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Post by tenbusybees on Mar 29, 2019 15:33:32 GMT
So neat! Just for fun I googled rock shows and there's a rock show next month just a bit over an hour from here. Should be a fun outing! I'm really glad this thread made another appearance. I missed it entirely and now seeing all those beautiful polished rocks, I'm inspired.
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Post by hobbitlady on Mar 29, 2019 19:37:07 GMT
tenbusybees, DH and I were busy rockhounds together,sometimes camping, from 2001-2008 and a little since we moved. The thing is, we have 100s of our "finds" on shelves Inside the house (and 1000s decorating outside!haha). We can pick one up from a shelf,remember where we found it, and so many are wonderful memory time-machines for us of our "good old days" together! Nice to see your post like that.
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Post by hobbitlady on Mar 29, 2019 19:40:31 GMT
@jwal10, I just finished a smaller "slab-picture" of rocks DH found and gifted it to his son(he had kids from before our older-age marriage). Anyway I wrote up a whole page key of locations and names,etc. He really Loved the key and all the info as much as having his Dads rocks in a frame.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2019 1:33:22 GMT
I have a thin, maybe 3/8" thick slab of a 8" round geode. It is amber colored that you can see through and the center is quartz that turns to crystals around the hole in the center. It hangs with fishing line in the greenhouse window attached to the south wall of our bathroom....James
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Mar 30, 2019 18:35:24 GMT
Well. That took awhile to "like" every single post!!! Mari-in-IN , you did/do a fabulous job. Are you still at it? Goodness our tumbler has sat empty since we moved here....10 years???Gasp! We moved a literal ton of our collected "finds" here with us....I think it was actually two tons,lol. I've done other things with my rocks here....mostly decorate the gardens;but I must go dig out that tumbler after this inspiration. DH even asked about it just a week or two ago. Ours has a liner and I needed a new one. But I was busy on the "picture" you'll see right before or after you read This. I've collected rocks since the 1970s. I've been to many shows,wandering around drooling. HarHar. There is even one 40 miles from here each year and a nice big rockshop too. OK. It's midnight so I'm off for now. Seeing this thread made my day. I gotta take a picture of DH's colorful sorted piles outside. (he's neater than me and makes a nice show....mine are all over!) Thanks for the compliment!! Yeah, but sometimes I'm kind of bad about letting some time go by between runs. I just happened to have 4 barrels (two tumblers) that were all on the polish stage so I have been dragging my feet on getting everything filled back up. These were done sometime in February. I'll get some pics later - I'm still being a couch potato at the moment watching "The Mob" (1951) . It's rainy and dreary and I'm being terribly lazy at the moment! I just finished up some Fire Quartz, India Green Tree Agate/Moss Agate and Amethyst. I'm still not very good at polishing the amethyst. Seems they have cracks in them and I did use plastic pellets... research/practice/research/practice... I wish they were as mind-boggling easy like the jaspers! I have never been to a show. I will have to do some research and see if there are ever any half-ways close to us. Oh my, I think I'd be in heaven! You know where I would just love to go and visit? The Rock Shed!! I hope that you can post some more pics - I'll be waiting with bated breath my friend!! ~Mari
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Mar 30, 2019 21:08:19 GMT
Just got around to taking/uploading pics of some of my most recent ones... Fire Quartz India Green Tree Agate/Moss Agate Amethyst Here's a pic of some of my nicer orange Mozambique Agates I ran awhile back Now I'm starting to get that itch and get those tumblers filled back up and going! ~Mari
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Post by hobbitlady on Apr 2, 2019 0:21:10 GMT
A wild turkey visited some of our rock piles today! (not DH's pretty orderly area I'd mentioned though! )
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Apr 11, 2019 2:21:16 GMT
Aye Carumba hobbitlady... I still have yet to get my tumblers filled back up!! Have you? Me thinks that this week-end I shall go through my rough and get back to it. I find that I can blow A LOT of time contemplating what to do next... going through the rough that I have decided upon, etc... I was just wondering what your favorite type rock is to polish?? Mine would have to be the Jaspers... 'Course I order all of my rough in... do you?? I'm almost thinking that you don't-ha! I ordered some glass from therockshed.com the last time... have you ever polished glass I wonder? I'm looking forward to trying it - but it's going to be a tad different from the norm - I'll have to dig out the instructions... Look forward to hearing from you! ~Mari
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Post by hobbitlady on Apr 12, 2019 5:51:10 GMT
@redfish, ooooooo, happy hunting! I have many joyful memories of happy rock hounding but none recent.We are a bit too south for the good beach agates but lots of pretty jaspers and serpentine mixes are on our closest beach. DH wants to go this year again for a day trip so I'm looking forward. Now I hunt in the yard and in buckets mostly!!! Mari-in-IN, I haven't tumble-polished in a decade but I have a Genie wheel grind&polish machine. I like to cut the end off a rough piece of moss or plume agate,or petrified wood that has cool woodgrain and polish one side to display. Also the golden and copper sheen obsidians are really pretty and fun to do (but difficult to polish perfect). Jaspers and some of the agates are real extra hard though and wear out those expensive wheels! The wheels still work but it takes longer and longer to get done. For this next tumbling batch I need to trim a bunch of sagenite agate we found near McDermitt,NV.and see how those look. The big pieces (only a couple of inches long tho) I did the "display" cut and polish on are very nice for stuff we found ourselves. Agate hunted in the hills of eastern Oregon are often big chunks. They need to be bashed with a sledge to get to tumbling size. Busting agate is Hard work and most of ours I'd rather leave big and just have on a shelf or outside "as is".
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Post by Woodpecker on Apr 23, 2019 21:45:57 GMT
Very cool and really different. Where are you going to hang , mount it?
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Post by hobbitlady on Apr 23, 2019 22:22:31 GMT
@redfish, What a great idea and finished piece! I've needed some inspiration for what to do with small colorful specimen rocks. The idea of Hanging them in some unique way has my mind buzzing. Thanks so much for sharing.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Apr 24, 2019 4:26:58 GMT
Totally cool idea @redfish! I have been trying to think of ways to use all of this polished rock I have been accumulating... DH thinks that down the road some of it would look just awesome in a fish tank... I however have been giving quite a bit of it away and I must get those tumblers back online!
I am assuming you are doing the wire wrapping around those rocks... I wish I knew how to do that... May I ask - how did you learn how to do it? ~Mari
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2019 12:44:53 GMT
Yeah, I did the wire wrapping. I just went to the internet and youtube and went at it. I'd love to learn to do the fancy stuff that can be done with cabochons, but I don't have any cabs. I need to get some better wire, too. I just bought some cheap stuff at a hobby shop to practice and see if I liked it. Now I want to get some thicker, stronger stuff so I can try a little fancier 'cages' for the raw stones
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Post by hobbitlady on Apr 24, 2019 18:45:39 GMT
My tumbler is rolling for the first time in a decade and sounds as good as ever. There is a saying for tumbling:"junk in and junk comes out". Um. The variety of agate I had in small enough pieces was Not the best...some crusty sides on them. So, in a week I'll see if I need to do the coarse grit over again or it's hopeless,or if by some miracle they actually get smoothed out... I also need to search my buckets in the shed and see if I can round up enough small pieces that Are better quality. The mountain and desert agate we collected is big rough chunks,not nice agate the right size like ocean and river agates often are. I was not willing to do sledge hammer work (yet). haha
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Post by hobbitlady on May 1, 2019 2:31:48 GMT
...rolling,rolling,rolling.... Technically tomorrow is the day I can see the results from the tumbler coarse grit cycle. I don't even remember if they can be left a few more days or if the grit is "worn out" so I'll look that up next. Before I dump and wash the whole batch I'll pull out a few and ease into it Gee,I guess I get to go dig a hole outside before dark,since that stuff can't go down a drain 'cos it turns into cement and I want that part ready...Glad I remembered That! hahaha) I'm thinking now I should have bought some coarse wet/dry and cheap flat lap disks to give the pieces I put in a start. *sigh. Like my old Genie machine my old flat lap machine has half-worn diamond wheels too. Gotta baby those for special Little projects. Well,no matter the results I can always do 'em again. This first look will be exciting,no matter what!
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Post by hobbitlady on May 1, 2019 20:34:57 GMT
Poor result as expected,really, I'd only been "hoping",lol. I learned a Lot so far though. #1 coarse grit can be run several days over a week before it's considered "worn out". #2 there are indeed cheap carbide 100 grit lap discs made that fit my flat lap (8")so Don't need a new super expensive diamond wheel. #3 I Need to clean up "texture sided rocks" like the McDermitt sagenite agate we found I'm attempting to tumble This time only untrimmed,haha. It's interesting for me because that variety of agate is "hairy-like-fur" fibrous and is really a Lot easier to cut and polish than hard "normal" agate. It turned out the surface texture is just as hard and stubborn to scrape off when tumbled though! The surfaces not broken off opening to the flat clean centers were nicely rounded but the pitting they form not near removed. Instead of waiting on an order of lap-sandpaper(overbudget spending this last month anyhow due to dentist bill),and since I really don't need to hurry this, I'm experimenting using "extra coarse grit" for probably 10 days now. I figured I might as well keep rolling since anything that comes off will make the sanding removal easier. Also after getting the sanding discs I'm not going to be needing "extra coarse" grit again!!! and I already had it. I learned my lesson "junky surface in-junky surface out!" Those surfaces are kinda cool in their own right actually,tiny criss-cross patterns, but would be darn near impossible to clean....maybe hours with a water-pick. So,anyhoo,I'm not discouraged,this is all quite fun again.
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Post by hobbitlady on May 22, 2019 20:29:07 GMT
Finally got the tumbler cleaned out of the Extra coarse grit (hurt shoulder put that off) ready for "starting over" with the 1 week at a time normal cycles. Step One,for the 3rd time coming soon haha..but we had to order a new belt(with backup)so not rolling yet. When I cleaned them I had enough true pretties this time to be OK with the rest and am looking forward ! edit 5/24 new belt arrived quick. as of yesterday "rollin rollin rollin" again ...........
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Post by hobbitlady on Jun 7, 2019 0:44:34 GMT
I decided the wordy post I first wrote for here mostly belonged on my "home thread" the monthly prep forum so those poor peeps will have to suffer through a treatise on rock therapy (if I can manage to get the thing edited and posted!). So,the news here is I'm Happy with the progress on my rocks now and (long-story) finally moving to medium grit(this time a time-out happened,not a tumbling re-do). They will always have some textured surfaces and need toothbrush/soapy water cleaning to move to next stage, but getting them done is making me feel Good. I've been stressed on several fronts and getting this accomplishment moving forward is emotionally Healing for goofy old "crazy rock hound" me.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Jun 7, 2019 13:08:52 GMT
I decided the wordy post I first wrote for here mostly belonged on my "home thread" the monthly prep forum so those poor peeps will have to suffer through a treatise on rock therapy (if I can manage to get the thing edited and posted!). So,the news here is I'm Happy with the progress on my rocks now and (long-story) finally moving to medium grit(this time a time-out happened,not a tumbling re-do). They will always have some textured surfaces and need toothbrush/soapy water cleaning to move to next stage, but getting them done is making me feel Good. I've been stressed on several fronts and getting this accomplishment moving forward is emotionally Healing for goofy old "crazy rock hound" me. I know what you mean by it being a good "destressor"... I STILL haven't gotten my tumblers rolling again! We've had so much crazy stuff going on around here as of late and now I'm still trying to get the garden in so that takes precedence over much of anything else right now. I am hoping that we will get the rain on Sunday that they are forecasting so I won't feel guilty messing around with the rough I want to tumble. Heavens to Murgatroyd!! I just realized I forgot to go through my pretties and pick out some to send to someone here! Oops! Off to PM! ~Mari
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Post by hobbitlady on Jun 18, 2019 19:01:41 GMT
Our mobile rinsing station. On to fine grit!!!!
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Post by hobbitlady on Jul 11, 2019 4:53:44 GMT
After many ups and downs the tumbler is on the Polish cycle! What a long road. Goodness those stones sure look smaller now and a few turned into peas. Another extra week off happened due to me deciding I needed a new rubber liner for polish cycles Only, and little plastic pellet-filler.(our large Thumbler brand is metal with removable rubber liner type tumbler. The old and never changed looking red work horse model. haha) DH got the liner for me,bless his heart. After working in the shop today where it's rolling,he asked me why it was So quiet this time. Those little plastic pellets make a big difference in the sound from using the ceramic type.
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Post by hobbitlady on Aug 1, 2019 0:12:57 GMT
Tumbler done over a week ago...Finally posting: Hopefully the fun patterns on these white/bluish/red/green Sagenite Agates will show you why I bothered trying to get the texture off the surface for so long! They are from McDermitt Nevada-just over border into Oregon. The real pretty bright pink with red,green&white Moss Agate is from what we found near Vale,in eastern Oregon,rockhounding 15 years ago.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Aug 1, 2019 1:21:15 GMT
Tumbler done over a week ago...Finally posting: Hopefully the fun patterns on these white/bluish/red/green Sagenite Agates will show you why I bothered trying to get the texture off the surface for so long! They are from McDermitt Nevada-just over border into Oregon. The real pretty bright pink with red,green&white Moss Agate is from what we found near Vale,in eastern Oregon,rockhounding 15 years ago. They are GORGEOUS! Thanks so much for taking the time to share those lovely pics dear hobbitlady... Me oh my I STILL have not gotten my tumblers back online - oy! Such a busy busy time of year... ~Mari
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Nov 22, 2019 2:48:26 GMT
Well, folks, I finally got a tumbler going again after all of this time! Seems like this is more of a winter hobby for me - which I indeed need to change... A little over a week ago I filled up my 6lb Lortone rotary tumbler with some Fancy Jasper in the rough. Here's a pic of it after the initial grind... I must say I am enjoying hearing the faint sound of a tumbler going once again down in the basement... Today, I divided up the above Jaspers and filled both barrels with them on one of my Lortone Model 33B tumblers for the second grind in 120/220 grit. A very kind member pm'd me in regards to this dude's YouTube channel... www.youtube.com/user/jugglerguy1It is indeed very interesting! Now, I've got the hankering to try my hand at tumbling some Puddingstone - but will have to do a bit of research as far as tumbling it in a rotary tumbler since it's not a really hard stone... I just may call Shawn at the Rock Shed tomorrow to ask his advice. ~Mari
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Nov 23, 2019 20:24:09 GMT
I just loaded up my Lortone QT-6 with this... I'm really really really looking forward to seeing how they turn out - I'm a glass nut and have never tumbled glass. The initial grind is for 4-5 days in 120/220 grit. ~Mari
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Nov 24, 2019 22:12:28 GMT
I am trying my hand at tumbling Puddingstones. I ran them for 2 days in 120/220 grit - they are a "softer" stone. I sure hope my end result will be good! ~Mari
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Post by feather on Nov 24, 2019 22:28:12 GMT
Really pretty and interesting. I love seeing the pictures. Beautiful stuff.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Nov 25, 2019 0:45:28 GMT
Really pretty and interesting. I love seeing the pictures. Beautiful stuff. Thanks! I must say I'm getting a real charge in regards to "creating" through rock tumbling once again... ~Mari
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Post by feather on Nov 25, 2019 0:49:51 GMT
I'm looking forward to seeing the glass.... DH tumbles pennies, to clean them up, after digging them, but we have no such beautiful stuff going on.
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Post by Woodpecker on Nov 25, 2019 14:53:56 GMT
The puddingstones look like they're going to be mighty interesting Mari. I'm happy you're into your rock tumbling again. A very kind friend sent me some tumbled rocks. One heart shape bowl is full of them, on my coffee table, with my drip candles. The others are in a leaf shaped copper dish in the center of Pics of my family in the living room. When the sun shines on them they glimmer. I love them!
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