Post by wadewilcox on Dec 31, 2017 22:03:10 GMT -5
I wanted to send along a heartfelt thank you to all contributors to this forum. Over the past several years, I have received so much helpful advice and learned a great deal more about this hobby than I had ever thought possible. I had never registered as an official member of this forum as I'm not really a "joiner" and didn't feel as though I would have had anything relevant to contribute to the many interesting and informative threads . . . until today - I finally decided to join the forum and share a very small bit of my own experience that may prove helpful to someone.
Without going into a long, involved story - I exclusively tumble and polish Ohio's Flint Ridge flint. When I received my first small vibratory tumbler, I decided to try my hand at creating flint pendants and had great success with my first batch (glassy finish with no chipping). I became a bit more excited with/committed to the hobby and bought a Diamond Pacific MT-14. Within a week, I had enough new material to start tumbling again - I had to add some ceramic media to completely fill the larger hopper, but was soon on road to further tumbling success.
Everything was going along smoothly (no pun intended) until the last stage - when the tumbling was done, all the stones were perfectly smooth, but decidedly hazy.
Over the next few months, I tried to remedy the situation but with no success - a few details on my tumbling process:
- Tumbled only flint
- Used a variety of material sizes
- Filled the hopper to proper level
- Used proper amounts of grit (though I varied these amounts later in the hopes that changing the grit amounts would solve the problem)
- Thoroughly washed material between grit cycles
- Used separate hoppers for each grit cycle
- Had a low percentage of flat pieces to overall load
- Made sure to use distilled water rather than well water
- Ran a burnishing cycle on some batches of material after final stage - no difference in their finish
- Ran some batches with Cerium Oxide and some with Aluminum Oxide - no difference in their finish
- Eventually tried lengthening the tumbling cycles
All batches were identically hazy, but each stone would take on a perfect polish when worked on a leather wheel.
I was about to give up and just finish each piece on the leather wheel when I stumbled across what I believe was the problem. I was about to buy more ceramic media online when I noticed one of the product descriptions said, "ceramic media with built-in abrasive." It was then I remembered that the ceramic media I'd been using had come from a jewelry store "going out of business sale." The media was unmarked in plastic bags and I just assumed it was standard ceramic media for rock tumbling. I wondered if the "built in abrasive" was scratching my pieces in the last tumbling phase, so removed the ceramics and switched to a hopper full of glass marbles. In three days I had perfectly polished stones!
I realize the likelihood of someone else making this mistake is fairly low, but it might be something to ask when people are having trouble getting a glassy finish.
Kind Regards,
Wade
P.S. - I think may count as a long, involved story!
Without going into a long, involved story - I exclusively tumble and polish Ohio's Flint Ridge flint. When I received my first small vibratory tumbler, I decided to try my hand at creating flint pendants and had great success with my first batch (glassy finish with no chipping). I became a bit more excited with/committed to the hobby and bought a Diamond Pacific MT-14. Within a week, I had enough new material to start tumbling again - I had to add some ceramic media to completely fill the larger hopper, but was soon on road to further tumbling success.
Everything was going along smoothly (no pun intended) until the last stage - when the tumbling was done, all the stones were perfectly smooth, but decidedly hazy.
Over the next few months, I tried to remedy the situation but with no success - a few details on my tumbling process:
- Tumbled only flint
- Used a variety of material sizes
- Filled the hopper to proper level
- Used proper amounts of grit (though I varied these amounts later in the hopes that changing the grit amounts would solve the problem)
- Thoroughly washed material between grit cycles
- Used separate hoppers for each grit cycle
- Had a low percentage of flat pieces to overall load
- Made sure to use distilled water rather than well water
- Ran a burnishing cycle on some batches of material after final stage - no difference in their finish
- Ran some batches with Cerium Oxide and some with Aluminum Oxide - no difference in their finish
- Eventually tried lengthening the tumbling cycles
All batches were identically hazy, but each stone would take on a perfect polish when worked on a leather wheel.
I was about to give up and just finish each piece on the leather wheel when I stumbled across what I believe was the problem. I was about to buy more ceramic media online when I noticed one of the product descriptions said, "ceramic media with built-in abrasive." It was then I remembered that the ceramic media I'd been using had come from a jewelry store "going out of business sale." The media was unmarked in plastic bags and I just assumed it was standard ceramic media for rock tumbling. I wondered if the "built in abrasive" was scratching my pieces in the last tumbling phase, so removed the ceramics and switched to a hopper full of glass marbles. In three days I had perfectly polished stones!
I realize the likelihood of someone else making this mistake is fairly low, but it might be something to ask when people are having trouble getting a glassy finish.
Kind Regards,
Wade
P.S. - I think may count as a long, involved story!