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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 20:18:08 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 20:08:01 GMT -5
Nice looking machine miket. You’re going to love it. I’m partial to drip cooling but I’ve never used bubblers. It seems like they would cause grit transfer, but like I said, never used bubblers.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 19:55:52 GMT -5
RWA3006 It looks like you have a lifetime supply of maté gourds and straws. I lived in Uruguay in 1967-68. I never developed a taste for the stuff.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 19:45:47 GMT -5
aGatesIt sounds like you need to figure out why the vise/carriage is binding. My Covington 16” was doing something similar. Peening the blade made it work like new.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 19:16:59 GMT -5
perkins17 . Here’s the cutter I use. I see them on eBay occasionally. A regular glass cutter works too. None of them work on fibrous slabs like tiger eye. You need to be careful on crazy lace too. Crazy lace slabs want to break along the fortification lines. I can even score some slight curves and get good quality agate to break on the curve.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 17:50:13 GMT -5
vance71975 I don’t think the RPMs will hurt on coarse grit. I would be more concerned about fine through polish. The high RPMs could cause chipping/bruising. Based on the thread title: One time I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 17:27:46 GMT -5
juliet8487I’ve tumbled garnet sand. It’s probably smaller than what you have. I just put the garnet sand in by itself with water, without grit. The garnets are like hardness 7.5. After one week there was nothing but garnet left in the tumbler. I never tried to polish the material. It kind of got a semi-gloss polish after awhile.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 17:18:36 GMT -5
Yeah. Poor Jason!
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 17:15:35 GMT -5
LOL ashley . I always eat them. It hasn’t killed me yet. jasoninsd never gets any candy because he always visits in person. I can’t blame him. Shawn and his employees are fun to visit with.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 16:51:43 GMT -5
200 lbs of slabs! Wow Nicholas perkins17 . That’s going to be awesome. I hope you get a lot of good ones. Did you know you can cut a lot of slabs with a glass cutter? It’s fast. I cut a lot of slabs with the glass cutter into geometric shapes. Then the shapes go in the tumbler. I’m heading to Spokane tomorrow. I’ll stop by Irv’s to try and sell some stuff. ashley. Rock Shed order goodies. I always look forward to the Tootsie Rolls.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 11, 2022 16:43:21 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum vickster. Kingsley North allows you to register for “back in stock” notifications. They will notify you when things become available. I’m strictly rotary. I’m working on my ninth three pound batch of the year. You can do some pretty nice work with rotary tumblers too.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 8, 2022 11:02:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the discussion ashley jasoninsd RickB Starguy ! It is fun to talk about rocks with experts! I enjoy the ride anyway. Maybe I should leave pieces like this as is, or hand polish the bands part: Those quartzy parts of rocks can be difficult. My rotaries tend to beat and bruise that part of the rocks. I always feel happy when I can get the quartzy areas to shine.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 8, 2022 10:36:06 GMT -5
LOL Son Of Beach . The ultimate dilemma of polishing rocks. I don’t sort by rock type anymore. My sorts are 1-rocks with cracks or small pits, 2-rocks without cracks or pits and 3-Premium rocks. I will let anyone search my grade 1 rocks and keep a few for free. I break out the grade 2 rocks for special occasions, (birthdays etc.). The grade 3 rocks are my personal favorites. It’s cash or as a special gift from me for these rocks. I might have 10 lbs of the grade 3 Premium rocks. That’s not much considering how long I’ve been doing this. I don’t even let people search the Premium rocks on their own. Too many people will pick one up, show you why they love it then throw it back in the container without thinking of chipping it or others. That drives me crazy. I’ve never had anyone ask for a lot of tumbled rocks for free. Maybe your co-worker would be interested in helping you do a coarse clean out. Most people don’t realize how much effort and expense goes into tumbling. If they understood, maybe they wouldn’t ask for free rocks.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 8, 2022 9:59:34 GMT -5
pebblesky That’s a nice agate. I would have tumbled it for sure. I’ve watched nice rock features/patterns get ground away in the tumblers for years. The nice part is that new features are being exposed at the same time. I have never used a vibratory tumbler. 35 years of rotary experience. Your agate looks considerably smaller from the first photo to the second. With what I understand about vibes, that surprises me a little. As lapidaries, we are all changing the rocks we work on. It’s usually a change for the better but not always. Don’t give up on the rock until it looks the way you want. Thanks for showing. Like RickB said. I’ve seen calcite in crazy lace rough. It’s pretty soft but in the long run, the agate areas usually turn out fantastic.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 7, 2022 12:56:21 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Sept 7, 2022 12:51:23 GMT -5
Welcome from Idaho.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 6, 2022 12:09:51 GMT -5
hummingbirdstones2Great looking batch of nodules Vince and Robin. Opportunities like that don’t come along often. You need to jump on them when you have the opportunity.
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Hi all
Sept 6, 2022 12:04:40 GMT -5
Post by Starguy on Sept 6, 2022 12:04:40 GMT -5
Welcome from Idaho vance71975. We all love photos here.
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Post by Starguy on Sept 2, 2022 15:05:24 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Sept 2, 2022 14:58:42 GMT -5
oldschoolrockerThat is really cool. To me it looks like rotten wood that got lithified. Or maybe pitch. Thanks for sharing it.
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