karenfh
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,495
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Post by karenfh on Aug 1, 2013 2:02:35 GMT -5
Hi, all, Looking for something that will crack rather than smash geodes, from a small town farming community. Need to figure this out in the next few days. We have looked all over for a plumber's chain strap cutter to no avail. Working on a 3-point vice thing, but if anyone has any great ideas, let me know! Thanks! k
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Aug 1, 2013 6:54:54 GMT -5
The 3 point splitter should work, but I recommend you score a line around the geode first with a hand-held grinder or similar. That will help the crack track in a more predictable manner. Some people can even get them open nicely with a cold chisel once scored. But the bigger ones are hard even with a big hammer. Good luck.
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Post by deb193redux on Aug 1, 2013 8:52:48 GMT -5
It is hard to believe that pawn shops do not have a SOIL pipe cutter. BUT, I just searched craigslist in Nebraska and came up short. There are some used on ebay, but time is short.
I think at this point you need to look into borrowing one from a plumbing company. The likely do not use it every day, and it is for the museum.
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garock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,168
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Post by garock on Aug 1, 2013 18:15:23 GMT -5
Just a thought ! Home Depot may rent a soil pipe cutter ! Might not hurt to check !
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Post by deb193redux on Aug 1, 2013 21:34:42 GMT -5
oh yeah. good idea. and if they don't a local equipment rental co might.
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karenfh
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,495
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Post by karenfh on Aug 2, 2013 1:39:19 GMT -5
OK, thanks for the ideas, but we don't have pawn shops, we don't have an actual plumbing co. locally, nor do we have a local equipment rental co. besides True Value and the lumber store. Already checked with those places. Nearest home depot is over 100 miles away, as are Lowes, Menards etc. Yep, my town is only pop. 2,018, located in the middle of those crop circles you see on google earth satellite pix. Nearest Wally world is 65 miles away. BUT I think my hubby and the friend who got me into this mess are cooking something up with hydraulics, similar to a log splitter only vertical. Time will tell. We broke up part of the obsidian into smaller pieces, and the friend took the sharp stuff to his shop and ground off the edges. He bled a little for the cause, but the kids will get some safe rainbow obsidian. What an adventure! k
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marinedad
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since December 2010
Posts: 813
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Post by marinedad on Aug 2, 2013 10:07:07 GMT -5
2 good sturdy anchor points and a bottle jack should do it.
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Post by orrum on Aug 2, 2013 12:43:04 GMT -5
Why do u crack them indtead of sawing them in half? Mark sent me some little ones and I intend to saw them. R they so hard they laugh at a diamond blade? While I am at it whats the difference in owyhee gem and just owyhee? Furthermore I have brain pain spasms about that woodchuck chucking wood and how much can he chuck thing? LOL Ok that was a joke about the woodchuck but the other r serious. Thanks, Bill However since my girlfriend, the ravishingly beautiful and so kind lady named Susan who is wildly in love with a disabled, unemployed, ugly, one legged cowboy, namely me says I am a country boy engineering genius. She is wonderful isnt she, Mark/ Marinedad is trying to decoy her!!!! LOL He sends her really grand rocks etc... Back to the subject, as a cowboy engineer with no tools I have frequently used my truck and jack as a press. I would put the geode on the drive, put the jack, bottle jack would work fine, jack the truck up with said geode under it, it probably wont crack but I bet with all that stress a well placed bang with a huge pipe wrench, (u may use a hammer), commonly know as a universal cowboy tool extroidinaire would pop that baby open like a 2 day old dead possum on the side of a road in Ga. on a hot day in July!!!!!!
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karenfh
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,495
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Post by karenfh on Aug 3, 2013 2:04:49 GMT -5
Today, my hubby is my hero. He and the friend (who got me into this museum rock program thing) created some kind of hydraulic doohicky thingy that apparently cracks the geodes 'pretty good, mostly in half, just a few extra pieces sometimes if it ain't a good one.' What a hoot! I asked for a demo; they said I have to wait until Sunday, when we give our rock program at the local museum.
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robsrockshop
has rocks in the head
Member since August 2012
Posts: 715
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Post by robsrockshop on Aug 3, 2013 8:53:26 GMT -5
Hammer and chisel. LOL.
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Post by kap on Aug 3, 2013 11:23:09 GMT -5
Get us a picture when you start cracking them. Good luck!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Aug 3, 2013 16:05:23 GMT -5
My friend Howard lives in Indiana, owns a rock shop and has sold a lot of Indiana Geodes and they look better split than sawn to me. He will use a hatchet and keep going round on the same line till it splits. He has good averages
Hammer & Chisel Method: Unlike the hammer method, which, in essence, crushes the geode – lightly or firmly – and hopes for the best, this method is designed to try to improve the odds of opening the geode in approximately equal halves. To do so, use a rock/crack hammer and flat-blade stone chisel (not a wood chisel; not a screw driver; not an ice pick; not a pointed chisel) to ‘score’ a line around the circumference of the geode. Once you have a line all the way around the geode, go around again. The idea here is to lightly chisel a path to increase the chances that, when the geode breaks open, it will do so on the chiseled line. This process will take some time. If you lose patience and just whack the geode, well, you might as well have used one of the methods above.
The granite quarry uses the same method today of score fracturing their standard 5' x 10' slabs up to 6 inches thick or more. They chalk a line and use a 3 inch flat rock chisel about every 6 inches and a 3 pound short sledge. Howard just taps on the same line about 2-3 revolutions and slowly heavier hits.
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karenfh
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,495
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Post by karenfh on Aug 4, 2013 1:36:22 GMT -5
So, I multi-task. My niece and I had a garage sale today, she needed to make some $$ to pay back her amazing Ambassadors of Music tour to Europe.
My garage is clean, she made over $200. Win-win, true?
Now ask me how many people wanted to buy my rocks and tumblers etc., which I thought were pushed back and out of main sight? What a hoot!
We are going to have fun at the museum tomorrow, and I will surely take pix of whatever my hubby cooked up with good 'ol Nebraska redneck ingenuity and hydraulics. I have lots of safety goggles. And band-aids.
k
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marinedad
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since December 2010
Posts: 813
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Post by marinedad on Aug 8, 2013 13:05:59 GMT -5
how did things go?
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karenfh
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,495
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Post by karenfh on Aug 10, 2013 0:54:51 GMT -5
We had a blast at our local museum. Thanks so much to all here for all your help and advice. I have all my tumblers once again tumbling as a result of this fun little kick in my hindquarters. Now, I need to remember how to get my pix up. It's been awhile and things have changed. Advice? K
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Post by deb193redux on Aug 10, 2013 8:34:43 GMT -5
put them on photobucket or other 3rd party image host. get a URL bracketed in img tags (or add the tags yourself) and include them in your post.
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rykk
spending too much on rocks
Member since September 2011
Posts: 428
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Post by rykk on Aug 24, 2013 1:10:53 GMT -5
Here's what might work and is inexpensive: Go to Ace Hardware or the like and buy a silicon carbide hacksaw blade. Starett and, I think, Irwin make them. You can get the Starett blades 2 for like $9. The are like a round wire about a tenth inch thick with pointy stuff sticking out all over. Clamp or otherwise hold the geode steady and hacksaw a line around the rock maybe 1/4" deep. The blades cut really well and I find them especially useful to cut hardened steel or to saw off a rock protrusion when excavating an amethyst crystal from inside a boulder. Then use a chisel to carefully break it open along the line you hacked. This would, however, work best if your geode was real hollow with a good-sized vug in it. Works well on slabs - kinda like scoring glass, tile, or acrylic and then breaking it off to cut it. Might have to saw deeper for more solid ones. If your geodes are small - kike 2" or so, you could probably just hack them all the way in half and not mess with the hammer/chisel bit. C-ya, Rick
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