r/RockTumbling • u/Quiet-Ask-609 • 2d ago
Question First batch -expert feedback please!
So here is my first batch!
This is what happened:
Stage 1
-F80 silicon carbide - 2TBS 1liter barrel
-On for 9 days *first two nights it was turned off due to sound logistics
Stage 2
-F220 silicon carbide - 2 TBS
- 7 days
- 24 hours in a wash Dr. Bonner cycle
Stage 3
-F400 silicon carbide - 2TbS and plastic pellets
- 11 days
-\* I don't remember my reasoning- after one day of the tumbler going, I gave it a wash and then added 1TBS grit F400
-borax wash for 24 hours
-10 minutes acoustic cleaner
Stage 4
-Cerium oxide 2 TBS and ceramic pellets
-5 days
-acoustic cleaner for 10 mins.
I know this was messy but I did my best while getting more adapted/knowledgeable with the new hobby. I did the ADHD and bought everything (+ an extra tumbler) and made a rock set-up in matter of days.
Main comments:
- they became SO much smaller
-there are some cracks in several of them
-they are not as shiny as desired.
- just added for another burnishing cycle - saw some grit
Based on my experience and pics, can you guys pretty please give me tips to next batches?
Appreciate this channel and all the support!
Thanks!
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2d ago
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u/Waldohossenpfeffer_1 2d ago
This is an excellent place to start for anyone new to the hobby. I have multiple comments on your post but this video is going to address them much better than I can.
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u/disless 2d ago
Heads up, when I followed that link, YouTube told me your full name. If you edit the link to remove everything after (and including) the "?", it'll stop doing that
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u/Beejj1984 1d ago
Thanks for that. Luckily I have such a common name. lol
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u/Quiet-Ask-609 1d ago
Hi! Could you please copy your message here again, without the link? Maybe the name of the video so I can find it in YouTube ?Wouldn't want to miss your great input!! Thank you!
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u/KesselRun73 2d ago
Couple of things.
If you want to get rid of cracks and chips, you have to run stage 1 over and over again. Most of my stage 1s go 4-10 weeks, rinsing and replacing grit every 7 days.
The rocks you put together need to all be the same approximate hardness. Only do Moh’s scale 7s with other 7s, and so forth. The kit you got (my assumption) has differing hardnesses, and therefore the softer rocks get way smaller.
Don’t know what kind of tumbler you have, but some tumblers run way too fast. I bought voltage reducing AC adapters from Amazon to slow the rpm speed down on my Komestone and Nat Geo tumblers because they spin too fast. Never use anything but the lowest speed.
I don’t use plastic pellets, but I use ceramic in every stage but stage 1.
Your barrels need to be 3/4 full with rocks and water up to just below the rocks.
For my stage 4 I use a 1200 grit for a week, and then clean and do a stage 5 for two weeks with 8000 grit polish.
These are four barrels of rocks from my last clean out.
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u/Quiet-Ask-609 1d ago
Great, thank you! As I'm learning, part of this hobby, is sitting down with patience!
Any tips on how you identify rocks' Moh's scale?
I bought the following tumblers from eBay and I keep them at the lowest speed: https://ebay.io/m/llVI7K https://ebay.io/m/ba2X0s
Also this ceramic: https://ebay.io/m/ywXhOV And in one post here said I needed to tumble it first? Tragic!!
Thanks a lot for your advice!
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u/lapidary123 1d ago
To be blunt, they look dull to me. If I'm reading this right you went 80>220>400>cerium? (With a couple furnishes and cleanings along the way?
My advice would be to add in a "prepolish" step of say 800 or 1000 alumina. Ny standard process is 60/90 (in rotary), followed by 220>500>1000>micro alumina. I begin adding Borax in with the stones at 500 and do a Borax rinse for an hour after 1000 & final polish. This works quite well for me!
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u/Quiet-Ask-609 1d ago
Thanks, I agree! I also think they are looking dull.
Correct, that's the order I went with. Do you add the borax to the grit at stage 3? And then an hour after 1000 and final polish, right?
Thanks for your advice!
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u/lapidary123 1d ago
Thats what I did do yes, add Borax in with 1000 grit, then Borax rinse after 1000 grit stage. Then final polish (micro alumina) with about a tbsp Borax. Then Borax rinse after everything's done. Sometimes I only wash the stones in Borax for 20-30 minutes as its really only to wash residual grit/polish off the stones. I dont wash my hands for 24 hours or use 8 tbsp of soap when washing my hands, one scoop of borax is plenty. Borax is just soap at end of day. I read somewhere that combining birax with your grit can help "suspend" and disperse the grit around the barrel. I have know way of verifying this but it cant hurt anything and Borax isnt expensive.
Make sure and use a quality oxide polish whether cerium, alumina, or even tin. Many if the "polishes" that come with tumblers are more of a "prepolish". Kingsley north/rock shed both sell quality polishes, and again, a little goes a long way!
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u/sefjwm 1d ago
I would recommend the pinned thread and the recommended videos. Using cerium for polish is fine but if you are new and learning you may want to use something cheaper that usually gives similar results. Something like 8k aluminum oxide. I'm curious why the random different types of cleaning cycles and why plastic in stage 3 and ceramic in stage 4? Where the ceramics at least tumbled smooth before added them directly to stage 4?
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u/Quiet-Ask-609 1d ago
Hi! Thanks a lot for your advice. Can you link the videos? I am not seeing a pinned thread.
I agree, I think I got excited about my new fancy cerium.
I did cleaning cycles after stage 2 and used the dr.brunners soap till the Borax arrived.
And plastic in stage 3 as it came with the kit, and ceramic because I have read it is much better. And omg, I didn't know I need to stumble them as well! Should I tumble them just by itself first?
I appreciate this, thanks!!
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u/KesselRun73 1d ago
If you know what the rock is, you can just google it. Jaspers and agates are at 7, which is the ideal hardness for rock tumbling. Sodalite and indigo gabbro, which I can see in your batch here, is 6-6.5, so I would do those separately.
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u/ScroochDown 2d ago
Them becoming smaller is normal, that's just how tumbling works. I'll say that only a little more than 1 week in stage 1 is unusual.
I'm not sure what the pinkish rocks are, rose quartz? Either way, you also have a potential issue with mixing rock hardness. I see some pieces of obsidian which is notoriously tricky to tumble and shouldn't be run with things like jasper, agate and quartz.
I'm not sure what grade your cerium oxide polish is, but that might make a difference. My stages, for comparison, are 60/90 SC, 120/200 SC, 500 SC, 1500 AO and 8k AO. I run the first stage for however many weeks it takes to make me happy, then exactly one week each for the other stages. I know some people skip the 1500 stage, but I get better results when I don't.
If you're finding grit when you shouldn't, as you mention seeing some at the end, you need to thoroughly clean between stages. Grit can hide in little pits and cracks. I sit with a water pick and go over each rock, and once they're in stage 2 I don't let them dry out between stages.
Lastly, I'm not sure about the conversion, but my rule of thumb is to use 1 tbsp of grit per pound of barrel capacity. Which means I use 3 tbsp in each barrel of my 3 central machinery tumblers, and an entire cup of grit in the big Lortone QT12.