Tumble and Polish

I am giving the Ozito sandblasting grit 40/60 that I picked up from Bunnings another chance. I want to see if it will help smooth out the rougher stones in this batch and hopefully I will see more of a reduction in volume than the last batch I used it in. That batch only lost 28grams which seems odd considering that the usual weight loss is 120grams when using 80/100grit.

This is a deviation from my usual tumbling procedure as I don’t usually use 40/60grit to start a batch with. Rougher stones seem to be catching my eye lately otherwise I’m getting down into my earlier supply of collected rocks when I didn’t know just how much “work” it takes to smooth out rough rocks!

Some of the stones (11 ??) in this batch were originally in Batch 41 . They have had two rounds of 80/100grit tumbling already but are still too rough to go through to Stage 2. The rest of the stones were collected from Gemstone Beach during a walk on my birthday because where else should you be other than your most favourite place in the world!?!

I’m using the 4lb barrel because it’s free and because a lot of these stones are bigger than the ones I usually tumble.

Batch 46: 4lb Tumbler 2

Observations

*Normally each stage is tumbled for 10 days. There was no specific reason for longer stages other than life getting in the way!

When adding borax to the tumbling stages the slurry gets much thicker and the barrel is often much warmer than usual. I am still not convinced that this is a positive thing for making the stones more smooth or that it helps to make the stones more shiny when they come out of the polish. The jury is still out ….

I am liking the use of ceramic pellets to either cushion or make up the load in the barrel. I like them because the same pellets can move with stones regardless of the grit you’re using. They aren’t plastic so I’m no longer worrying about tiny plastic pellets spilling into the environment! Eventually the ceramic pellets will wear away to nothing!

I don’t think the sandblasting grit 40/60 is anywhere near as good as repeat tumbling in 80/100grit. I’ve used it twice now and the amount of stone it smooths away is way less than the 80/100grit does. Although the 40/60grit is way cheaper to buy, the 80/100grit does 10x better a job in my personal opinion.

Polished Stones of Interest: Batch 46

Batch 46 | 4lb Tumbler 2 | Gemstone Beach | 8 January – 16 March 2024