joejansal
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since August 2009
Posts: 98
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polish
Feb 7, 2019 3:06:42 GMT -5
Post by joejansal on Feb 7, 2019 3:06:42 GMT -5
Post by joejansal on 7 minutes ago hi I use 120 - 220 3 days, then 500 a o pre polish 3 days, 1000 a o pre polish 3 days, a o polish 7 days nice shine but I have seen better. all from rockshed, where do you guys get 14,000 polish, have tried tin oxide but very dull shine, I use lortone rotary tumblers, tried vibe but got matt looking finish. I do seashells that are 5 on mohs scale is the a o polish from rock shed 14,000 or where can I buy it. when I use 14,000 on my genie I get a great shine. any help will be very much appreciated. thank you joejan Read more: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/posts/recent#ixzz5epYXFIwB
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polish
Feb 7, 2019 4:36:24 GMT -5
Post by aDave on Feb 7, 2019 4:36:24 GMT -5
With you using a rotary tumbler, the lengths of time that you have listed on the above stages are not long enough. That may be contributing to your problem of getting a shine that you're not happy with. At a minimum, you should run (at least) seven days for each of those steps before going to the polish stage, if not longer. If your times are too short, you're not giving the different grits enough time to work out the scratches from the previous stage which translates to your material not being properly prepped for polish.
You didn't mention what size polish grit you're using, but if you bought your AO polish from the Rock Shed as you mentioned, it is 13,000 - more than sufficient to give you an outstanding shine. 14,000 won't do you any better, especially if you're not running your material long enough in the previous stages.
ETA: Though you didn't say so, I'm assuming you do a coarse stage as well?
ETA (again): Just saw the post below. I originally figured you were asking about rocks and that the mention about shells might have been a separate aspect of your tumbling. Now, I'm not sure. If you're only asking about tumbling shells, I'd say disregard everything I mentioned above. I've got no clue about how to process them. Everything I mentioned above relates to tumbling rocks such as agates, jaspers, quartz and other hard material.
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gatorflash1
spending too much on rocks
Active in Delaware Mineralogical Society, Cabchon Grinding and Polishing, 2 Thumlers B's and a UV-18
Member since October 2018
Posts: 375
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polish
Feb 7, 2019 10:40:25 GMT -5
Post by gatorflash1 on Feb 7, 2019 10:40:25 GMT -5
Joe - those run times sound more like those for a Vib tumbler than a rotary. Do a search above for rotary tumbling instruction times for soft stones and see what pops up.
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Post by grumpybill on Feb 7, 2019 16:01:04 GMT -5
From my limited experience with sea shells (only in a vibe, not a rotary) the less time spent in early stages the better, and longer/regular time in later stages with lots of small round pea gravel.
Also: How shiny they get depends on the type of sea shell. Some polish fairly well, others don't get any shine at all.
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