Polishing Slabs

[181lizard]

Hey All,
I have some slabs I want to keep as specimens. Can anyone tell me how to put a shine on them? All I have at hand for now, is the normal supplies I use with tumbling.
Thanking you in advance!

[gemkoi]

if you can set up a glass or metal plate in which you load the plate with grits used in tumbling, it can be done. The biggest problem will be it can take allot of time, and elbow grease. and if your slabs have any bad scuff from the slabbin process. The less scuff, the less time in going through that first stage of coarse sanding.

If you've seen a lapping machine, they usually have an edge or catch pan under the main loading plate were the sanding is done. Because keeping your grits and the area clean is a big plus.
Also, the bigger the better, depending on your slab size. Because you want to be able to really move that slab back and forth to help speed up the sanding process. NOT small movements but large ones.

And loading the plate with grit consists of spreading out the grit of choice with a little bit of water to make a slurry just like you tumbling slurry. Then put the slab to it and get a working. You could use your tumbling slurry i suppose as well. keep us posted and im sure others will have input.

[offbeat]

Another method I used a while back was an electric sander. I have a "palm" sander, uses 1/4 of a sheet of standard paper. I used the wet/dry type. I would put the slab on one of those rubber deals so it wouldn't slide around. Spray spray sand sand, keep it wet. Just work your way up in grit size. Then I used a piece of cloth charged with polish for the final shine. It didn't work too bad. Just make sure the stone stays wet and watch your sand paper to make sure it doesn't get too loaded up. How this helps some, Bill

[181lizard]

Thanks Shain & Bill. Snowdog sawed some rocks for me, so I think I'll use them to practice on.

Bill...I have one of those little mouse sanders and an orbital hand held one. Would those work?

[offbeat]

It should, Liz. Just make sure your sand paper can take the water and keep your slabs wet. I wouldn't want to do piles of slabs this way. But it will work well on a limited scale. I had a friend that wanted a Petoskey stone slab done in the shape of AZ. It worked very well for this as the stone is on the soft side. You don't have much to lose giving it a try! Good luck, let us know how you end up! Bill

[dtcmor]

How long of a process does either one of these take (the sander or the flat plate/grit method)? Is it something that can be done within an hour. It seems like the hand version would be a lengthy process. Also, do you use a back and forth motion or more of a circular motion. Sounds like something I would be willing to do, hence the lack of a polishing machine.

[jeffp]

Well i am not sure on stone, but if you lap metal you shoud use a figure of 8 motion to make sure you get an even distibution of the media.

JeffP

[181lizard]

This is one of those experiments that is just flat going to take some time dtcmor!

[polished]

I'm trying this now, too. Actually, my sister is because she has more patience than I do. We tried using glass and grit, but the noise was too much for indoors, so we're using wet/dry sandpaper now. I'm not really sure if we're doing it right, or if this will work, but some slabs we've cut are just begging to be polished as-is.

If we do well at the winter art shows, we might splurge for a flat-lap that will handle smallish slabs. I can't think of any other way to do them.

[gemkoi]

It can be a lenghly process, start to finished, depending on the material being used. And if pitted, like tumbling, clean out inbetween stages to insure no carry over. ON my high speed sander, if there no scuff, it takes only 5 mintues start to finish. On a manuel process the same i would expect an hour per slab easy. BUt that too will change as your learn your own process over time. Ya, circles are better than straight movement, figure 8 would be the best to insure clean polishing.

[dtcmor]

181lizard said:

This is one of those experiments that is just flat going to take some time dtcmor!

Let us know how they turn out. I might just have to give it a try myself, but my time is very limited and is the reason for asking. If It can be done in an hour or so like Freeform says, it will give me something to do besides just tumbling all the time(lol). Hopefully everyone that is going to try it can compare notes with each other and find a surefire system of doing it and what seems to work the best.
Good luck!!