Post by rxscram on Aug 3, 2011 14:09:39 GMT -5
Hi Everybody,
New member here from southern California (about 15 miles East of Pasadena).
I'm just getting into the hobby (after a long hiatus from my childhood), but am already hooked... already thinking about what's the next gadget I can buy to feed my addiction. I'm just doing tumbling right now, and just barely starting at that... sort of.
Anyway, I hope to learn a lot from everybody here, and also hope to share my experiences!
Jeff (RxScram)
(P.S... if you want to know why I say I'm just barely getting started, here's why: I initially started with a bag of mixed rocks from Lortone that came with the new tumbler. In an excited frenzy, I quickly ran through the 4 stages according to the manufacturer directions. A month or so later, I had the following to show for it - a few rocks that were acceptably shiny (but not exceptional - Amethyst and Quartz, mostly), several rocks that were very promising but had yet to take on a shine (sandstone varieties), rocks that were shiny but highly flawed (Carnelian), and a smattering of rocks in between.
After this somewhat disappointing experience, I decided I needed to be smarter about things. (My wife, the Physics professor, helped with this. )
Before continuing on, I went on vacation to visit family in Nevada. In the town where I grew up there is a rock shop that I spent many hours in as a kid, pestering the owner and buying what I could afford on my allowance. This time, I went there with a purpose- to buy rocks, and a lot of them. I succeeded, naturally, and between the rocks I bought there and the rocks that my parents had gathered in exploring the Nevada desert, I boarded my flight back home with about 60 pounds more luggage than I started with. The lady at the luggage counter was not happy when she found out she was hauling rocks around!
Well, along with the multiple rocks (most of them in the 4-7 pound range), I also got a high quality Moh's hardness kit, to aid in future tumbling.
So, anyway... after returning home to SoCal, my wife and I decided to take a much more systematic approach to learning the hobby. First, we sorted out the rocks I had already tumbled and put them into 5 bags, designated as TBD and Stage 1-4.
TBD - To be determined. Basically, rocks that were fractured, cracked, or that we just didn't think we knew enough yet to do anything with.
Stage 1 - Rocks that were still pitted or uneven, or that we otherwise felt needed to go back.
Stage 2 - Rocks that might have very small inperfections, or that we didn't think would survive another trip to stage 1.
Stage 3 and Stage 4 - Pretty self explanatory.
We also had a bag for soft vs hard stones, but after testing everything we only had one rock that wasn't in the 6-7 range. That one was a 4, so we put it in the TBD bag.
We still had 2-3 bags of Lortone tumbling rough that hadn't been touched yet, so we then sorted out the contents of those bags and grouped like stones together. This gave us 10 or so groups, and about 5 singletons.
After sorting, we selected about 1/3 to 1/2 of each group to go into the tumbler. We tried to get an even mix of small, medium, and large rocks from each group so that we could have a good variety. We also selected the singletons to go in the first tumbler batch. The other stones we put into their own Stage 1 bag.
Once we had selected the stones for the first tumbling batch, we took photos of each group so that we could track them through the process.
This first batch has now been in stage 1 for about 10 days. We pulled them out after a week, cleaned and rinsed them and the barrel, then sorted them. We pulled out a small number that were ready for stage 2 and placed them in the appropriate bag, but the rest we put back in, reloaded with grit (and I added some beads for cushioning, having noticed some fracturing), and are now tumbling away some more.
We're hoping that photo documenting the process and taking an organized approach to it will aid in understanding what to expect with given rock shapes and types for future batches. After we complete this batch, we are going to do the other batch of lortone rough that we have sorted, and try for similar or better results. After we are done with those, we are going to take another look at the (fairly large, to be honest) TBD bag and try to apply some insight into those stones. Then, finally, we are going to look at the large stones I brought home from Nevada and try to determine how to break them up and turn them into something pretty.
If you've read this far, thank you! I'll be posting pictures of the various stages as they progress.
New member here from southern California (about 15 miles East of Pasadena).
I'm just getting into the hobby (after a long hiatus from my childhood), but am already hooked... already thinking about what's the next gadget I can buy to feed my addiction. I'm just doing tumbling right now, and just barely starting at that... sort of.
Anyway, I hope to learn a lot from everybody here, and also hope to share my experiences!
Jeff (RxScram)
(P.S... if you want to know why I say I'm just barely getting started, here's why: I initially started with a bag of mixed rocks from Lortone that came with the new tumbler. In an excited frenzy, I quickly ran through the 4 stages according to the manufacturer directions. A month or so later, I had the following to show for it - a few rocks that were acceptably shiny (but not exceptional - Amethyst and Quartz, mostly), several rocks that were very promising but had yet to take on a shine (sandstone varieties), rocks that were shiny but highly flawed (Carnelian), and a smattering of rocks in between.
After this somewhat disappointing experience, I decided I needed to be smarter about things. (My wife, the Physics professor, helped with this. )
Before continuing on, I went on vacation to visit family in Nevada. In the town where I grew up there is a rock shop that I spent many hours in as a kid, pestering the owner and buying what I could afford on my allowance. This time, I went there with a purpose- to buy rocks, and a lot of them. I succeeded, naturally, and between the rocks I bought there and the rocks that my parents had gathered in exploring the Nevada desert, I boarded my flight back home with about 60 pounds more luggage than I started with. The lady at the luggage counter was not happy when she found out she was hauling rocks around!
Well, along with the multiple rocks (most of them in the 4-7 pound range), I also got a high quality Moh's hardness kit, to aid in future tumbling.
So, anyway... after returning home to SoCal, my wife and I decided to take a much more systematic approach to learning the hobby. First, we sorted out the rocks I had already tumbled and put them into 5 bags, designated as TBD and Stage 1-4.
TBD - To be determined. Basically, rocks that were fractured, cracked, or that we just didn't think we knew enough yet to do anything with.
Stage 1 - Rocks that were still pitted or uneven, or that we otherwise felt needed to go back.
Stage 2 - Rocks that might have very small inperfections, or that we didn't think would survive another trip to stage 1.
Stage 3 and Stage 4 - Pretty self explanatory.
We also had a bag for soft vs hard stones, but after testing everything we only had one rock that wasn't in the 6-7 range. That one was a 4, so we put it in the TBD bag.
We still had 2-3 bags of Lortone tumbling rough that hadn't been touched yet, so we then sorted out the contents of those bags and grouped like stones together. This gave us 10 or so groups, and about 5 singletons.
After sorting, we selected about 1/3 to 1/2 of each group to go into the tumbler. We tried to get an even mix of small, medium, and large rocks from each group so that we could have a good variety. We also selected the singletons to go in the first tumbler batch. The other stones we put into their own Stage 1 bag.
Once we had selected the stones for the first tumbling batch, we took photos of each group so that we could track them through the process.
This first batch has now been in stage 1 for about 10 days. We pulled them out after a week, cleaned and rinsed them and the barrel, then sorted them. We pulled out a small number that were ready for stage 2 and placed them in the appropriate bag, but the rest we put back in, reloaded with grit (and I added some beads for cushioning, having noticed some fracturing), and are now tumbling away some more.
We're hoping that photo documenting the process and taking an organized approach to it will aid in understanding what to expect with given rock shapes and types for future batches. After we complete this batch, we are going to do the other batch of lortone rough that we have sorted, and try for similar or better results. After we are done with those, we are going to take another look at the (fairly large, to be honest) TBD bag and try to apply some insight into those stones. Then, finally, we are going to look at the large stones I brought home from Nevada and try to determine how to break them up and turn them into something pretty.
If you've read this far, thank you! I'll be posting pictures of the various stages as they progress.