zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 28, 2017 0:55:56 GMT -5
I used to use that recipe, or something very similar. Now I do this: 220 SiC - 2 days 500 AO and borax - 2 days 1000 AO and borax - 2 days AO polish and borax - 2 days I use 2 tablespoons of 220, 1 tablespoons of borax, and 1/2 teaspoon of everything else. I switch to my polish barrel just for polishing. The Lot-O instructions from the manufacturer say that they found that cerium does not work well in the Lot-O. When I used that recipe, I used tin oxide. I never use tin oxide any more. I burnish with borax between stages for 15 minutes to an hour. I'll give your recipe a try next batch. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 27, 2017 20:29:22 GMT -5
Thanks all. I love the cab, but I need to sit down with pencil and paper, make some design sketches and see if something trips my trigger. I make mostly traditional Native American style jewelry and this shape is not well suited for that. Re cutting is a last resort, but is not off the table. The more I look at it, the more I think it needs a second or third stone separated by sterling to make a simple intarsia type cab. I love the blue cells. You don't see that color very much these days. Take a leap of design! & break away from your standard Native style. I agree that you should sit on it for a while & see what kind of inspiration happens. I'm trying to talk you out of recutting it & turning more bone cells into dust. I'm sure you can come up with a pleasing way to wrap some sterling around it. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 27, 2017 20:23:58 GMT -5
Wow, that's a whole lot of shiny cabs. Nice! I find your Lot-O procedure interesting. It seems like you're doubling up on a couple of stages. Your unknown prepolish and Tripoli seem redundant and aluminum oxide and cerium oxide also seem redundant. Do you notice a difference after each of these stages? I do 220, 500, 1000, then aluminum oxide polish. Most of time, I don't know if the 1000 is even necessary, but what's a couple more days? Whatever you're doing, it's working well. Here's the recipe I got from here: From 2nd Stage 2 Tablespoons 220 Grit, Run 48 Hours, Wash Up 1/2 teaspoon 400 grit, Run 24 hours, Wash up 1/2 teaspoon 600 Grit, Run 24 hours, Wash up Burnishing stage 1 teaspoon soapflakes 2 teaspoons Borax. Run overnight 12 to 18 hours. Wash up. I also change barrel to polishing barrel at this stage. From now on NO washing just adding ingredients 1/2 Teaspoon 1000grit ----------Run 48 Hours ADD 1/2 teaspoon Tripoli ---------Run 24 hours ADD 1/2 teaspoon Tin Oxide AND 1/2 teaspoon Cerium Oxide -----Run for 48 Hours I'm using my unknown pre-polish instead of 1000. I don't have tripoli either so I'm using another unknown polish. Notice teh Aluminum Oxide & Cerium Oxide go in at the same time. True, I may be doubling up by not knowing what polishes I have. Someday I'll be more scientific & do some A/B testing of polishes. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 27, 2017 11:08:10 GMT -5
I know Tony Funk catmandewe & Diane drocknut have asked me about hounding near Cedar City. I'd love to host a few crazy RTH rockhounds here when the weather gets better. Let's keep this topic alive & see if we can pull it off. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 27, 2017 11:05:22 GMT -5
I posted on page 2 of this thread about the Royston mine & our club's trip there last April. Here is a photo of some of the cabs I cut from what I found that day. The largest cab is about 43mm long. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 26, 2017 21:32:50 GMT -5
I'm staying out of the hills until the ground is drier. I would love to escort some RTHers to a couple of agate and Jasper sites close to Cedar City and Enterprise Utah when the weather gets more predictable. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 25, 2017 18:48:03 GMT -5
Holy cow! You win the internet today! Sir, do you have the internet at your house? ... ... ... ... Could you send him home, please.
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 25, 2017 18:18:07 GMT -5
I just finished a batch of double-sided cabs. I think there are 80 of them plus 10 or so single sided cabs. I removed most of the regular cabs for this photo. I started by shaping them on the 60 grit sintered wheel. I drilled the hole & then resumed with shaping. I finalized the shape on a 220 plated wheel. Then into the Lot-O tumbler using 220, 400, 600, an unknown "prepolish" & then tripoli, aluminum oxide & cerium oxide. I follow a recipe I found here with a couple of tweaks to suit the grits & polishes I have acquired. I spent a couple of weeks on the shaping. They only filled my barrel halfway, so I used ceramic pellets to fill up the space. The tumbling takes 10 days. I'm very pleased with the results. They took a great shine. After shaping a cab, the rest is pretty tedious. I hope no liberals are sad that a machine took away my job made my job easier. There are lots of Indian Blanket jasper, Cedar City agate, Montana Moss agate, & some other jaspers and agates. I will add some closeups as I have time to shoot more pix. These are drilled with a 2.5 - 3mm hole. A waxed cotton cord with magnetic clasps on the ends makes it into a pendant. My first show isn't until Mother's Day weekend, so I'm building up my inventory. I also need to get my Etsy store going again after not having anything in it for a long time. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 25, 2017 15:03:25 GMT -5
rockpickerforever, quit gambling while you're ahead. Enjoy the $40. When Calif started the lottery back in the 80's, I bought one $1 ticket. Haven't bought one since. I got it out of my system. Now I can say I'm a gambler & a loser!
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 20, 2017 19:23:29 GMT -5
A four year old thread Scott? Don't you have something to post about resurrecting old threads? (too lazy to go find it) I like resurrected 4 year old threads. It's kind of like time travel & my time machine is in the shop right now. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 17, 2017 18:48:00 GMT -5
It was a Google search for me. I was looking for info on lapidary, not necessarily tumbling. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 16, 2017 12:10:53 GMT -5
Where do you usually buy cabs? Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 16, 2017 12:09:45 GMT -5
1dave , Dr. Who did not work on your sister. Dr. Jordy Cox did! Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 14, 2017 0:49:03 GMT -5
All wonderful, but the GYP really caught my eye. What is GYP? Truly the set is a feast for the eyes. Thanks. GYP is GraveYard Plume Agate from Idaho. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 13, 2017 21:07:10 GMT -5
Zarguy. Looks like the seller misidentified your piece. That is sooooo not Cathedral agate. Cathedral is very distinctive stuff and very botryoidal or stalactite like in formation. Much more likely Bloody Basin.....Mel He could have misidentified it, or since it happened before today, my brain may have messed up that bit of data. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 13, 2017 20:20:57 GMT -5
It also looks like a wonderful slab of Cathedral agate from Mexico that I bought last year at Quartzite. The seller was a guy from Tennessee named Jerry near the south west corner of the Pow-Wow. Dry Wet Detail With a pendant in progress of Holt Canyon (Utah) jasp/agate. They all look like they were formed under similar geologic conditions. Triplet sons of the same Mother Earth. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 13, 2017 19:13:20 GMT -5
That kind of precision & repeatability is often achieved via a jig. I have knapper friends who do so. Lynn Yes he uses a jig Lynn. Details like polishing the impact face for the most repeatability and reading a rock to be homogenous are needed skills for a jig. He has a unique cab machine to perform some of the functions. It is his own design. And a furnace for heat treatment, proper heating a trick in itself. He had 4 hours in that piece. I'm familiar with the flake-over-grinding technique which involves making the basic shape on the wheels & then popping flakes off. I'm curious about his self-designed grinding machine. What's different about it? Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 13, 2017 18:24:42 GMT -5
jamesp Your knapper friend is a flakin' magician! That's something to aspire to. Lynn It's a skill on a different level Lynn. No idea what he meditates about to perform such. Herbal influence ? Shaman communication... I have a love for chipping jewelry sized chips for tumbling. I understand how difficult it is to control a hammer blow. But removing material with that precision and repeatability is just not right. That kind of precision & repeatability is often achieved via a jig. I have knapper friends who do so. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 13, 2017 15:24:24 GMT -5
jamesp Your knapper friend is a flakin' magician! That's something to aspire to. Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Feb 8, 2017 19:57:35 GMT -5
Hey Lynn I picked up some Purdy chunks of Indian Blanket jasper a while back.. gotta post some pics and show you. Oh yeah, still have the Zar card game I won at the BBQ a few years ago Zar is not to have, Zar is to play. Open the box, read the rules & get playing! Lynn
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