Hi Mike I'm from over the pond in the UK and I'd like to share my experience with you every time I polished my rocks they came out just like yours they were fine before I polished them but would come out just like your batch here so .1 started using a tumbling media during the polish stage wich helped a little to cushion the rocks through that stage then .2 I was told that in the UK Aluminum oxide was still too course for the Polish stage so I switched to using (Pote Malaysia I'm not sure the brand matters but in case you need it) 99% pure tin oxide and the results were amazing I still occasionally have the odd pit or crack show up but I have so much more success now I hope this is of some use to you I love watching your videos and can't wait for the next one all the best Rock Brother
By no means am I anything more than a novice. That being said, I've been watching Rob at Michigan Rocks after seeing his review of the National Geographic Pro tumbler, which is the tumbler I had bought. Of his pros and cons, one con is the speed it tumbles which is 84(?) rpm on the lowest setting, which is more than twice the speed of 41(?) rpm of the tumbler he normally uses (Lor-tone if I recall correctly). His concern was potential "bruising" of the rocks in the later stages of polish from the rocks banging together, especially on the edges, rather than rubbing or gliding across each other. Another video (using the Nat Geo tumbler again, this time I believe it was with beach rocks) he had results very similar to yours with the edges chipped and/or rough. I think he said it may have been from too fast of rotation and not enough media for filler to cushion the stones at the higher speed. I don't recall for certain if he thought stones of different hardness was a contributing factor, but I think he did. That all being said, from the amount of media for filler you had compared to what he had with similar results, I personally think or would lean towards the speed being the culprit, and possibly the different hardnesses being second, or even a combination of both. Again, I'm only a novice trying to remember what I saw in some TH-cam videos (some several months ago) putting in my 2 cents worth. If you need, I can go back and find the exact videos for your reference. Hope this helped. It will be interesting to find out if you learn what the cause was. Keep us posted! Thank you.
Novice also, agree that the go to guy on the tube is Michigan Rocks. He is obsessive with getting perfect rocks/shine. That being said in the few months I’ve been tumbling, always seemed to be hit or miss with shine. Started paying more attention to hardness scale, I do hard barrels and soft barrels now. I don’t use any small rock media after step two, small ceramic on pre-polish three. Then aluminum oxide 1000 grit and plastic for a pre-polish again. Then aluminum oxide (12,000? I don’t have it in front of me) for the final polish/two weeks. I don’t remember where I read it and who to attribute it to but a decades long tumbler said he almost fills his final polish plastics to the top in the final stage/polish. Said if you can hear the rocks hitting each other while polishing you don’t have enough media. So far I have been getting much better results with new methods.
Good Morning Mike 👋😃 lighting is good on my end Bro 👍👋😃 MIKE I LOVE ROCK'S 🪨🪨🪨🪨👍👍🤣🤣
One sometimes I wonder if the cold makes the media different somehow Al’s try filling with rubber tile spacers to not bang around as hard 🤷♀️
The amethyst edges are probably damaged from harder stones that were with it in the tumbler.
Mike I love Petrified Wood 🪵👍❤️🤣 Mike you Polish Petrified Wood often?
Hi Mike I'm from over the pond in the UK and I'd like to share my experience with you every time I polished my rocks they came out just like yours they were fine before I polished them but would come out just like your batch here so .1 started using a tumbling media during the polish stage wich helped a little to cushion the rocks through that stage then .2 I was told that in the UK Aluminum oxide was still too course for the Polish stage so I switched to using (Pote Malaysia I'm not sure the brand matters but in case you need it) 99% pure tin oxide and the results were amazing I still occasionally have the odd pit or crack show up but I have so much more success now I hope this is of some use to you I love watching your videos and can't wait for the next one all the best Rock Brother
Thanks for the advice!
By no means am I anything more than a novice. That being said, I've been watching Rob at Michigan Rocks after seeing his review of the National Geographic Pro tumbler, which is the tumbler I had bought. Of his pros and cons, one con is the speed it tumbles which is 84(?) rpm on the lowest setting, which is more than twice the speed of 41(?) rpm of the tumbler he normally uses (Lor-tone if I recall correctly). His concern was potential "bruising" of the rocks in the later stages of polish from the rocks banging together, especially on the edges, rather than rubbing or gliding across each other. Another video (using the Nat Geo tumbler again, this time I believe it was with beach rocks) he had results very similar to yours with the edges chipped and/or rough. I think he said it may have been from too fast of rotation and not enough media for filler to cushion the stones at the higher speed. I don't recall for certain if he thought stones of different hardness was a contributing factor, but I think he did.
That all being said, from the amount of media for filler you had compared to what he had with similar results, I personally think or would lean towards the speed being the culprit, and possibly the different hardnesses being second, or even a combination of both. Again, I'm only a novice trying to remember what I saw in some TH-cam videos (some several months ago) putting in my 2 cents worth. If you need, I can go back and find the exact videos for your reference. Hope this helped. It will be interesting to find out if you learn what the cause was. Keep us posted! Thank you.
Novice also, agree that the go to guy on the tube is Michigan Rocks. He is obsessive with getting perfect rocks/shine. That being said in the few months I’ve been tumbling, always seemed to be hit or miss with shine.
Started paying more attention to hardness scale, I do hard barrels and soft barrels now.
I don’t use any small rock media after step two, small ceramic on pre-polish three. Then aluminum oxide 1000 grit and plastic for a pre-polish again. Then aluminum oxide (12,000? I don’t have it in front of me) for the final polish/two weeks.
I don’t remember where I read it and who to attribute it to but a decades long tumbler said he almost fills his final polish plastics to the top in the final stage/polish. Said if you can hear the rocks hitting each other while polishing you don’t have enough media. So far I have been getting much better results with new methods.
Thanks for the very thoughtful reply. Speed could be an issue.
Mike you can put Gold Tiger's Eye the Rock Tumbler? Can you put Red Tiger's Eye in the Rock Tumbler Mike? I'm just wondering is all!!!! 🤔👍😃
I'm not sure. Try it. Let me know how it goes.
I noticed that you didn’t use the tumbling media when you burnished is it possibly the edges got beat up then
I eliminated the burnishing phase as the problem in the next video by skipping it. Still had bad edges on the amethyst and some jasper.
Maybe do not use very hard stones as tumbling media, It could be damaging the softer edges.