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#1
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Length of time to tumble rocks
there was an interesting thread on tumbling rocks several years ago
that gave me some ideas for my 9 yo daughter's rock tumbler, but didn't answer my basic question. We've been tumbling the rocks for a week as per the directions in the Thumbler's Tumbler, Model T, with the coarse grit. The rocks were purchased from Eggers Lapidary in Golden, and were a mix of various same hardness rocks, some sliced, some part way toward becoming cabs. We planned to switch to fine grit from coarse tonight, but some of them seem to need more tumbling- they have matrix on them and some of the cut pieces haven't smoothed enough on the random edges to be interesting. My daughter resisted adding more time, but I talked her into one more day on the coarse. Will it make much difference for rose quartz hardness rocks? Will fine grit do much more or just smoothing? I hate to do what my father did when I was a kid- grind and grind until there were holes in the tumbler and the rocks were half gone- but I also don't really want to quit now if a few days will give a much nicer finish. do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on? ===== Kate, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/a...f-formula.html Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art. ~Cicero |
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#3
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On 8 Jan 2004 19:51:27 -0800, (Kate) wrote: do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on? Sorry... I forgot to answer these. ;( If the tumbler is filled properly it should get quieter. You may want to add a filler if your tumbler isn't 3/4 full... I use plastic pellets, use these only in 1 grit and save them, because they can be used over and over untill they get to small. I keep mine in zip locks and mark them for which grit you used. If you have a drill press for your Dremel and a GOOD diamond bit, you should have no problems drilling holes. Nice thought: Try just drilling half way and using them as drops. But if the rock is to heavy it may cause some discomfort to someones chest bouncing off it. lol My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#4
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Thanks for the tips on tumbling. I am always interested in hearing you
success with rocks. Roxan "Harry" wrote in message ... On 8 Jan 2004 19:51:27 -0800, (Kate) wrote: there was an interesting thread on tumbling rocks several years ago that gave me some ideas for my 9 yo daughter's rock tumbler, but didn't answer my basic question. We've been tumbling the rocks for a week as per the directions in the Thumbler's Tumbler, Model T, with the coarse grit. The rocks were purchased from Eggers Lapidary in Golden, and were a mix of various same hardness rocks, some sliced, some part way toward becoming cabs. We planned to switch to fine grit from coarse tonight, but some of them seem to need more tumbling- they have matrix on them and some of the cut pieces haven't smoothed enough on the random edges to be interesting. My daughter resisted adding more time, but I talked her into one more day on the coarse. Will it make much difference for rose quartz hardness rocks? Will fine grit do much more or just smoothing? I hate to do what my father did when I was a kid- grind and grind until there were holes in the tumbler and the rocks were half gone- but I also don't really want to quit now if a few days will give a much nicer finish. do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on? ===== Kate, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/a...f-formula.html Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art. ~Cicero Wowsers... hehehe Here is a very good place to get your questions answered without me rambling for a few hours. http://www.promotega.org/ksu00006/tumbler.htm Rule of thumb: If you like the way the rock looks after the first grit.. go to the next. If not... tumble again. Many rocks require 2 weeks in the first grit, (60 - 90). Depending on hardness. Softer stones will be just fine after 1 week. 7 days pretty much wipes out the grit and you will have to change to new grit. Be sure there is no old grit mixed with the new. Be sure ALL grit is removed from ALL the rocks and the barrle is spotless, before placing it in the new grits. Just 1 piece of a courser grit can destroy the finish on ALL your rocks. That is why it's best to sort through all your rocks and find any that have cracks or pits and save them for another tumble. The most important step is the polishing step. It is absolutely MANDATORY that you tumble your rocks in a CLEAN barrle with soap for at lease 2 hours, BEFORE you tumble them in the polish If you don't do that step, your rocks will not polish to a glass like shine and you may even have many deep scratchs in them. So... be SURE to tumble in IVORY soap before the last polishing step. It is highly recommened that you soap tumble after each step to ensure yourself that all the previous grits is gone. I rambled a lot here, but nothing to what it would have been. Let me know if you have any other question if you can't find what you are looking for and I will ramble on and take you through a complete tumble from start to finish. Harry My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#5
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On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:13:41 -0500, "roxan" wrote:
You are very welcome and I do thank you for your kind words of my ramblings. Thank you. Harry Thanks for the tips on tumbling. I am always interested in hearing you success with rocks. Roxan "Harry" wrote in message .. . On 8 Jan 2004 19:51:27 -0800, (Kate) wrote: there was an interesting thread on tumbling rocks several years ago that gave me some ideas for my 9 yo daughter's rock tumbler, but didn't answer my basic question. We've been tumbling the rocks for a week as per the directions in the Thumbler's Tumbler, Model T, with the coarse grit. The rocks were purchased from Eggers Lapidary in Golden, and were a mix of various same hardness rocks, some sliced, some part way toward becoming cabs. We planned to switch to fine grit from coarse tonight, but some of them seem to need more tumbling- they have matrix on them and some of the cut pieces haven't smoothed enough on the random edges to be interesting. My daughter resisted adding more time, but I talked her into one more day on the coarse. Will it make much difference for rose quartz hardness rocks? Will fine grit do much more or just smoothing? I hate to do what my father did when I was a kid- grind and grind until there were holes in the tumbler and the rocks were half gone- but I also don't really want to quit now if a few days will give a much nicer finish. do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on? ===== Kate, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/a...f-formula.html Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art. ~Cicero Wowsers... hehehe Here is a very good place to get your questions answered without me rambling for a few hours. http://www.promotega.org/ksu00006/tumbler.htm Rule of thumb: If you like the way the rock looks after the first grit.. go to the next. If not... tumble again. Many rocks require 2 weeks in the first grit, (60 - 90). Depending on hardness. Softer stones will be just fine after 1 week. 7 days pretty much wipes out the grit and you will have to change to new grit. Be sure there is no old grit mixed with the new. Be sure ALL grit is removed from ALL the rocks and the barrle is spotless, before placing it in the new grits. Just 1 piece of a courser grit can destroy the finish on ALL your rocks. That is why it's best to sort through all your rocks and find any that have cracks or pits and save them for another tumble. The most important step is the polishing step. It is absolutely MANDATORY that you tumble your rocks in a CLEAN barrle with soap for at lease 2 hours, BEFORE you tumble them in the polish If you don't do that step, your rocks will not polish to a glass like shine and you may even have many deep scratchs in them. So... be SURE to tumble in IVORY soap before the last polishing step. It is highly recommened that you soap tumble after each step to ensure yourself that all the previous grits is gone. I rambled a lot here, but nothing to what it would have been. Let me know if you have any other question if you can't find what you are looking for and I will ramble on and take you through a complete tumble from start to finish. Harry My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#6
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ramble on Harry.
Roxan "Harry" wrote in message ... On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:13:41 -0500, "roxan" wrote: You are very welcome and I do thank you for your kind words of my ramblings. Thank you. Harry Thanks for the tips on tumbling. I am always interested in hearing you success with rocks. Roxan "Harry" wrote in message .. . On 8 Jan 2004 19:51:27 -0800, (Kate) wrote: there was an interesting thread on tumbling rocks several years ago that gave me some ideas for my 9 yo daughter's rock tumbler, but didn't answer my basic question. We've been tumbling the rocks for a week as per the directions in the Thumbler's Tumbler, Model T, with the coarse grit. The rocks were purchased from Eggers Lapidary in Golden, and were a mix of various same hardness rocks, some sliced, some part way toward becoming cabs. We planned to switch to fine grit from coarse tonight, but some of them seem to need more tumbling- they have matrix on them and some of the cut pieces haven't smoothed enough on the random edges to be interesting. My daughter resisted adding more time, but I talked her into one more day on the coarse. Will it make much difference for rose quartz hardness rocks? Will fine grit do much more or just smoothing? I hate to do what my father did when I was a kid- grind and grind until there were holes in the tumbler and the rocks were half gone- but I also don't really want to quit now if a few days will give a much nicer finish. do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on? ===== Kate, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/a...f-formula.html Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art. ~Cicero Wowsers... hehehe Here is a very good place to get your questions answered without me rambling for a few hours. http://www.promotega.org/ksu00006/tumbler.htm Rule of thumb: If you like the way the rock looks after the first grit.. go to the next. If not... tumble again. Many rocks require 2 weeks in the first grit, (60 - 90). Depending on hardness. Softer stones will be just fine after 1 week. 7 days pretty much wipes out the grit and you will have to change to new grit. Be sure there is no old grit mixed with the new. Be sure ALL grit is removed from ALL the rocks and the barrle is spotless, before placing it in the new grits. Just 1 piece of a courser grit can destroy the finish on ALL your rocks. That is why it's best to sort through all your rocks and find any that have cracks or pits and save them for another tumble. The most important step is the polishing step. It is absolutely MANDATORY that you tumble your rocks in a CLEAN barrle with soap for at lease 2 hours, BEFORE you tumble them in the polish If you don't do that step, your rocks will not polish to a glass like shine and you may even have many deep scratchs in them. So... be SURE to tumble in IVORY soap before the last polishing step. It is highly recommened that you soap tumble after each step to ensure yourself that all the previous grits is gone. I rambled a lot here, but nothing to what it would have been. Let me know if you have any other question if you can't find what you are looking for and I will ramble on and take you through a complete tumble from start to finish. Harry My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#7
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Hi Harry,
Can rocks be polished in a sonic vibrating machine? I would like something that can do silver polishing with steel shot and polish very small amounts of rock like opal. My regular tumbler is a piece of crap that squeaks all the time; I can tell the lid wont last long. I haven't been able to fine any real specific details on rock polishing with vibratory or sonic machines. Thanks -- Connie Ryman Cryman Studio www.eclecticbeadery.com "roxan" wrote in message ... ramble on Harry. Roxan "Harry" wrote in message ... On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:13:41 -0500, "roxan" wrote: You are very welcome and I do thank you for your kind words of my ramblings. Thank you. Harry Thanks for the tips on tumbling. I am always interested in hearing you success with rocks. Roxan "Harry" wrote in message .. . On 8 Jan 2004 19:51:27 -0800, (Kate) wrote: there was an interesting thread on tumbling rocks several years ago that gave me some ideas for my 9 yo daughter's rock tumbler, but didn't answer my basic question. We've been tumbling the rocks for a week as per the directions in the Thumbler's Tumbler, Model T, with the coarse grit. The rocks were purchased from Eggers Lapidary in Golden, and were a mix of various same hardness rocks, some sliced, some part way toward becoming cabs. We planned to switch to fine grit from coarse tonight, but some of them seem to need more tumbling- they have matrix on them and some of the cut pieces haven't smoothed enough on the random edges to be interesting. My daughter resisted adding more time, but I talked her into one more day on the coarse. Will it make much difference for rose quartz hardness rocks? Will fine grit do much more or just smoothing? I hate to do what my father did when I was a kid- grind and grind until there were holes in the tumbler and the rocks were half gone- but I also don't really want to quit now if a few days will give a much nicer finish. do you think it's my imagination or does the process become quieter over the course of a week as the major rough edges get knocked off? When they're done, will my Dremel make holes for beading or do I have to rely on cheap findings to glue on? ===== Kate, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/a...f-formula.html Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art. ~Cicero Wowsers... hehehe Here is a very good place to get your questions answered without me rambling for a few hours. http://www.promotega.org/ksu00006/tumbler.htm Rule of thumb: If you like the way the rock looks after the first grit.. go to the next. If not... tumble again. Many rocks require 2 weeks in the first grit, (60 - 90). Depending on hardness. Softer stones will be just fine after 1 week. 7 days pretty much wipes out the grit and you will have to change to new grit. Be sure there is no old grit mixed with the new. Be sure ALL grit is removed from ALL the rocks and the barrle is spotless, before placing it in the new grits. Just 1 piece of a courser grit can destroy the finish on ALL your rocks. That is why it's best to sort through all your rocks and find any that have cracks or pits and save them for another tumble. The most important step is the polishing step. It is absolutely MANDATORY that you tumble your rocks in a CLEAN barrle with soap for at lease 2 hours, BEFORE you tumble them in the polish If you don't do that step, your rocks will not polish to a glass like shine and you may even have many deep scratchs in them. So... be SURE to tumble in IVORY soap before the last polishing step. It is highly recommened that you soap tumble after each step to ensure yourself that all the previous grits is gone. I rambled a lot here, but nothing to what it would have been. Let me know if you have any other question if you can't find what you are looking for and I will ramble on and take you through a complete tumble from start to finish. Harry My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#8
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On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 14:35:53 GMT, "C Ryman" wrote:
Hi Harry, Can rocks be polished in a sonic vibrating machine? I would like something that can do silver polishing with steel shot and polish very small amounts of rock like opal. My regular tumbler is a piece of crap that squeaks all the time; I can tell the lid wont last long. I haven't been able to fine any real specific details on rock polishing with vibratory or sonic machines. Thanks First and formost... oil that squeaky guy... he will love you for it! Yes... you can polish rocks and or anything else in a vibatory tumbler. If you put a square rock into a tumbler it will come out round. If you put a square rock into a vibratory tumbler it will come out square, just smooth. There are several Advantages and Disadvantages of both tumbling and vibratory. If money allows I would recommend purchasing both. NO... I do not have a vibratory tumbler, but you can bet as soon as I can afford one there will be one in my house. Word of caution!!! They are VERY noisy! Why? Because they "shake" and not turn. So they tend to create a lot of vibrations.. hench the name. lol Here is an excellent webpage to expolore your options and to also determine what size tumbler will fit your needs and as in my case... your wallet. or purse. http://www.pearsons-uslj.com/tumblers.htm Another note to remember: Different tumblers require different grits... as also... diferent rocks will also require different grits as well as different polishes. As you explore the world of tumbling you will find out just how much fun and how fasinating it is. As you progress throught the stages and see the transformations, you will be amazed. The glory and the wide-eyed stare comes from the end of the polishing stage. When you open that tumbler and pour the contents out and while you are running water over the items and you see that glow... the only thing I have come close to the words to describe what you will see is what I have imagined many a pirate has saw... Pure Beautiful Treasure! ) My most recent and treasured item I have bought is my 12 pound Lorton BEHEMOTH tumbler and I got it he http://www.kingsleynorth.com/tumblersr.html You can place a 3 pound coffee can inside of the barrel! I was totally amazed at the size of this monster! Here is a good source to check for purchase of a vibratory tumbler, as I get ALL my supplies and tumblers from here now. Excellent service and very quick shipping and the prices can't be beat. http://www.kingsleynorth.com/tumblersv.html Hot dog can that man ramble or what? lol I do hope I answered your question as I tend to wonder of into my own little world and forget why I went there. heheheh My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#9
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On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 09:10:42 -0500, "roxan" wrote:
ramble on Harry. Roxan "Harry" wrote in message .. . On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:13:41 -0500, "roxan" I thank you again... as I have just finish another rambling. lol Harry My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
#10
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On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 12:06:57 -0500, "roxan" wrote:
Harry, Look for a vibrating tumbler for shot gun shells they are a little cheaper and I got mine from Cableas in there bargain barn for $75.00, works great. Roxan Oh wow... thank you so much. I have been searching for an inexpensive one to just try one. When I get the funds I will mostly likely check them out. If I don't like it I can always put it on Ebay. lol Thans. Harry My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw |
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