doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Dec 10, 2018 14:37:31 GMT -5
I agree..Montana moss is a beautiful stone and tumble rough is available for cheap. So hard to find them without fractures though, like you said, 60 lbs of rough only produces around 6 lbs of high quality tumbled stones.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Dec 2, 2018 13:37:52 GMT -5
#5 is a great eye agate! Definitely not easy to get such a nice one
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Nov 2, 2018 19:36:08 GMT -5
I've seen this "turquoise" necklace in their stores and it definitely doesn't look like real turquoise to me. The fact that it is priced the same as other far cheaper materials like rose quartz is also a give away, as real turquoise doesn't come cheap.
I think their customer representatives are just trained to answer this question: "is this real ___?" with yes, its real and natural. This maybe true with their other materials like rose quartz, tigers eye, agate, as those are a natural materials that are widely available and cheap, but that is not true with genuine turquoise.
It is kind of annoying that a big company like them would do something like this, but I think at the end of the day, most people don't know, and don't care about this small lie.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Nov 2, 2018 11:54:02 GMT -5
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Oct 21, 2018 10:18:53 GMT -5
Thanks for the pictures! 8 is quite nice, but it looks like a laguna rather than a moc, judging from its colors, plumes, and the fact that mocs have an outer layer of clear agate. I have cut about 100 and no two really look like they should have been found near each other. I do not guarantee I.D.'s on rocks unless I collect it myself but these were all bought as Moctezuma. Very possible that items get mixed up at a rock shop though. Chuck Yup, no worries. Mexican agates are my favorite, and in my view the finest agates in the world. The variety is truly amazing. I find it interesting to try to identify them to the best of my ability, although I am still a novice because there are so many different claims even among laguna agates, each with their quirks. I think most of what you posted are Mocs, with a few lagunas in there. Mocs are known for their pastel colors, bleached skin, an outer layer of clear agate. I believe the brown agates in your pictures are also from that region.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Oct 20, 2018 21:49:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the pictures! 8 is quite nice, but it looks like a laguna rather than a moc, judging from its colors, plumes, and the fact that mocs have an outer layer of clear agate.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Aug 24, 2018 19:54:37 GMT -5
I have started selling on Etsy, Ebay, and Amazon over the past year. I've actually found Etsy customers to be the nicest among the three, possibly because they feel a more personal connection to the seller. The return rates on Etsy seem to be the lowest, and returns are what really hurt you, more than harsh words at least.
One out of 100+ customers always comes a crazy one, and as a seller its part of your job as a professional to deal with these crazies without driving yourself nuts too. I admit, it didn't feel good when it first happens to you, as adults we need to learn how to rise above this nonsense and not let crazy customers get us down.
I also learned that Etsy doesn't really remove reviews unless it falls into some specific categories, like the customer blaming you for something out of your control, like shipping was delayed due to USPS' fault. I had my headaches too trying to get a review removed on Ebay for something I felt was completely not my fault. I guess you can fault Etsy or Ebay here for not being "reasonable", but you can also see it from their point of view: They simply don't want to devote a lot of time and effort to do investigative work over who was right or wrong for every bad review. There's no way to train your employees either over what is a "fair" negative review or a "unfair" negative review. Even some posters in this form seem to disagree somewhat in this instance. So Etsy keeps it simply and rarely removes reviews. Its not a policy I enjoy, as a seller, but I understand it.
Furthermore, if Etsy where to remove most of the negative reviews out there (frankly most negative reviews seem unreasonable), the consumer would suffer for it, because everyone would have 5 stars for and consumers would no longer trust the reviews (many don't already).
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Aug 23, 2018 7:48:55 GMT -5
By the way, does the Ultra Vibe motor need to be oiled? I haven't been oiling mine.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Aug 22, 2018 18:04:22 GMT -5
Are you using the heavy duty version with the blue stripe on the barrel? I believe the yellow stripe is not heavy duty and not meant for rocks.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Aug 17, 2018 14:56:01 GMT -5
Also really like the first one.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Jul 13, 2018 9:58:10 GMT -5
I've had this experience too with softer stones looking worse after polish. I think all the white stuff you see are signs of bruising. This maybe solved if you tumble the stones with a lot of small filler or ceramic media to make the tumble more gentle.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Jun 3, 2018 18:10:56 GMT -5
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Jun 3, 2018 18:02:31 GMT -5
Might bring more than $30 / cab if cut, but that also involves a lot of work and labor right? Both in the production of the cab and the selling of the cab. Lots of material can be acquired for $10/pound that also can bring $30 to $50/cab, while these lakers are worth about $200/pound in its natural state. Also there are very high end lakers that are worth hundreds to 1k in their natural state, and those are definitely best left uncut.
Also one of the main reason not to tumble high quality lakers (already showing good banding in its natural state), as Fossilman points out, is that most lakers have a lot of fractures, and tumbling or cutting a flat face only highlights these fractures more, while the they tend to not be as visible in their natural state.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Jun 2, 2018 12:42:34 GMT -5
Don't tumble them. Those lakers are already beautiful and unique in their natural form and have more monetary value un-tumbled. What do you suppose those three are each valued at? I can't tell exactly how big they are but numbers 1 and 2, assuming they are 2 oz each, maybe around $15 to $20 each. Value going up proportionally with the weight.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Jun 1, 2018 11:30:14 GMT -5
Don't tumble them. Those lakers are already beautiful and unique in their natural form and have more monetary value un-tumbled.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on May 4, 2018 13:32:59 GMT -5
Didn't realize they actually hope to build parts of this thing underground. But with New York City subway costing from $500 to million to $2.6 Billion per mile (!) that doesn't seem to solve the cost issue very much.
High speed rail technology has been around for decades. Yet we still see very little of it being built in this country. I used to commute to NYC on the NJ transit. It is frankly embarrassing how slow, old, and frequently delayed the trains going to the "financial capital of the world" are.
Dreaming about hyperloops in the next several decades, as much as I would like to see it, will probably remain a dream in this country, where the barriers to any large infrastructure projects are frequently prohibitively high.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Apr 30, 2018 9:32:41 GMT -5
People probably underestimate the infrastructure costs and regulatory constraints to make this happen.
The high speed rail in CA costs $100 million / mile, the highest cost in the world, for the slowest high speed rail in the world. This is thanks in part to all the regulatory hurdles, labor costs, and difficulty in obtaining land for construction.
Hyperloop is even more demanding when it comes to infrastructure and land requirements, because of the speeds involved, the hyperloop can only turn at very slight angles without putting excessive G forces on the traveler. As a result, you need a ton of land all in an almost straight line for hyperloop construction. Therefore I imagine construction of hyperloops in densely populated areas becomes a virtual impossibility.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Apr 10, 2018 8:24:19 GMT -5
There's a big difference between high grade and low grade condor rough. The high grade stuff is worth 100/pound or more. Most condor nodules have broken parts where you can get a good sense of what's inside. When I checked out Gem Shop's condor rough, I saw only low quality stuff that was worth maybe $10/pound, though they were selling it for $50. It was probably well picked over. I also tested out those ebay vendors selling rough for $65/pound and also got very low quality rough.
As someone who collects agate specimens, I would say its not really about the price you pay, its more about the quality of the rough you get. One nice specimen of condor is worth hundreds or maybe even thousands.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Apr 1, 2018 19:56:21 GMT -5
I've only cut nodules with this saw. Not sure what you meant by asking if the cuts were straight and even, but I think the answer is yes.
I had some trouble posting pictures to the site, but I managed to improve the blade alignment by putting some shims between the attachment that holds the saw tray to the saw to adjust the position of the tray. It seems a pretty rough method.
Using a dial indicator I was able to improve the alignment to a point where the alignment was off by 1/10 of an inch over a 4 inch length of the blade. Prior to this it was off by 3 times that amount. I don't know of 1/10 of an inch error is still bad or is considered something tolerable, but my saw marks have improved (but still not perfect).
I am quite disappointed that Barranca Diamond would sell a new saw with such a flawed blade alignment. Being the newbie that I am, I used the saw for more than a year without realizing the problems it was causing. Because I am not a handy person, I avoided buying used equipment and opted for what I thought was a quality new saw.
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doublet83
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2016
Posts: 118
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Post by doublet83 on Mar 20, 2018 14:28:12 GMT -5
Yes, it is that saw that woodman posted in the link.
I'll see if I can figure out how to post some pictures of the arbor.
I'm in Easton, PA.
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