An unbalanced vibe tumbler ! a 13 hour polish

[jamesp]

Cranked up the old vibrasonic after a long rest only to find out the left hopper was not being vibrated well. Note lack of grey slurry on left from SiC 600.



The set screw had come loose on the left side counterweight.



Adjusted it to match the right side counterweight and all looks good. This is the start of the AO 220 step. Yes, SiC 600 initially leaves a much rougher surface that AO 220. The SiC is just plain aggressive.

[jamesp]

Pre-polish step: The right side pile had been in AO 220 for three days.
Polish step: The left side pile has been in AO (14,000)polish for 13 hours.
Both operations done in the vibe.
Glass and agates mixed(coral colored stone at left is Mohs 7 silicified coral).
Media was 40% by volume pre-tumbled quartz pea gravel. Slurry was sugar based syrup.

Even after 3 hours the glass and stones had a decent polish with the 3 day AO 220 prep.

[victor1941]

I really like the beauty of your glass pieces and especially the bottom left.

[tims]

Had to watch the videos just to hear that viking growling Haven't used mine enough to justify owning it.

Your glass is sure pretty.

[jamesp]

Jun 6, 2024 14:11:15 GMT -5 victor1941 said:

I really like the beauty of your glass pieces and especially the bottom left.

It is probably a good thing that creek rocks don't exist in so many colors Victor.

[jamesp]

Jun 6, 2024 14:38:32 GMT -5 tims said:

Had to watch the videos just to hear that viking growling Haven't used mine enough to justify owning it.

Your glass is sure pretty.

It is an old vintage beast tims. The Vibrasonic was around in the 70's, not sure when it was first released. Thanks.
It takes about 10 minutes of running hot water over it to dissolve the sugar. Maybe it work better if I placed the tumbles on a fire ant mound.

[JR8675309]

Where does one get AO 14K? I've not seen that.

[nantucketdink]

Just sharing that I love my VT35 Vibrasonic. It’s the one big single container. I use sugar too to slow it down and protect the loads better. It is a polishing beast. Great machine! Have only had it for a few months. Very satisfied with my purchase.

[jamesp]

Jun 16, 2024 14:09:52 GMT -5 JR8675309 said:

Where does one get AO 14K? I've not seen that.

The Rock Shed carries AO polish that is +/-14,000. Most AO polish varies from 3000 to 14,000, some is even 50,000. Bigger the number the smaller the particle of course(reverse polish notation ? ). 5000 to 14,000 will polish about equally well in a tumbler because it breaks down to 50,000-100,000 if tumbler is adjusted proper.
Put it this way, the polish gets smaller by breaking down in a tumbler, the most common problem is poor prep in earlier abrasives like pre-polish or the tumbler is a bit to violent to allow a 50,000 grit polish because of "microscopic level damage" to the polished surface. A tumbler that beats the rocks up is common occurrence(proper fill/slurry/oversize rocks/etc), you know the game.

[jamesp]

Jun 16, 2024 15:48:55 GMT -5 nantucketdink said:

Just sharing that I love my VT35 Vibrasonic. It’s the one big single container. I use sugar too to slow it down and protect the loads better. It is a polishing beast. Great machine! Have only had it for a few months. Very satisfied with my purchase.

Is this the one with the 35 pound hopper nantucket ? One of the past members welded up a hopper out of a steel pipe that held something like 80 pounds. That 1/3 hp base unit would shake it well. He polished larger slabs in it go figure.

Sugar works great in those Vibrasonics, not so well in the Lot-O(my experience).

Enjoy !