|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 2, 2019 8:44:31 GMT -5
I just took a batch out last night. I ran the 1st stage 2 days (they were all saw smooth flats), 2nd for 3 days and the last for 3 days. I used Jugglerguy 's recipe. Everything looks great except the hardest agates- bots and montana have a kinda of rough look under the polish. I'll never be able to get a pic of it. It is like the surface polished but underneath that it's like microfine orange peel, but smooth. I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense. Only happened on the hardest rocks. I'll try to get pics.... meanwhile- any know where I might have messed up? Stage 2 longer? eta- Here's the Montana
|
|
oldschoolrocker
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,540
|
Post by oldschoolrocker on Aug 2, 2019 9:24:32 GMT -5
I'm curious about this as well. My first lot o batch I just completed looked great but upon closer inspection some of the rocks had a similar issue. Dont have much of a clue what any of the rocks I tumbled are but appears to be on some of what I assume are agates. I didnt burnish the stones (yet) but have read mixed reviews on whether it really makes much of a difference.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 2, 2019 9:38:22 GMT -5
I'm curious about this as well. My first lot o batch I just completed looked great but upon closer inspection some of the rocks had a similar issue. Dont have much of a clue what any of the rocks I tumbled are but appears to be on some of what I assume are agates. I didnt burnish the stones (yet) but have read mixed reviews on whether it really makes much of a difference. Agates should be getting the very best polish. They are the most hard. Clearly, I didn't leave it in 1 or 2 long enough.
My first few loads, I completely forgot to burnish. Just because I was excited. Didn't make any difference really, the rocks came out great. This one- I did burnish. Go figure. I don't think my issues have anything to do with burnishing, though.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,665
|
Post by Tommy on Aug 2, 2019 10:17:47 GMT -5
I will be following this with interest too - I've seen similar results on harder stones although your photos captured it better than I could hope to.
On your Montana agate I'm most curious about the fact that the pitting follows the common Montana agate pattern lines - and increases in the crystals(?) area that I would expect to be somewhat softer than the solid agate area. To me this implies almost certainly undercutting but as you implied Montana is among the hardest of the hard agates and I would NOT expect undercutting.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 2, 2019 10:18:57 GMT -5
I'm gonna run those stones again with my next batch. But, I would like to know what I did wrong.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 2, 2019 10:21:08 GMT -5
I will be following this with interest too - I've seen similar results on harder stones although your photos captured it better than I could hope to. On your Montana agate I'm most curious about the fact that the pitting follows the common Montana agate pattern lines - and increases in the crystals(?) area that I would expect to be somewhat softer than the solid agate area. To me this implies almost certainly undercutting but as you implied Montana is among the hardest of the hard agates and I would NOT expect undercutting. That is interesting. Didn't think about that. I just ran my thumb and nail over the MT and there is no undercutting. Surprisingly- considering what you noted.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,665
|
Post by Tommy on Aug 2, 2019 10:31:35 GMT -5
That is interesting. Didn't think about that. I just ran my thumb and nail over the MT and there is no undercutting. Surprisingly- considering what you noted. I wonder what it means though... I'm wondering if maybe it spent too long in stage 1? Maybe that should be cut back to 24 hours? Again, I'll be following this as the experts chime in.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 2, 2019 10:33:43 GMT -5
That is interesting. Didn't think about that. I just ran my thumb and nail over the MT and there is no undercutting. Surprisingly- considering what you noted. I wonder what it means though... I'm wondering if maybe it spent too long in stage 1? Maybe that should be cut back to 24 hours? Again, I'll be following this as the experts chime in. I wondered about that, too. I am doing smooth flats, so I don't think I need as long in 1.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,665
|
Post by Tommy on Aug 2, 2019 10:44:25 GMT -5
I am doing smooth flats, so I don't think I need as long in 1. Just out of curiosity what was your media, and what was your ratio of media to flats?
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 2, 2019 10:48:06 GMT -5
I am doing smooth flats, so I don't think I need as long in 1. Just out of curiosity what was your media, and what was your ratio of media to flats? I only had 14 flats- 4 of which were small earring flats. I had about 1/2 dollar store pebbles (used) and 1/2 ceramics. Maybe a little more ceramic.
|
|
|
Post by Jugglerguy on Aug 3, 2019 7:03:19 GMT -5
Flats are the hardest to polish. I’d increase the ceramics to about 75 or 80 percent. Are you using mixed sizes of ceramic? I have about a 50-50 mix of small and large.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 3, 2019 7:16:07 GMT -5
Flats are the hardest to polish. I’d increase the ceramics to about 75 or 80 percent. Are you using mixed sizes of ceramic? I have about a 50-50 mix of small and large. Yes, mixed. Thanks, I'll try that.
|
|
|
Post by Jugglerguy on Aug 3, 2019 7:51:41 GMT -5
|
|
minerken
Cave Dweller
Member since August 2013
Posts: 466
|
Post by minerken on Aug 3, 2019 12:45:40 GMT -5
My first impression was the same as Tommy 's and I think that there may still be some validity to it. I have tumbled lots of Montana''s and never had that happen. FWIW I think that the pebbles are the culprits I think they are causing micro impact craters I use only ceramics the 1/2" cylinders diagonal on each end 75% +. Flats are terrible for sticking together from surface tension so finding that just right slurry can be problematic I think it is better to check them every so often and break them apart than to have to loose of a slurry.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Aug 3, 2019 15:24:08 GMT -5
My first impression was the same as Tommy 's and I think that there may still be some validity to it. I have tumbled lots of Montana''s and never had that happen. FWIW I think that the pebbles are the culprits I think they are causing micro impact craters I use only ceramics the 1/2" cylinders diagonal on each end 75% +. Flats are terrible for sticking together from surface tension so finding that just right slurry can be problematic I think it is better to check them every so often and break them apart than to have to loose of a slurry. Thanks I did have a problem with them sticking, but I checked often and unstuck them. I'll get it sorted out eventually.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Oct 11, 2019 7:45:44 GMT -5
I just took out another load. In that load, I ran the Mt agate and the Bot again. I ran the whole hard rock load on 500 for 2.5 days and polish for 1.75 days- just the 2 courses. After the 500, I inspected and saw little improvement in the Mt aggie and bot, however, coming out of the polish, there was a marked difference. Almost there. I will run them in the next polish load of stones. Everything else came out fine.
Here's the rest of the load:
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Oct 11, 2019 7:52:51 GMT -5
For that load, I eliminated the dollar store rocks and added some larger ceramics. My ceramic ratio was abt 50/50 large and small. My tumble ratio was abt 25% flats / 75% ceramics. Or less flats, I didn't run very many. I ran them in the loto for 4 days- 2.5 days on 500 and abt 1.5 days on polish. I would have run the polish longer, but it was at a stand still. I think I added too many spritzes. The load would have benefited running in polish for a while longer, but the 500 was fine.
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 11, 2019 8:13:22 GMT -5
For that load, I eliminated the dollar store rocks and added some larger ceramics. My ceramic ratio was abt 50/50 large and small. My tumble ratio was abt 25% flats / 75% ceramics. Or less flats, I didn't run very many. I ran them in the loto for 4 days- 2.5 days on 500 and abt 1.5 days on polish. I would have run the polish longer, but it was at a stand still. I think I added too many spritzes. The load would have benefited running in polish for a while longer, but the 500 was fine. I am a bit confused. In your description above you do not mention any tumbling prior the 500 stage. Were these all re-runs or were some of them saw/grinder preforms that went directly into 500? That is a great Montana piece. I would expect some surface deviation in the quartz area after tumbling but the agate area should be flawless. Your mix of sizes and ratios sounds spot pretty good. I have been experimenting with tossing one or two medium sized normal rocks into batches like this to help keep thing moving and hoping to keep the flats from sticking to each other. Chuck
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Oct 11, 2019 8:19:46 GMT -5
For that load, I eliminated the dollar store rocks and added some larger ceramics. My ceramic ratio was abt 50/50 large and small. My tumble ratio was abt 25% flats / 75% ceramics. Or less flats, I didn't run very many. I ran them in the loto for 4 days- 2.5 days on 500 and abt 1.5 days on polish. I would have run the polish longer, but it was at a stand still. I think I added too many spritzes. The load would have benefited running in polish for a while longer, but the 500 was fine. I am a bit confused. In your description above you do not mention any tumbling prior the 500 stage. Were these all re-runs or were some of them saw/grinder preforms that went directly into 500? Chuck The last batch that I mentioned here and photoed, were all flats from slabs that went straight into 500. When you and I were talking about it before (recently) I misspoke. I kept meaning to say that I wanted to go straight to 500 grit. I have only ever used 3 grits- 120/220 - 500 and polish.
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 11, 2019 8:25:58 GMT -5
I am a bit confused. In your description above you do not mention any tumbling prior the 500 stage. Were these all re-runs or were some of them saw/grinder preforms that went directly into 500? Chuck The last batch that I mentioned here and photoed, were all flats from slabs that went straight into 500. When you and I were talking about it before (recently) I misspoke. I kept meaning to say that I wanted to go straight to 500 grit. I have only ever used 3 grits- 120/220 - 500 and polish. I am no help here. I never skip 120/220 stage. There are a few times where I am worried about over rounding a girdle and in those cases I start the load in 120/220 and let in run for 6-8 hrs to break the grit down a bit then add those cabs in. This is a picture from earlier in your thread. I would not expected 500 to fix the surface imperfections shown in this picture. Chuck
|
|