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Post by krazydiamond on Jul 30, 2004 18:40:03 GMT -5
but'cha gotta burp yer rocks, llanago! especially in the first and second grinds. that is what my instructions say anyway, to release the gas...(rock farts). i need to get a wooden spoon, i guess. and yes, i've stuck my hand in the barrel but (Winnie the Pooh Rock), ewwwwwwww......what a mess.
got to agree with you on trucks, paid for is the best, diesel, no way. they stink. and i love my Dodge Dakota. we bought a plow for it last year and took charge of our own driveway again after griping about the service we were paying way too much for....
you know you are in the zone when you have your own revolving orange light.....very empowering. and at 5am in the morning i need all the help i can get to stay awake and focused. i hate winter, glad it is July for another day.
KD
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Post by cookie3rocks on Jul 30, 2004 19:47:29 GMT -5
Hey Llana, I think everybody allready said everything I was gonna say, but just wanted you to know I'm here for you. I shake my vibe frenquently in coarse. The fresh stones get locked up real easily. Recently figured out the side of the bowl where the plug wire is is just a tad lower. I put some things up under that side and it rolls much better now. Maybe, if you have a level, you can check to see if it needs a match book under one side ;D
cookie
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RiverOtter
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2004
Posts: 339
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Post by RiverOtter on Jul 31, 2004 0:19:35 GMT -5
I can't say as I blame you, hubby's truck does stink. But believe it or not it's not as loud as some gasoline engines I've heard. And I really have to think hard when I know his gets 20 mpg (even when towing) and my 6 banger gets 17. But I think I'd still rather have the blue truck back, 12 mpg and all. Otter
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Post by docone31 on Jul 31, 2004 1:32:34 GMT -5
LLanago I bet you take pretty good care of things. Keep in mind, when the engine needs refreshing, upgrading the camshaft at rebuild time. Meantime, the wife and I are evacing the bat cave here. We picked up the van and with the modifications, my wife feels pretty comfortable. The addition of a rear stabilizer bar makes the van track like a Miata. One real bonus to keeping a beater, new on the inside old on the outside, we run a jewelery business. People do not look at us twice. We just slip in unnoticed. We redid the exhaust today, 3 1/2 dual from the manifold pipes with 3 1/2 cross over. The cross over pipe smooths out the pulses between both banks and adds some hp. The specs, 365 small block 4 bolt main, 64cc. heads, stock crank, powdered billet peened rods,flat top relieved pistons/Wiseco .204-.216 cam with matched intake, flowed 600cfm Edelbrock EGR carb, port matched exhaust manifold and heads, 7 angle valve job, sodium valve stems, Low rpm hydrolic damper, dual timing chain, I got rid of the gear drive, balanced and weighted flex plate, balanced drive shaft, 2.73 posi rear, balanced axles, rear stabilizer, high filtratrion/flow air filter system with outside air intake. Teflon inserts in the springs. Some day when the Ford gets tired and you still love it, this rebuild cost what a stock rebuild would have. The mechanic took an interest in us and did some fine work. He thought I was crazy untill he drove it. He gave us the keys after we paid him and he just smiled and said it all works! Tomorrow I put in another water temp guage and we get set to pack. This has been a miserable expensive trip. However, we have all learned and gained. Some sadness but a new perspective on life. Forward into the darkness. George, watch out for that tree!!!!! Glad the stuff came out of the carpet ok. When things dry it becomes easier. Good luck with the RV.
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Post by cookie3rocks on Jul 31, 2004 20:03:37 GMT -5
Doc, where ya going?
cookie
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Post by docone31 on Jul 31, 2004 21:49:30 GMT -5
Cookie We think we will target either Ft. Myers, where we were, or the FT. Lauderdale area. It is an emotionally charged event. We feel betrayed by my wife's mother, all she wanted was some attention and control and it cost us big time. We bought the whole issue, sold the house short, gave up the business. We got here, she is neither house bound, nor broke. Our van blew the engine and we had to catch her to borrow her car. She was never home. She would drive for hours to find just the right jelly beans. We are done. MY wife is reconciled to really doing a great job with our jewelery, we are going to go into jewelery repair full time, plus our custom stuff. I am excited and mad at her mother. We are going to look into Ft. Myers first as we know it. If we do not like the gig, Ft. Lauderdale. Bike week, yeah! Exotic dancers to make jewelery for, yeah! Back to what I know.
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Post by cookie3rocks on Jul 31, 2004 22:23:15 GMT -5
Good for you, Doc! Unfortunatly, some people will never get real. Nothing you do or say will make a difference. Ya just gotta say, ok, you be what you are, I care about you, and I'll be over there. You guys should make a trip through Helen GA on the way to Floridah. It's a tourist town, a combination of rednecks, fossilized hippies and Florida snowbirds. Interesting to say the least. Lots of bikers migrate to this area ( the foothills, mild temps and beautiful scenery make for a great ride) There are 2 pubs that cater to bikers exclusively in a town of 450 pop. Hell, you could pull to the side of the road for an afternoon and make a killing! Anyway, I wish you 2 luck and stay in touch! I really think you are doing what it was intended for you to do. Now that you have achived your secular status, move forward and grow, teach, LIVE! HURRAH!
cookie
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Post by docone31 on Jul 31, 2004 23:19:53 GMT -5
Cookie Thanks for the info on Helen, I am going to look into it. We are going to need to heal from all this. Wow is an understatement. We are planning on rebuilding our shop, in a fleamarket, and settling in for a long haul. When we first opened, we were looking over our shoulder. My wife's mother called us down from Portland Ore. and we stopped here on our way to ? We were here for a few days, and we had to leave. After we moved to Floriduh, my wife's mother came to visit. She went from Clearwater to Orlando to get to Ft. Myers. We both figuired she need some real help. We spent the next two years fixing the house we just bought to sell to move to help her mother. We also juggled the business, landscaped the yard, Jenne was new to the business and scared away more people than she attracted. Her driving attracted more attention than we needed, there they ticket for 1mph. over the speed limit, and some roads the speed limit is what the officer determines at the time. It was chaos. We have resolved our feeling of commitment and plan on healing, traveling, now that our van is new under an old body, and just living. We spent two years trying to repair what we felt was guilt over leaving her mother hung out to dry. We know better now. I tiled and fixed the bathroom and kitchen out of our pocket, redid the plumbing for her house and our house, fixed the sheetrock. Her mother walks in and says the house smells. Of course the house smelled. Her toilet for over 45yrs had dumped directly into the concrete slab. The toilet and flange were mismatched. The drying of the slab made this house smell like a sewer for almost the entire time we have been here. Lots of other issues. We gone. I will keep us posted. I would love it when I am set up if people from the real world could, they come down and say hi.
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Post by cookie3rocks on Jul 31, 2004 23:46:23 GMT -5
Doc, no small wonder your wife is a psycologist! Heal thy self, phsician! But when it's family, it's more difficult to come to grips with reality. In my youth, I was distant from my father, in adulthood we are very close. I am more like him than either of us understood at the time. He gets me. My mom is a wonderful person, but she wanted a clone of herself and that's not me. We all have an understanding now. I am what I am and they are what they are and we all get along. Both of my parents worked in the tourism industry for 35+ years, so it's in my blood... Come to Helen GA, A quaint bavarian village nestled in the foot hills of the North Georgia mountains ;D At least stop by on the way through Artists do well here, I've got a family full of them that ALL came here from parts unknown. Stay in touch cookie
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Post by docone31 on Aug 1, 2004 0:11:48 GMT -5
Boy, isn't family something. My father, after I had recieved my Phd looked me in the eye and said, Son, you are nothing, you were nothing, you will be nothing. You should roll over and die so a lessor species has the air you steal. My ex-wife to be laughed at me and we left. Two weeks later, he blew his brains out, blaming me. His last words to me were my get out of jail free card. I then realized it was not me. My mother, when I had come to me from the frozen north after four years of surviving off the land, I went to her for help. I had just survived fatal hyperthermic shock. My eyes had frozen, my left eye is blind to this day and the right retina had seperated from the optic nerve. The bones in my sinuses had frozen and projected through the skin. I had called her from Seattle, homeless. I had enough for a bus ticket to Key West. No food on the trip, just a ticket. Upon arrival, with blood dripping from my eyes, ears, nose, my hands still had brown spots from freezing, the skin on my legs had split from freezing. She told me, I didn't really think you would come. The world would have been a better place if you had died in Alaska. I just walked out the door. Resolving to make it no matter what, I ended up with a shop in Key West! On Duval St! I did a lot of healing there. My hands hurt for two years, my eyes are still seriously impared, my ears ring 24/7, my face and legs are scarred from the damage. Most of my teeth are gone. They also froze and shattered. I think I transposed my sentiment of the loss of my family to the dilema of my wife and her bizarre family. I too am guilty of being emotionally fractured, codependant, from a dysfunctional family, seeking repitition. My wife is helping me, I am helping her. Her mother just thinks it is hysterical. We go, sadly, without looking back. Life goes on.
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Post by cookie3rocks on Aug 1, 2004 0:54:59 GMT -5
Hold one another and pray, in the best way you know how. There is a full moon tonight. I thanked Luna for all she has lead me to. Me and my flakeyness ;D Good luck, Blessed Be!
cookie
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Post by docone31 on Aug 1, 2004 1:33:44 GMT -5
Cookie. I hope your dreams come true, and they are what you want them to be. That goes for all here. In this city of lights, I have not found many bright places. I took some liberties and leaned on people here on this forum. Not one person told me to shut up, not one person told me to take it else where, not one person told me it was my fault. You all were there for me. The greatest help for me is during this crusher, I was able to express my frustration. That, more than anything else, helped me keep silent when I needed to. This is a forum of lapidary arts, not psycho-babble for the impared. I feel I kinda took time that could have been given to someone seeking answers. However, Andy seems to have thought this forum through pretty well. A newbie can just post a new thread and we all respond. Yes, tonite is the full moon. My wife is preparing her circle. She is seeking to heal her heart so her heart can hold the blessings. She got a dynamic quartz crystal, six inches long, three inches wide with natural point, flawless, it was given to us by a stranger who came out of nowhere at the fleamarket. He walked up and said, this is for you and walked away. We also got a flawless rock quartz ball six inches in diameter. I traded a pair of earrings for it. Today is a good day. An irony, the thread whats the problem? Are there problems, or challenges? Tomorrow will be here whether we are here or not. Why not stick around and kick some butt.
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Post by connrock on Aug 1, 2004 13:11:25 GMT -5
Hi Llana,,,, I guess late IS better then never!!LOL I've done a LOT of experimenting with tumbling "recipes" because the instructions that come with a tumbler are a basic discription of the cycle and it's up to the individule to find the right recipe for herself/himself. For starters the 60% barrel volume is totally correct.The tumbler mfg's want you to think their tumblers will hold the advertised weight and or volume so they can sell tumblers.Under ideal conditions the tumblers WILL work properly but we are rockhounds not scientists. Think about this: If you load your pickup with pea sized stones to 3/4 of it's total volume you'll have an overloaded truck because the little rocks are tightly packed together. If you load the same pickup to the 3/4 mark with basketball size rocks you won't have the same vulume of rocks and you can drive away safely. Now in tumbling we need several different size rocks so that they will rub against each other while carrying the grit with them. If we do this to the recomended 3/4 point in our tumblers we don't have much room for error and "may" be overloading our "pickup". If we keep the volume down to the 60% level (with different size material) we will NEVER overload our "pickup" and the rocks can roll around like they are supposed to. Note: The "perfect" action of the rocks going around in a tumbler is exactly like a wave rolling in on the shoreline. Thus the word "tumbler". If the tumbler is going too fast the rocks just go for a ride around the inside of the barrel and never get to "tumble". If it going too slow the rocks will never "crest" (like a wave) and only go part way up the inside of the barrel. So let me regroup and see what the heck i'm talking about!!LOL (I DO get carried away with this because I LOVE helping and sharing what I have learned,,,,,,the HARD way) If we overload our tumbler we WILL slow it down and have the wrong action.Rocks go round and round,,,,,,no creast. If we underload our tumbler we get the wrong action.Rocks slide up the side of the barrel,,,,no crest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- When you loaded your barrel to the 3/4 mark things might have gone okay for you,but, when you put in the pellets you overloaded the barrel,not by wieght ,but by volume so your rocks were going for a ride ,,,,,round and round,,,,,no crest! Note: Plastic pellets aren't needed until the prepolish on "most" materials.I found that only when i'm tumbling obsidians do I need the pellets throughout the entire tumbling cycle.They may be needed on other "finiky" materials but I haven't found any others "yet". If you do use pellets put them in the barrel first and then fill to whatever volume (3/4 or60%) you want.This holds true for the prepolish and polish stages and is the reason why it may take a long time to get the proper "sheen" to the rocks,,,,,,,,,,,,another overloaded pickup!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I am sure I mentioned this before "somewhere" but ,,,, The squeak can be caused by a few things. If it's the nylon bearings the rollers ride on it's not a biggy.Just oil them with a DROP of straight sae 30 NONDETERGENT oil once a week or 2 and you'll be okay. It's also a good practice to take the rollers out every so often (2-3 months of 24/7 running) and clean them and the nylon bearings off with alcohol. That black crap can cause brg wear and also slow down the rpm's of the tumbler barrel and cause motor overload from overworking it. MOST tumbler motors have lousy brgs and if they go unlubricated they will burn out.This is the major cause of motor failure. Use the same #30 oil as the rollers but more frequently. I oil mine about once every 2 weeks with 3 drops of oil.DO NOT use too much oil or you'll cause other problems! Oh yea,,,,,these motors can and do run very hot so don't worry about that.As long as you oil them they can last foe several years going 24/7/365 ! I've only replaced one motor in almost 6 years and that was in the "beginning" !I never forgot to oil them again! I hope this helps ya a little,,,,,, Tom
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Post by docone31 on Aug 1, 2004 13:21:20 GMT -5
Tom That is a well put tutorial on weight vs. mass. I have tried to explain it before but the '60's were too good to me and I interupt myself. I used to fly sailplanes out of the Connecticut Soaring Center up route 8 years ago. That was back before the casinos turned Ct., into down town Brookline. My father was one of the first people to find the dino tracks there way back when. Of course he could also have been telling me one more of his yarns. Very well done explanation.
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Post by connrock on Aug 1, 2004 13:40:24 GMT -5
Hey doc,,,,thanks,,,,, I know where your coming from (the 60's),,,,,, They took their toll on MY memory banks too!!LOL I "pickled" mine by soaking them in Bacardi Silver Lable for over 40 years!! I quit just about 6 years ago and that's when I got into this hobby. I still can't believe how much I spent on booze and now it alllllllllllll goes into rocks?? Ain't it great?? Tom
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Aug 1, 2004 22:47:02 GMT -5
very well done connrock I know that one of my major problems is that I overload the barrel I need to work on that
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Aug 1, 2004 23:09:00 GMT -5
I almost forgot connrock you are awarded one ATTA BOY for the above post
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Post by rockyraccoon on Aug 2, 2004 0:42:18 GMT -5
llana i had this happen recently and i'm positive i had overloaded. what i couldn't figure out is why i didn't notice it when i did it. it was obvious when i opened the barrel a week later and all the grit was there, the rocks all looked the same and it was too full of rocks. it must of been one of those days when i was tired, the mosquitos were biting when i tried to empty and recharge, the phone was ringing, and my family and all the animals were hollering for something. had to be somebody's fault ;D.
doc you hang in there. you did what your heart told you to do and it was a good and right thing even if you had been misled. you've jumped too many hurdles already so take a deep breath and keep on - this race ain't over yet!
kim
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Post by connrock on Aug 2, 2004 19:10:14 GMT -5
Thanks peeps,,,, You made my day and glad I can help,,,,,,,,, Tom
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