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Post by puppie96 on Mar 5, 2004 14:28:18 GMT -5
Thank you! Would you say that the titanium oxide gave better results than cerium oxide? Do you have any sense at all of which rocks it is best for?
Your approach sounds a lot more scientific than mine.
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 7, 2004 11:33:07 GMT -5
Hey Puppie, I started my rubies again. They've been running for two days now in 60/90 grit dry. Don't know if it's helping grind the rubies any, but it's obviously a quick way to make some fine grit if I run out.
Ron
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James
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 876
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Post by James on Mar 7, 2004 15:54:18 GMT -5
Titanium oxide is my polish of choice for rocks that have a hardness of 6 to 7 in the mohs scale. I've had great results with moonstone, agate and jasper thus far. Currently, I'm 4 days into a load of gold and blue Tigers eye. I'll post pictures when done.
I too, have read to negative feadback about Titanium oxide on this board. All I can say, is make sure that you run the rocks long enough in 60/90 grit to eliminate any pits and cracks. Then, as I had mentioned before, use a toothbrush with hot, soapy water, to remove any excess polish.
One more note on Titanium oxide; It comes as a standard polish with Thumlers Tumblers.
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 8, 2004 3:15:09 GMT -5
Wow, never thought of trying to run the rubies dry. I'd be afraid it would really tear up the barrel, among other things. I ran some for the zillionth time to a polish point and have them in cerium oxide now. But, I've been tricked before. I'd sure like to know whether titanium might be worth a try, but I'm not clear at all on whether it could be superior on really hard stones. If it really does have that much propensity to stick in cracks and pits, it's probably a terrible idea to try to use it on the ruby and saphs. To be honest, I really am getting a little excited this time. Stuff in there was looking pretty darn good. And as I've often said up here, I'm really proud of my emeralds. They are just awesome!
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Skipper
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 258
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Post by Skipper on Mar 8, 2004 15:07:22 GMT -5
Titanium Ox came with my set and i've used it a lot. I've found that it does an excellent job on agates, but not as good on jasper. My tiger jasper looks not bad, but my red jasper is very dull, even after 2 weeks. I just bought a lb of cerium to try out on the stuff the titanium won't do.
My lapidary says Titanium is a great all-round polish for the price (very cheap), so I'll likely use that consistenly in the first week of polish, then switch to cerium for the stuff it doesn't do well.
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 9, 2004 13:35:40 GMT -5
Hey Puppie, just took my rubies out of the dry tumble after 4 days in th 60/90. The grit appears to be finer now than my 600 grit is. And I thought that a regular grit change could be messy! The grit was so fine that I had to wear a dust mask the grit just flew every time I touched it. Everything was gray, including the rubies, and I had to scrub to get it all clean. I had to scrub to even see how much good it did in dry tumble. It was kind of odd, I had one rock that no grit whatsoever stuck to. It stood out like a sore thumb in the barrel. I put it aside for further "study". That's another way of saying that I'll set it aside to look at later, and then forget what it is and throw it in with something else. Now that I'm done griping about all of the mess, it did seem to do a lot of good. Some of the rocks actually look like ruby now. I was beginning to think that I was doing all of this work just to make a bunch of shiny crud. Started rubies again in water this time, I just bumped up the amount of grit that I put in by 50%. By the way, the four days in dry rough took away another 1/4 pound of material.
Ron
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 10, 2004 1:14:23 GMT -5
I've got some in every phase right now, I think. 1 batch 2nd time through 60/90, and this is after days in the vibe. One batch in cerium oxide. Most of it is second time around. 2 more in intermediate stages. Checked the polish ones the other day, they were looking pretty. Maybe there is hope. Try emeralds.
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RiverOtter
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2004
Posts: 339
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Post by RiverOtter on Mar 10, 2004 12:32:39 GMT -5
Since we are on the subject of rubies/emeralds and sapphs, is there anyway that those of you that are working on these could post a few pics of before, during and after. I would kinda like to see what you all are getting after your grit stages so I have some idea what to look for when I do mine.
Thanks, Otter
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Banjocreek
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since March 2003
Posts: 1,115
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Post by Banjocreek on Mar 10, 2004 15:15:11 GMT -5
Here is an after picture of some Emerald I did. I never did a before picture. Now I can see (since this was only my second batch) that I should have left them in the 60/90 longer. The polish is Cerium Oxide and they tumbled with some Agates. I'm learning; and they were not nearly as difficult as the Rubies that I hear you guys discussing.
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Post by creativeminded on Mar 10, 2004 17:38:43 GMT -5
Those are beautiful.
Tami
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 11, 2004 1:54:33 GMT -5
Damn! I can't get the pics. Any suggestions?
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 11, 2004 9:45:06 GMT -5
The problem seems to be at Banjo's end. Made any changes to your site Banjo?
Ron
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 11, 2004 10:47:57 GMT -5
I'm going to try to post Banjo's emeralds here:
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Banjocreek
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since March 2003
Posts: 1,115
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Post by Banjocreek on Mar 11, 2004 11:05:52 GMT -5
Is this photo still not linking? I have it ftp'd from space on my providers server. The server supplying the web page I built got upset for me not paying a premium to link photos with their space. They want more $$$! Thanks Ron appreciate the help. They'll be a little something extra in you check this week ;D -Banjocreek
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 12, 2004 4:02:30 GMT -5
Wow, now I can see 'em! Great! They look familiar! I have just got to figure out how to put a picture up here. Maybe tomorrow I will.
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 12, 2004 10:09:17 GMT -5
I'll take a photo of my rubies when I recharge next time. They'll have at least 30 days of roughing by then. I need to post these to see if they look anything like others have done. I can understand the ruby being hard and being slow to grind, but I can't even seem to get through the outer shell of material. I wouldn't have thought that it would be that tough to at least see the ruby inside!
Ron
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RiverOtter
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2004
Posts: 339
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Post by RiverOtter on Mar 14, 2004 17:42:03 GMT -5
I really appreciate everyone sharing your pics. I think this will work well for those of us who are first timers at doing the ruby/saph/ems. I understand what your saying Ron. We ran some saphs for about 3 weeks and still nothing that looked like any saph I had every seen. I know it takes awhile, but it really made me begin to wonder if I had gotten junk for rough. I'm hoping to get them back into the barrel as soon as my new tumbler arrives.
Otter
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 14, 2004 18:13:39 GMT -5
I'm going to post a few pictures here of my rubies. The first one is of all 9 pounds of matrix that I received. The second one is just a closer up shot of some of the rough. The third is what I have after 30 days in 60/90 grit. It amounts to 3 7/8 pounds. And it still doesn't look a whole lot like ruby. I think that I'll be lucky if I end up with 2 pounds. Ron
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Post by stoner on Mar 14, 2004 22:36:55 GMT -5
Hey Ron. Did you see the pic I posted in the photos section of my rubies at 14days? It looks like all you've gained in 16 days are rounder edges. Does anybody have any pics of a completed batch of rubies? Is there such a thing?
later, Ed
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Post by rockyraccoon on Mar 15, 2004 0:18:48 GMT -5
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