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Post by vera on May 28, 2017 20:33:56 GMT -5
Now I see why people really like that Turitella Agate! Great job - nice and shiny!
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Post by coloradocliff on May 28, 2017 22:46:00 GMT -5
Awesome Shinola Dave.. Way patient. Way smoothed and rounded. AO polish? Tigers eye looks great esp. if AO. Congrats Senor Talavera ~~
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Post by Garage Rocker on May 29, 2017 9:29:44 GMT -5
Great set, aDave. Always impressed with rotary batches, I've always gone the cheater route. Your Lavic came out nice, even better since it was self collected. Good work on the photography too. Keep it up!
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lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
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Post by lookatthat on May 29, 2017 9:39:01 GMT -5
Your unknowns look like sodalite to me. I think Turitella Agate is a misnomer -- it's not really an agate is it? The pictures look fine. I think you did very well to get all these different types of rocks to play well with eachother! Thanks for the pics and instruction.
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Post by orrum on May 29, 2017 9:56:00 GMT -5
Those r great! Turritella is very messy! Falls apart, pits, just a mess! Hey you nailed the quartz and amethyst, they bruise and tours didn't so be proud!
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lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
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Post by lookatthat on May 29, 2017 10:11:19 GMT -5
Questions: How long did you run in coarse? Did you notice a difference between running the coarse and the extra coarse?
Pardon my ignorance, but I'm confused... you say you did a cleanout, but used the old sediment/grit as a thickener? So if continuing to run the same sediment/grit, what did you clean out?
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Post by aDave on May 29, 2017 13:04:03 GMT -5
Thanks all for the comments. I know I'm being a bit picky with the photos, or it might seem so, but there were a bunch that I had issues with exposure wise. What you're not seeing (fortunately) are all of the photos that didn't turn out due to being underexposed. It seemed the shots where the field was full of dark material versus light, the exposures were much better. It makes sense...I just have to figure out when to compensate for it. Awesome Shinola Dave.. Way patient. Way smoothed and rounded. AO polish? Tigers eye looks great esp. if AO. Congrats Senor Talavera ~~ Thanks Cliff. Yes, AO polish for all of this. Can I expect different results with the tiger eye with another type of polish? Your unknowns look like sodalite to me. I think Turitella Agate is a misnomer -- it's not really an agate is it? Thanks for the info. I had considered sodalite, but I'm not a rock expert by any stretch. And, you're right about the turitella...I don't know why it's called agate either. Those r great! Turritella is very messy! Falls apart, pits, just a mess! Hey you nailed the quartz and amethyst, they bruise and tours didn't so be proud! Thank you sir. I really didn't have too much of a problem with it falling apart so much, but then again, maybe that's why I ended up with so many smalls of it. Didn't really think about it before. But, the pitting of the shells is pretty frustrating. I guess it is what it is. Questions: How long did you run in coarse? Did you notice a difference between running the coarse and the extra coarse? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm confused... you say you did a cleanout, but used the old sediment/grit as a thickener? So if continuing to run the same sediment/grit, what did you clean out? Thanks for the questions. Unfortunately, I didn't write down a start date, so I can't give you an exact answer. That might seem a bit strange, but since I'm always looking to pull rocks out (to move on) and replace with new rough, I didn't see a need to keep track of time. They just get pulled when they're ready. I "think" the tiger eye spent the most time in coarse, and my recollection was that it was started in late February. In comparison, the Lavic spent a bit less time, as it was collected on a trip with Bluesky78987 in early March and went into the tumbler a week or so after that. As far as the 46/70 versus the 60/90, I can't say that I noticed a difference between the two in terms of performance. I guess if I was doing similar batches of rocks over set times, it might be easier to tell if there was a difference in rounding, but since I've always got coarse barrels running, I can't give you a good assessment. Sorry for the confusion about the cleanouts. I did do complete cleanouts every week during the coarse stage. Everything is washed out, and the rocks are inspected. When I dump my barrels, all of that old slurry ends up in a five gallon bucket, along with some rinse water. I let the sediment settle over a couple of days, I pour off most of the water, and I'm left with "mud" in the bottom of the barrel. That is left out to evaporate, and I'm left with old sediment cake at the bottom after a few days. That is the material that I'm using as a thickener. I grind it down to a powder, and I have a baggie that's full of it. If I'm not adding to my supply of thickener powder, I simply dump the sediment cake into the trash can. The thickener just helps as a jump start, as I'm basically starting from scratch each week with fresh water and grit. It would not do me any good to resuse it alone, as my coarse grit is usually gone at the end of each week. In a 4 lb barrel, I was using about one heaping tbsp of powder, and in a 6 lb barrel, I'm using about two. Since I started using the powder, the consistency of my slurries during the coarse stage is much better, IMHO. Oh yeah, I only use the thickener during coarse. Thanks again for all of the nice comments. Regards. Dave
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lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
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Post by lookatthat on May 29, 2017 13:16:00 GMT -5
Thanks, Dave! I really appreciate your time. So if I'm understanding correctly, the slurry basically acts as an agent to hold the fresh grit where it will do the most good. I'm going to do a coarse-stage cleanout tonight or tomorrow. I expect I'll have 2 or 3 rocks to take out, and the rest to go back in with fresh coarse grit. Would it be beneficial to add a couple tablespoons of the spent sludge back into the fresh round?
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lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
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Post by lookatthat on May 29, 2017 13:23:52 GMT -5
Oh, and by the way, the Earth is going to crash into the Sun if you answer incorrectly.
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Post by aDave on May 29, 2017 14:39:50 GMT -5
Great set, aDave . Always impressed with rotary batches, I've always gone the cheater route. Your Lavic came out nice, even better since it was self collected. Good work on the photography too. Keep it up! Thanks for the encouragement! I don't know if I agree with you calling your tumbling skills cheating. They're works of art, though there is clearly a skill involved. Dave
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Post by aDave on May 29, 2017 14:48:36 GMT -5
Thanks, Dave! I really appreciate your time. So if I'm understanding correctly, the slurry basically acts as an agent to hold the fresh grit where it will do the most good. I'm going to do a coarse-stage cleanout tonight or tomorrow. I expect I'll have 2 or 3 rocks to take out, and the rest to go back in with fresh coarse grit. Would it be beneficial to add a couple tablespoons of the spent sludge back into the fresh round? That's what I gather the slurry does. In fact, jamesp has a thread/multiple posts about his use of clay for thickening. In one, he has photos of grit being "stuck" on rocks that his slurry is holding. Maybe he'll know where those examples are. I did a quick search, but I could not find them. I don't see where adding some of your sludge would hurt at all. I just wouldn't know how much to recommend, as I don't know how the liquid amount would compare to the amount of dry powder I used. Another option for you would be kitty litter. Others have used that successfully as a thickener. I've heard that it sucks up a fair amount of water, so perhaps start with a small amount and be sure to check the consistency to be sure it's not too dry/thick. Good luck. Dave
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ontherocks
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since May 2017
Posts: 76
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Post by ontherocks on May 29, 2017 16:11:15 GMT -5
These look great. I love the adventurine. The color is unique.
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Post by Jugglerguy on May 29, 2017 18:18:07 GMT -5
Great batch, Dave. I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said. Great pictures, impressed with just rotary tumbling, great material, awesome shine.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,548
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Post by jamesp on May 29, 2017 23:27:12 GMT -5
Thanks, Dave! I really appreciate your time. So if I'm understanding correctly, the slurry basically acts as an agent to hold the fresh grit where it will do the most good. I'm going to do a coarse-stage cleanout tonight or tomorrow. I expect I'll have 2 or 3 rocks to take out, and the rest to go back in with fresh coarse grit. Would it be beneficial to add a couple tablespoons of the spent sludge back into the fresh round? That's what I gather the slurry does. In fact, jamesp has a thread/multiple posts about his use of clay for thickening. In one, he has photos of grit being "stuck" on rocks that his slurry is holding. Maybe he'll know where those examples are. I did a quick search, but I could not find them. I don't see where adding some of your sludge would hurt at all. I just wouldn't know how much to recommend, as I don't know how the liquid amount would compare to the amount of dry powder I used. Another option for you would be kitty litter. Others have used that successfully as a thickener. I've heard that it sucks up a fair amount of water, so perhaps start with a small amount and be sure to check the consistency to be sure it's not too dry/thick. Good luck. Dave lookatthat, here is a link to a use for thick slurry forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/79024/brain-storming-on-coarse-grindBeautiful stones aDave.
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Post by aDave on May 29, 2017 23:46:04 GMT -5
lookatthat , here is a photo of what I was referring to earlier with grit stuck in slurry on rocks. I found jamesp 's photo on flickr...I just don't recall where the discussion was. I can look back through old posts of mine to find the discussion. I recall asking James similar questions back then, so let me know if you need it. flic.kr/p/GVDG3EDave
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