Post by poprocks on Apr 12, 2021 8:44:51 GMT -5
I’m just curious, I have some random rocks I bought from Aussie Sapphire, I assume they’re river rocks. Anyway my point is, they went through the first and second grit fine. The third grit they lost a lot of size and volume.
My process:
Lortone 33B Tumbler
1st Stage “Coarse” Grit (1 week): SiC #80 4 tbsp - No size loss & stones rounded
Stones that weren’t ready were kept back for a later batch and the rest were moved forward.
2nd Stage “Medium” Grit (2 weeks) : SiC #220 4 tbsp - Rocks were checked at the end of the first week, slurry was thick with no significant size loss and no new grit was added. Rocks at the end of second week had lost 10% of size (not a big deal) and slurry was milkshake consistency without thickeners added.
3rd Stage “Fine” Grit (1 week) : SiC #600 3 tbsp w/ Large Ceramic media - The sound had changed from previous stages, it had become much louder than when it had first been placed on the tumbler so I knew the rocks had lost volume.
Initially I had opened the tumbler and put my hand in to see the total idea of how much volume had been loss and almost every rock had loss more than 40% of volume. Rocks that had gone in bigger than a matchbox had become a third of that size.
An extremely thick slurry much thicker without thickeners added - thicker than a milkshake consistency accompanying the rocks making it very difficult to clean the rocks and the barrel.
4th Stage “Fine” Grit (Currently in rotation 1 Day) : SiC #1200 - 3 tbsp w/ plastic pellets - Going to be monitored and checked in two days, sound is very very quiet.
I hand clean and scrubbed everything by hand with designated toothbrushes, strainers and buckets between every cycle, until all water involved came off clean before letting anything dry. The Large ceramic media had gone through a wash cycle in a clean barrel to ensure they were clean afterwards + scrubbed in a strainer.
I’m not currently always at the house where the tumbler is located but I am there every 3 days. My partner who is there tells me every morning if the sound has changed and I typically will come over that day to do maintenance and all that.
Where did I go wrong? Any tips? The rocks loss a mass amount of size and I’m worried I messed up somewhere, these are a practice bunch as I’m still new to tumbling but I feel like I shouldn’t have loss that much size in a SiC #600 grit
My process:
Lortone 33B Tumbler
1st Stage “Coarse” Grit (1 week): SiC #80 4 tbsp - No size loss & stones rounded
Stones that weren’t ready were kept back for a later batch and the rest were moved forward.
2nd Stage “Medium” Grit (2 weeks) : SiC #220 4 tbsp - Rocks were checked at the end of the first week, slurry was thick with no significant size loss and no new grit was added. Rocks at the end of second week had lost 10% of size (not a big deal) and slurry was milkshake consistency without thickeners added.
3rd Stage “Fine” Grit (1 week) : SiC #600 3 tbsp w/ Large Ceramic media - The sound had changed from previous stages, it had become much louder than when it had first been placed on the tumbler so I knew the rocks had lost volume.
Initially I had opened the tumbler and put my hand in to see the total idea of how much volume had been loss and almost every rock had loss more than 40% of volume. Rocks that had gone in bigger than a matchbox had become a third of that size.
An extremely thick slurry much thicker without thickeners added - thicker than a milkshake consistency accompanying the rocks making it very difficult to clean the rocks and the barrel.
4th Stage “Fine” Grit (Currently in rotation 1 Day) : SiC #1200 - 3 tbsp w/ plastic pellets - Going to be monitored and checked in two days, sound is very very quiet.
I hand clean and scrubbed everything by hand with designated toothbrushes, strainers and buckets between every cycle, until all water involved came off clean before letting anything dry. The Large ceramic media had gone through a wash cycle in a clean barrel to ensure they were clean afterwards + scrubbed in a strainer.
I’m not currently always at the house where the tumbler is located but I am there every 3 days. My partner who is there tells me every morning if the sound has changed and I typically will come over that day to do maintenance and all that.
Where did I go wrong? Any tips? The rocks loss a mass amount of size and I’m worried I messed up somewhere, these are a practice bunch as I’m still new to tumbling but I feel like I shouldn’t have loss that much size in a SiC #600 grit