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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 1, 2022 16:59:24 GMT -5
This is my second full day in Yuma and this will be my rockhounding day. Gas is $5 a gallon here so I"m wanting to keep the mileage low. ,will stay with my plan to go to McPherson Bridge To Nowhere that was where I went last time. Have looked at Airial views of the spot and picked out a few Washes to explore. I have my camera but do not have the cable to get the pictures off and post them, will be another week before we will see the pictures. Will be much more selective when picking up rocks this time, now that I have an idea which rocks give me the best results. Also will mail less boxes back this time. Went to the County Fair last night, but it was to crowded to have any fun. Had a great Apple Funnel Cake though. We are going to a Date Farm called 'Naked Dates" on tomorrow. They have date Shakes, date Beer and Live Music. Still no plans for our last 3 days here . . . Are you going to be posting pictures of the Naked Dates?!? LOL Our county fair isn't until August...but you definitely put the idea of a funnel cake into my head! LOL Happy hounding!! I'll watch for the trip report.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 2, 2022 8:00:46 GMT -5
Well that went fast . . . After thinking about the results from the last batch of 50 pounds of Yuma rocks, I decided that I would only look for the Fractured Brown Quartz that looked so good from the first batch. Once the hunting started I found it was easy to spot it & bag it. Had a good hammer and it was used to make sure that they were Quality pieces. Only took 2 hours to get too many rocks. I am really happy with the rough that was found and looking forward to getting it started. I did not have enough time to post the pictures of the polished First Batch before I flew out to Yuma so I will get out a big picture report at the end of next week. Am promising to post pictures of my Naked Dates !?
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Wooferhound
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Lortone QT66 and 3A
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 3, 2022 10:26:12 GMT -5
Hold on a minute , I was packing my Medium Flat Rate boxes and only filled up 1 1/3 boxes. Looks like an excuse to go out and find some more Quartz . . . Today . Went out to the Naked Date Farm yesterday, but they had closed for the season last week and the place was deserted. The sad part is that I didn't get any pictures of my Naked Dates to post, or try the Date Beer.
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 3, 2022 11:38:09 GMT -5
Hold on a minute , I was packing my Medium Flat Rate boxes and only filled up 1 1/3 boxes. Looks like an excuse to go out and find some more Quartz . . . Today . Went out to the Naked Date Farm yesterday, but they had closed for the season last week and the place was deserted. The sad part is that I didn't get any pictures of my Naked Dates to post, or try the Date Beer. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to wait until after my wife went to bed to open up this thread...I didn't want her getting upset by me looking at Naked Dates! LOL That's too bad they were closed. Thanks for posting a link to the website. Those bacon wrapped dates would have been a definite purchase if I were there! Sounds like you found out something to do with the extra time you've got now...happy hunting today!
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Post by amygdule on Apr 3, 2022 11:40:02 GMT -5
I'm glad you posted a link. I was afraid to search the web for it. Sounds like you're having fun
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Wooferhound
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 3, 2022 22:35:57 GMT -5
Rock Hounding went great today. Tried a small wash and discovered multiple veins of Quartz. Some of it was featureless, but there was plenty of the Brown Quartz that I've been looking for, actually it was unlimited but would require a little hammerwork to get it out and lots of postage to get it all back to Alabama.
So now I have 3 boxes of it packed up and ready for the Post Office.
There are 5 more Date Farms around here, might need to find another one that makes Date Beer?
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 4, 2022 9:13:12 GMT -5
Rock Hounding went great today. Tried a small wash and discovered multiple veins of Quartz. Some of it was featureless, but there was plenty of the Brown Quartz that I've been looking for, actually it was unlimited but would require a little hammerwork to get it out and lots of postage to get it all back to Alabama. So now I have 3 boxes of it packed up and ready for the Post Office. There are 5 more Date Farms around here, might need to find another one that makes Date Beer? Finding Date Beer sounds like an honorable quest to me.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 5, 2022 16:51:39 GMT -5
Three packages of rocks have been posted & sent back home , about 50 pounds. The last Yuma rocks were really an experiment to see which ones look good. I thought that the Brown Fractured Quartz is exceptionally interesting, so that is the only rocks that were dug up and bagged. Looking forward to tumbling this stuff. Flying home on Wednesday. Rocks should arrive before Sunday and there is an empty barrel waiting for me there.
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Wooferhound
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Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 10, 2022 19:52:33 GMT -5
I did my first Real Rockhounding in Yuma last year April 2021. At that time it was all just a big experiment and I got plentyful samples of every rock that looked like it would polish. It actually took a full year to polish all 55 pounds of rocks that I mailed to myself from Arizona. So here are the results from that project . . . --- Here are the Before & After pictures --- I had high expectations for the rocks above. They were deep red and kept their color when broken with a hammer. But the color seemed to wash away and it was half Pumice & half decent rock and generally awful looking. Out on the desert floor I found a lot of white featureless quartz, but it was picked up anyway because I knew it would take a polish. And true to my thoughts the stuff was just cloudy with some features, but not pretty enough to be interesting to me. Occasionally I would find some veins of Brown Fractured Quartz. I thought it looked fantastic, but with all the fractures I wasn't sure it would hold together in the Tumbler, Was trying to find more of it but the veins were small and hard to find or dangerous to work around. This stuff actually worked great. it did break up a little bit in the tumbler, but it seemed to happen in Stage-1 where it didn't matter much. I have some better pieces coming out of polish in 3 weeks. I decided on my trip last week that I was going to Only get the Brown Quartz rock, it is the only stuff that I picked up and was finding good wide veins right at the base of the big hill that I was working on, close enough to park there. Then there was the Slag that I thought was a Meteorite. It polished up real good but it's not interesting at all. Then there are these 2 red Mystery Rocks. Don't know which rock they came from but I want more. Soon I'll post some pics of the 55 pounds of rough rocks that I sent back to me last week . . .
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quartzilla
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Member since April 2020
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Post by quartzilla on Apr 10, 2022 20:11:14 GMT -5
Rock Hounding went great today. Tried a small wash and discovered multiple veins of Quartz. Some of it was featureless, but there was plenty of the Brown Quartz that I've been looking for, actually it was unlimited but would require a little hammerwork to get it out and lots of postage to get it all back to Alabama. So now I have 3 boxes of it packed up and ready for the Post Office. There are 5 more Date Farms around here, might need to find another one that makes Date Beer? Finding Date Beer sounds like an honorable quest to me. I’m wondering if the dates look way better after 6 or 7 date beers.
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Wooferhound
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Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 11, 2022 18:13:40 GMT -5
All of my packages are home , they have been unpacked and sorted. When I say "sorted" it is just 2 piles, a big pile of Brown Fractured Quartz and some Yellow Fractured Quartz. About 60 pounds in all. The first 2 pictures show the brown quartz. I hammered each piece to make sure the stuff was solid before bagging it. It looked great on the side of the hill, but it looks Crazy Great now that I have it laid out in one place and sprayed off with a hose. Already have a 6 pound barrel rolling with a full load of it. Much of it is way to large to fit my barrel so I'll break it up with a chisel before rolling it. In the small wash that had all the visible veins of quartz, there were many different variations between brown & white. the most interesting was this Yellow/Orange stuff, so I hammered a bunch of that out for experimentation, I think it will come out really good. Plus you can see more brown rocks in the background. That is the Haul and the project for the next full year . . .
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Wooferhound
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 11, 2022 18:52:49 GMT -5
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Post by mohs on Apr 11, 2022 19:27:41 GMT -5
quite a butte !
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 11, 2022 21:10:26 GMT -5
Wooferhound - That looks like a great haul!! Love the hounding site too!!
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Wooferhound
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Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 15, 2022 5:48:26 GMT -5
We went to the Yuma Visitor Center for some souvenirs So I bought a rock
It was a Geode about the size of a golf ball only $4 Busted it open at the nearest opportunity Here it is
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dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,587
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Post by dillonf on Apr 15, 2022 6:57:16 GMT -5
Thanks for the post. Love your rocks. I like seeing the naturally found stuff being tumbled. We find some interesting quartz here in Texas that looks similar to some of your stuff. I am tumbling a 12lb barrel of chert now. When I get around to tumbling the quartz I will post some pics and tag you. Most of the cool quartz we have found (like yours) has been in the Llano area where there are large outcrops of pink granite. Thanks again - it is an inspiring post! Cheers, Dillon
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 15, 2022 19:14:21 GMT -5
We went to the Yuma Visitor Center for some souvenirs So I bought a rock
It was a Geode about the size of a golf ball only $4 Busted it open at the nearest opportunity Here it is I'm glad you posted this...now I don't feel so badly. I can spend all day out hounding at Teepee Canyon collecting all kinds of "worthwhile" rocks for free...then stop in Keystone on the way home and buy some rocks at The Rock Shed! LOL
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Wooferhound
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Post by Wooferhound on Jun 13, 2022 9:01:50 GMT -5
I am just about to finish my first batch of Yuma Rocks since I got back from there a couple of months ago. They are in the final Polish stage and should be finished in a week on Sunday.
Am trying something different this time. I've been using Plastic Beads in all of my polish stages because that is the way I learned to polish and it was working.
Kept hearing from experienced users that claimed that you don't need any Plastic or Ceramic Media to make a great polish, you just need to fill the barrel properly. So, this time my polish stages are running with Rocks Only. Without any Media, a lot more rocks will fit in the barrel, so this batch is the largest polish run that I've ever done.
I use a PrePolish step using #1000 AO for a week. Oddly the barrel had a BlowOut after 4 days. Must have been a lot of pressure because slurry was sprayed everywhere, my first blowout in more than 2 years. It all drained and dried out completely. Tried a few hours cleaning in water but some of the cracks still had a grey filling inside. Now running in #8000 AO polish. Was surprised to have this gas problem because I've been running only these Yuma rocks for a Long Time now without any trouble at all.
Another issue with this Brown Fractured Quartz is that it is fractured. The stuff looks great polished, but there is always a Bad Side that is rough or cracked somehow.
Pictures in a week . . .
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Wooferhound
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Post by Wooferhound on Jun 20, 2022 9:45:33 GMT -5
It's been a week and they polished out wonderfully. There was a barrel BlowOut during PrePolish 1000 AO where everything dried out. They cleaned up pretty good but there is still some evidence of grit stuck in the cracks. Was doing something different this time and did Not use anykind of Media, Plastic or Ceramic. None was used in the whole tumble. Final polish stage had the barrel 80%-90% full and water to just under the top of the rocks with 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) #8000 AO polish from the Rock Shed. They ran for 8 Days and came out better than most of my tumbles. I forgot to get a Group Picture but it was a lot of shiny rocks, weighed more than 6 pounds. The first picture here was some of the Lighter colored Quartz which was slightly less fractured. This second picture is some of the darker brown Quartz. it's really neat in-person, because there is Depth to it Plus hundreds of small marble/pea sized smalls coming out of there too. Got another 6 pound barrel started into a Polish Run so we will see some more Hot Yuma rocks finishing out here in a month or so . . .
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Wooferhound
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Lortone QT66 and 3A
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Post by Wooferhound on Apr 19, 2023 22:34:49 GMT -5
It's looking like another vacation in Yuma Arizona next week , sometime between April 26 & May 2.
There will surely be another full day of rockhounding north of Yuma on Highway 95.
Going through Phoenix for the first time , twice .
and , when in Yuma , drink beer like the Yumans do . . .
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