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Post by Linda on Apr 6, 2004 12:20:04 GMT -5
Here's the deal ... My husband & I are building a house and soon will have to choose kitchen cabinet hardware. The only drawer pulls/knobs I've seen that I really like are polished stones on a simple pedestal.
We live near a river and have been collecting the appropriately sized stones. As an experiment we used epoxy to mount a couple of rocks on the hardware, then dipped them in urethane (3 coats).
The experiment, although pleasing, is somehow lacking something. I'm wondering about purchasing a tumbler and smoothing and shining the rocks up a bit, however; I'm not after a high gloss "gem quality" look. I still want the rocks to look like rocks - perhaps just a half step more beautiful than their natural state.
Can someone get me started on what I need to do? I'm totally clueless!
Thanks!
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bschultz
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2004
Posts: 234
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Post by bschultz on Apr 6, 2004 12:47:20 GMT -5
I would go ahead and tumble them in coarse grit like 69-90 until you get them about the shape you want and then go to the next step with a finer grit. When the get the finish that you desire just stop. Your done.
Bob
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Post by mrbrett on Apr 6, 2004 12:59:29 GMT -5
look down on the threads posted and you will see a site on tumblers that can help you select a tumbler. As for grit check out the site for The good ,bad and the ugly. That will get you in the right direction on buying grit and other products.
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linda
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2004
Posts: 2
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Post by linda on Apr 6, 2004 18:32:05 GMT -5
Any general idea of how long it would take to "pretty up" my river rocks? Keep in mind, I'm not interested in changing the basic shape - just polishing them up a bit. Thanks! Linda
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tjmax
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since March 2004
Posts: 79
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Post by tjmax on Apr 6, 2004 18:40:24 GMT -5
river rocks tend to be pretty smooth but depending on how polished you want them will make the difference in how long it would take.
River rocks are basicly like the first tumble, if they are smooth enough you may be able to go right to prepolish and then polish. If you use a roller tumbler, 15 days maby depending on how polished you want them. If your using a vibrating tumbler likely half that.
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Post by rockyraccoon on May 4, 2004 20:21:50 GMT -5
linda i was looking for drawer knobs as my child has stripped out the knobs to the drawers in the coffee table and found these and thought you might like to look at them: store.yahoo.com/myknobs/arizonaseries.htmland for some of you much more talented than me these are very cool: store.yahoo.com/myknobs/artinstsestk.htmland i'm wondering if that turquoise is dyed howlite? and i wish they weren't so expensive considering i'd need 10 . kim
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linda
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2004
Posts: 2
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Post by linda on May 5, 2004 23:20:40 GMT -5
Kim: That is exactly the look I'm after and, like you, thought they were too expensive - starts to add up when you need 10 or more! My tumbled river rocks are going to work just great. I purchased small, pedestal-type drawer pulls from myknobs.com that are fairly inexpensive and the perfect mounting for my tumbled stones. Thanks a lot for the info. Linda
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