yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Aug 8, 2017 13:45:41 GMT -5
Hello all,
I've got a few days where I'll be in Calgary in early October and I'd like to take the opportunity to do a little rock hounding.
Searching the forum there was one mention of the Bow River "giving up keepers" without any specific details as to what.
Are there other opportunities withing a couple of hours drive?
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Apr 17, 2017 20:42:14 GMT -5
Thanks for the info ... I've already ordered from Robert Hall, but they B/O ... can't wait for it to arrive.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Mar 25, 2017 10:28:33 GMT -5
We're looking into buying a tumbler soon and while we have plenty of hard (ish) stuff like agates, we've also got a lot of softer material.
Specifically, we've got some nice serpentinite rocks (hardness 4-5) and lots of barite (hard 2.5 - 3) with really nice color.
I'm especially worried about the barite because of the mix of softness and high density. Will it just tear itself apart?
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Mar 14, 2017 12:03:11 GMT -5
Thanks for the information and advice, I didn't know about Ken Gems.
I'll try to keep an eye out on Amazon and Ebay.
Do you have any recommendations for makers? I know Lortone is a name I see a lot.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Mar 12, 2017 8:58:33 GMT -5
FYI, they've just added a little rock polishing workshop from 2 - 4 pm on both days with a local expert. I've seen some of the stuff he produces and it's absolutely amazing the level of polish he manages to get on his stones!
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Mar 5, 2017 17:04:49 GMT -5
I'm looking to buy a tumbler and I'd like to deal with a Canadian supplier, just to avoid delays and fees with customs etc ...
I know about Lacy Tools and Green's, but I'd like to know if there are any other options out there.
While I'm asking question ... do you prefer rotary or vibratory tumblers?
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Mar 5, 2017 17:01:05 GMT -5
Hi all, We're having our annual Members Exposition & Sale for the Quebec City Mineralogy Club. It's the 18th and 19th of March at the Domaine Maizeret Parc, there's a sugar shack at the same time and activities for the kids. Here's a link to the facebook page : www.facebook.com/events/1392994800752061/Around 20 member of the club will have tables and the prices are usually very reasonable. Hope to see you there!
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Aug 4, 2016 18:33:44 GMT -5
what blade are they useing on the tile saw ? I don't know what the club has on their saw but I was using the blade that came with the tile saw. It's worn out now, so I'm looking to replace it. I was looking at the Cyclone diamond blades (http://www.toolocity.com/cyclone-tear-drop-diamond-blade.aspx) since it's one of the few blades available in 7".
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Aug 1, 2016 20:08:12 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses.
I did let the slurry dry out before washing it, but it seemed more than just dried on. Even after repeated washing and scrubbing with a plastic bristle brush, it was still stuck to the pan. I wasn't in the grooves but on the flat surfaces that it was stuck.
I finally managed to get it off by scrubbing it with a brass brush. I seems to be all gone now, but I'll give it another go with the brush just to be 100% sure.
Jakesrocks ... yeah, the cut is pretty rough, that's why I'm starting with 80G. The club only has a 10" tile saw and it'll be kinda hard to fit a slab saw in my appartment ... One of these days though!
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Jul 31, 2016 17:33:08 GMT -5
I've just finished a run of rough grinding with my vibrolap and while cleaning out the pan to move on the the next grit I noticed that some of the grit had become embedded into the pan.
I was using a 16" Covington vibrolap and doing the initial polish with 80 grit silicon carbide. I do admit that I did a very long run, putting through a series of pieces and running it for a total of about 6 hours without changing the grit or washing the pan. Right now it was fine, the 80G SiC showed up pretty well, but as I go down into finer and finer grits, I don't want this happening and ruining my polish.
Any suggestions to prevent this? Just clean out the pan more often?
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Jul 10, 2016 12:55:48 GMT -5
Some very nice finds.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Jul 6, 2016 17:59:26 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments. We had a lot of fun while we were there. I'll try and bring a ladder next time ... and my 12lb sledge!
The 12th photo is closeups of what we found at Scot's Bay and it's pretty much all agates of one variety or another.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Jun 29, 2016 21:05:55 GMT -5
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Jun 29, 2016 20:54:07 GMT -5
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Jun 29, 2016 20:45:16 GMT -5
Hi all, we did a little family vacation a few weeks ago to the Minas Basin in Nova Scotia, Canada and had a great time. A very different geology from our normal haunts around Quebec City and we found plenty of very nice specimens. For those of you thinking about taking a trip to the area though, do your research ahead of time. The collecting is almost exclusively done on beaches and the area has this highest tides in the world (up to 15 meters / 50 feet) and you can easily get stranded. There are also restrictions/bans from collecting on some sites and in some cases access is quite difficult. Your best bet is to find someone who will guide you and from my own experience, it's not too much trouble the people there are very friendly. To those of you who helped me on this forum and elsewhere, thank you very much, we couldn't have done it without you. So, without further delay, let's get to the pics! We spent most of the trip on the north side of the Minas Basin near the town of Parrsboro. We did some research ahead of time and spent time exploring while we were there, but because of time restraints and a baby, weren't able to access most of the hard to get to sites. Again, thanks to those who gave us advice and it was unfortunate that our schedule couldn't sync up. We ended up concentrating on Partridge Island near Parrsboro because of it's relative ease of access as well as "side activities" to do with the little one. The first two pics are of the overall haul from two afternoons on the island. The right hand side of the first pic is also some rocks we picked up on the beach in front of the cottage we rented. The next pics are some closeups of the nicer pieces. Nice agate seams and zeolites. I'll continue with more in the next post on this thread.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Apr 30, 2016 15:16:12 GMT -5
Hello all, we've got a vacation coming up to the Bay of Fundy and I was wondering any of you had suggestions for locations to collect agates or mineral specimens?
Thanks for any info.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Feb 22, 2016 21:18:45 GMT -5
I've got a whole bunch of fossils that I'm working on and I'd like to find a way to process them more quickly. I've seen air scribes in various places and would like something of the sort, but since I live in an apartment I can't really have an air compressor raising a racket (yes, I know the scribe will be quite annoyingly loud too ...).
I can't seem to find anything equivalent that runs off an electric motor except rotary engraving tools and I don't think that the rotary action will work well.
Does anyone have any recommendations for electric scibes?
Thanks.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Feb 21, 2016 6:51:24 GMT -5
1) Working on it 2) It's not a nub, its where the saw blade bit in on a slight angle and it causes a slight depression.
Thanks for the advice, it's been quite useful.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Feb 20, 2016 19:28:43 GMT -5
I can hear the grit rubbing against the slabs. I think I may have the opposite problem though, the slabs are sometimes small and lightweight and I don't have any weights to put on them, so the action of the grit is less aggressive.
My biggest problem is that I have those bloody saw marks on the edges of the stones and even thought they're only a fraction of a millimeter, it's just hard to get rid of them since I have to grind down the whole face of the slab to get it even. I do the pencil test and all the marks are gone, except for in those saw marks.
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yetiabitibi
starting to shine!
Member since February 2016
Posts: 25
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Post by yetiabitibi on Feb 20, 2016 15:43:15 GMT -5
Thanks for the reply. For the moment I'm just adding 1 tbsp of grit after every 4 hour run. They're taking a long time because it's pretty hard material (agate and fossilized wood mostly) and the cuts weren't the best. There are saw marks on the edges of the slabs that will take a lot of time to remove.
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