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Post by aDave on Feb 18, 2024 17:24:11 GMT -5
to the Forum from Southern CA.
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Post by aDave on Feb 17, 2024 18:46:38 GMT -5
I was reading about "burnishing". Would Dawn dish soap work? Burnishing will not help what you're dealing with. You have some initial "fixes" to do.
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Post by aDave on Feb 17, 2024 18:45:08 GMT -5
Okay, on the changing the font to white...it looks black to me so I am not sure what do there, sorry. On the grit it is Step 1 - 60 grit - 5 days speed 3 Step 2 - 150 grit - 7 days speed 2 Step 3 - 600 grit - 7 days speed 1 Step 4 - 1200 grit - 7 days speed 1 The grit packets came with the rock tumbler. It is a rotary tumbler. I really do not know what kind of rocks I gathered myself. I just picked up interesting looking rocks, but I don't know what kind of rock they are. They were the first load. The second load was the gemstone rocks that came with the tumbler. Tiger eye, amethyst, rose quartz, the regulars that come with every tumbler I guess. The rocks that I gathered myself just tumbled away, I mean, some of them actually disappeared. So I am guessing that were just too soft. They were gone before they even made it to step 3. But some of them looked very nice as long as they remained wet. Then of course I soaked them with mineral oil as per the instruction book said to do if the didn't shine. That made them pop and look great until the mineral oil kind of just wore off. The rocks that came with the tumbler did not fare much better. It was a pound of large, very large in my opinion, rocks that I thought would do better. They did not. Most of them wore away to almost nothing and some disappeared altogether just like the rocks I gathered myself. Which was a huge disappointment as I thought they would do better since they came with the tumbler. Any and all help and suggestions are appreciated! I hope you don't mind, but I changed the font color on your original post. I didn't do anything to content. I'm going to take a wild guess that you have a Nat Geo tumbler or similar. Many of the "toy" or introductory tumblers come with different speeds, somewhat substandard rocks, and polish that isn't really polish. First, do some reading up on the Mohs Hardness scale. It's a means of determining how hard rocks are which will help you determine what rocks are most likely to polish (get a shine). Your rocks that disappeared are too soft and will never polish. They would be on the lower end of the Mohs scale. Ideally, you want rocks somewhere around 7 or above if you want them to shine. Rocks that around a 5 or 6 will probably only smooth and take a matte finish. Jaspers and agates with a hardness of 7 or above are great rocks for beginners to work with. Your 1200 grit is really not a polish, and it won't do much, if anything, to develop a shine. 1200 would be considered a pre-polish, and the best you can expect from it in a rotary tumbler is a matte finish. If you can find an AO (aluminum oxide) polish with AT LEAST a size of 8000, you'll probably be okay. If you can find something above that (say 12000 or so), even better. I can't comment on the speed thing, as I have never used a tumbler like yours. Start with some of the initial changes I've mentioned, and the finer details can be worked after you get better polish and rocks and have run a batch.
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Post by aDave on Feb 17, 2024 18:29:53 GMT -5
Pat, I just changed it now.
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Newbie
Feb 17, 2024 12:17:01 GMT -5
Post by aDave on Feb 17, 2024 12:17:01 GMT -5
to the forum from So CA.
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Post by aDave on Feb 16, 2024 21:27:58 GMT -5
I am no expert on these things, but I'll pose a question to the more knowing. In the second photo, is that a faint seam that appears to go from the 6 on a clock face to a 12 on a clock face? If so, would that impact cut direction? I took the photo and drew around what I'm referring to.
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Post by aDave on Feb 16, 2024 21:10:00 GMT -5
rockbrainVery nicely done. We did our kitchen five years ago, and we did cabinet colors similar to yours. With the exception of our island which is a dark walnut, all of our cabinets are white. We also used large white(ish) subway tiles for our backsplash like you did. I originally didn't want to do it because of the cost, but I'm really happy my wife pushed it. There's no doubt in my mind you'll enjoy it. So, enjoy!
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Post by aDave on Feb 12, 2024 17:54:26 GMT -5
It kinda does but I don't think it's Gary Green (respectfully)- I have a few pieces of GG and they are very different from this- this is finer-grained and lacks all blues No issues at all, and my feelings aren't hurt. As I mentioned, I'm no expert, but I thought I'd take a crack at it. Someone will come along that will be able to help.
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Post by aDave on Feb 12, 2024 17:38:04 GMT -5
It kind of looks like Gary Green Jasper (Larsonite), but I'm no ID expert.
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Post by aDave on Feb 12, 2024 13:53:27 GMT -5
Happy belated birthday, Rick!
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Post by aDave on Feb 11, 2024 1:02:24 GMT -5
gemfeller Rick, It's nice to see that you have been able to cab again. We spoke about this a few years ago, and you had impediments then. Nice to see you were able to clear your plate and do cabs. Great work. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by aDave on Feb 10, 2024 13:14:07 GMT -5
I am close to being caught up on tumbling the rocks I found this summer and now it's time to experiment a bit. I have some small slabs of blue forest petrified wood and some other petrified wood that I've slabbed. I am satisfied with their shape and they measure 1.5" to 2" in diameter. I have rotary tumblers and a mini-sonic tumbler. After looking through the achieves, I got some aquarium gravel and also have cheremic pellets. Here are my questions. 1. Would you even tumble them at all or would you use the wet disc pads and go through the step grades? 2. Would you advise using the rotary or the vibe? 3. Since I am happy with the shape, would you skip Stage 1? 4. Do you slab one at a time or can you do multiple mini- slabs? if so, considering the size of the slabs, how many would you do at a time? A lot of questions here, but I would appreciate any advice that you can provide! THANK YOU in advance! I've not (personally) tumbled cabs, but plenty of folks here have. Here are Forum search results for "tumbling cabs." There are a fair amount of threads in the results, so you might get the answers to your questions and maybe even more helpful information. Even so, I'll quickly hit your questions, though my tumbling has always involved rough rock and not cut slabs/cabs. 1 & 2: If it were me, a vibe tumbler would be my tool of choice over the rotary. Because of the way the rotaries work, there's too much risk of breakage when compared to a vibe. Also, shaping appears to be more uniform and consistent. 3. Are you referring to stage 1 (coarse grind) in a rotary? If so, it's not needed, you'll lose too much material, and (reshaping) is not what you are looking for. Go with a vibe and start with 120/220 grit. This grit will still soften edges and do some smoothing for you. You can then finish things off as you normally would with different stages. 4. Not having done cabs before, I'm thinking you can do multiple cabs, and you might want to see what a 50/50 mix of cabs to ceramics or other filler. That's just a guess on the ratio. Here's the search results: www.google.com/search?q=tumbling+cabs&sitesearch=forum.rocktumblinghobby.com#ip=1
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Post by aDave on Feb 8, 2024 2:14:22 GMT -5
Another question. I have been thinking that if I want to help speed things along I could do some grinding before the tumbling to help pre shape the jasper. I have a pedestal bench grinder in the garage. Could I buy some kind of diamond disc for the grinder or do I need to buy a whole new machine dedicated to rock shaping? If my Google search for "pedestal bench grinder" turned out results like what you have, my initial inclination is "no." The main reason for me is I would want to work with an appliance that has the ability to grind things while wet, simply to keep the dust down, even if dry grinding with a mask respirator. Sure, you could grind it while dry, but you'd be throwing silica dust all over the place, and you'd have to clean it up at some point in time. I'm guessing that even before cleaning the dust, you'd be walking through it or cleaning up without respiratory protection, and it might even be on your clothes...thus a still potential hazard. That may be extra precautious, but that's just me. Depending on how much grinding you're expecting to do, an inexpensive tile saw *could* be an option. The blade will turn through the water in the sump, and you can grind against the side of a sintered blade. I did my minute grinding this way, and it worked pretty well. At the same time, you can use the saw to help size down some of your material. There are probably other ideas I'm not aware of...maybe even related to using some type of lap or a cabbing wheel, but that's beyond my scope. I'll be paying attention to see what others have to add.
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Post by aDave on Feb 7, 2024 12:38:08 GMT -5
rocknewb101 I don't know if you've seen this saw document, but it has quite a bit of information in it, including a discussion about "sharpening" a saw blade. I've used the swedging technique to increase the life of my tile saw blades which really tend to take a beating due to the material I tend to cut, the use of water as opposed to oil, and the higher RPMs of tile saws. Perhaps the videos you've been provided are sufficient, but I thought I'd pass this along anyhow. Restoring the edge of your saw blade starts on page 5. forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/52499/general-lapidary-infoETA: I'm using a sintered blade as opposed to notched, so what I do in peening my blade is a bit different than what you might do with yours (as shown in the video).
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Post by aDave on Feb 7, 2024 12:24:04 GMT -5
Well, I'll just add another congratulations among the others.
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Post by aDave on Feb 7, 2024 12:16:31 GMT -5
Happy birthday James!
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Post by aDave on Feb 5, 2024 22:58:34 GMT -5
Save the larger pieces for when you start slabbing and cabbing. However, you could break them into smaller pieces, just be careful. Is Stoney Creek the same as stone canyon jasper? It is some mighty fine brecciated jasper. I think many people confuse the two jasper locations due to the similar qualities. Stoney Creek is a few hundred miles north of Stone Canyon. That's it! That's the location I was confusing things with. I knew it to be somewhere near Parkfield or Paso Robles. Thanks for clarifying and mentioning it. Now I feel better.
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Post by aDave on Feb 5, 2024 18:29:46 GMT -5
Whoa, I really missed this. Hope your birthday was a good one.
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Post by aDave on Feb 5, 2024 17:31:01 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern CA. We have a very active group of tumblers, among others, so you've come to the right place. Enjoy your stay.
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Post by aDave on Feb 4, 2024 23:26:29 GMT -5
Well, from a personal standpoint, we've done pretty good so far. As of this writing, we've had only 2" of rain today. While heavy rain is still projected, we've managed to skirt much of the heavy precipitation that has come into the region. I've watched the local news and what's gone on in the state, and we've done well, all things considered. Granted, it's still early, as the storm's impact for us was delayed. I've already seen some video of folks kayaking in their streets in a community 30 minutes away, so I know there are folks who have suffered far worse than we have. We've now learned that rain can be heavy at times through Wednesday morning. That's just us in southeast Ventura County.
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