Nice work on your obsidian! I am about to tumble it for the first time and these videos and comments give good tips. Read up on Oregon obsidian if you haven't already. Little glass butte, an endless source of obsidian, has over 250 kinds of obsidian on the mountain. I find that completely mind-blowing. I didn't even know there was 250 kinds of obsidian! Gold sheen, purple sheen, red sheen, silver sheen, rainbow, snowflake, and FIRE (sorry, sports fans, all claimed up), the only obsidian that sells by the CARAT. Little Glass butte has it all. It's quite fascinating, actually. But maybe I just say that because I'm a geology nerd. 😂
My process is slightly different...I do coarse grinding the same way as you in my QT 12, although I use a 5 day cycle instead of a full week. One cup of 35-70 grit and 1/4 cup borax per load. My vibratory tumbler is the Diamond Pacific Mini Sonic which I load with 1.5 pounds of rock and 0.5 pounds of ceramic filler per load. Vibe stage one-4 tsp of 120-220 grit SiC for 3 days. Stage 2-Three tsp. 600 grit SiC for 2 days. Stage 3-Two tsp. 1000 grit aluminum oxide for 24 hours. Polish-one tsp. of Raybrite A for 24 hours. After each stage I clean the stones and jar with a 1 hour Ivory Soap run. I use no additives in the vibe. I really like the Mini Sonic, it's relatively quiet and I get a terrific shine on the stones. I wish I had bought the larger version, and probably will sooner or later.
Turned out good, nice video! I'm having a really hard time finding a Lot-O vibratory tumbler. Every place I call & online are sold out and don't have any Idea when they'll get them in. Any help finding one would be much appreciated!
Awesome tumble job sir! Thanks for the tips! Do you think it would be possible to do it all in a rotary? Would probably have to use double the media I think?
Thanks, I'm sure it could be done in the rotary but like you said I think you would need a lot of media. I have only finish like 2 batches all rotary and it was when I first started but I am working on a batch now that I am going to do all rotary to see if I can get shine like I do in the vibratory, maybe I should try it with obsidian next???
good job that stuff polishes like glass , oh wait it is glass lol , were all three pieces the same ? a couple cut pieces almost have a rainbow look to them , i have some slabs in my march 3 purple rock video you need to find some of that rainbow
Thanks. Yeah I might try to get my hands on some rainbow also. I think they were the same, but one of them did have more lines or layers you could see. A few of them have like a sheen when I put a flashlight on them.
In the vibratory I put all the rocks and media in the barrel while it's full of water then hold my hand over the top and dump all the water out so everything is wet with no standing water. After that I just keep an eye on it and keep it wet enough to stay rolling nice, adding water with a spray bottle.
When you get it, it comes with double sided tape and it says to mount it to something heavy like a brick. I never ran it before it was mounted so I would assume if you didn't mount it to something it would walk all over the place.
Well it could be a few things, not enough time on each stage, not cleaning well enough between stages, or I've seen people talk about not having luck with some brands of grit. Are you using a vibratory tumbler.
In the rotary I feel like it can be a time issue. I run stage 1 for seven days then wash them then add new grit and go 7 days again until I am happy with them. With the rest of the stages in rotary I go 10 days and I do 120/220 silicon carbide then 500 aluminum oxide then 1000 aluminum oxide then aluminum oxide polish. I have a batch finishing up all rotary in the next couple days and the video will come out not long after so we can see the results and you can see my process when doing all rotary, I hope it helps!
I tumbled some glass one time that had some gas build up but other than that I've never had an issue. Normally on my 3lb barrels it looks like it does the opposite and the bottoms are sucked in a little.
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Great video on tumbling the obsidian. Just picked up a 10 lb chunk and looking forward to tumbling some myself
Nice work on your obsidian! I am about to tumble it for the first time and these videos and comments give good tips.
Read up on Oregon obsidian if you haven't already. Little glass butte, an endless source of obsidian, has over 250 kinds of obsidian on the mountain. I find that completely mind-blowing. I didn't even know there was 250 kinds of obsidian! Gold sheen, purple sheen, red sheen, silver sheen, rainbow, snowflake, and FIRE (sorry, sports fans, all claimed up), the only obsidian that sells by the CARAT. Little Glass butte has it all. It's quite fascinating, actually. But maybe I just say that because I'm a geology nerd. 😂
Nice job
That is a gorgeous batch of tumbled obsidian.
Thank you, I'm very excited to do another after these turned out so nice!!
My process is slightly different...I do coarse grinding the same way as you in my QT 12, although I use a 5 day cycle instead of a full week. One cup of 35-70 grit and 1/4 cup borax per load.
My vibratory tumbler is the Diamond Pacific Mini Sonic which I load with 1.5 pounds of rock and 0.5 pounds of ceramic filler per load.
Vibe stage one-4 tsp of 120-220 grit SiC for 3 days. Stage 2-Three tsp. 600 grit SiC for 2 days. Stage 3-Two tsp. 1000 grit aluminum oxide for 24 hours. Polish-one tsp. of Raybrite A for 24 hours.
After each stage I clean the stones and jar with a 1 hour Ivory Soap run. I use no additives in the vibe.
I really like the Mini Sonic, it's relatively quiet and I get a terrific shine on the stones. I wish I had bought the larger version, and probably will sooner or later.
I like the looks of the mini sonic, if I end up getting another vibratory I will probably try one of those.
Awesome video !!!
Turned out good, nice video!
I'm having a really hard time finding a Lot-O vibratory tumbler. Every place I call & online are sold out and don't have any Idea when they'll get them in. Any help finding one would be much appreciated!
Awesome tumble job sir! Thanks for the tips! Do you think it would be possible to do it all in a rotary? Would probably have to use double the media I think?
Thanks, I'm sure it could be done in the rotary but like you said I think you would need a lot of media. I have only finish like 2 batches all rotary and it was when I first started but I am working on a batch now that I am going to do all rotary to see if I can get shine like I do in the vibratory, maybe I should try it with obsidian next???
@@amrocktumbling8298 Do it do it!
i missed it what kind of polish did you use? im tumbling slag glass and cant get a polish it looks like beach glass
I use aluminum oxide polish from the rock shed.
I got about 1000 pounds of that stuff tumbling some of it right now
Wow that is a lot!!
good job that stuff polishes like glass , oh wait it is glass lol , were all three pieces the same ? a couple cut pieces almost have a rainbow look to them , i have some slabs in my march 3 purple rock video you need to find some of that rainbow
Thanks. Yeah I might try to get my hands on some rainbow also. I think they were the same, but one of them did have more lines or layers you could see. A few of them have like a sheen when I put a flashlight on them.
How much water are you using after stage 1? This would be in the vibratory tumbler.
In the vibratory I put all the rocks and media in the barrel while it's full of water then hold my hand over the top and dump all the water out so everything is wet with no standing water. After that I just keep an eye on it and keep it wet enough to stay rolling nice, adding water with a spray bottle.
Quick question does the tumbler has to be mounted or can it be used without mounting it?
When you get it, it comes with double sided tape and it says to mount it to something heavy like a brick. I never ran it before it was mounted so I would assume if you didn't mount it to something it would walk all over the place.
after grit 3 mine have become smooth but have tine scratches all over them, what am I doing wrong. Thank You
Well it could be a few things, not enough time on each stage, not cleaning well enough between stages, or I've seen people talk about not having luck with some brands of grit. Are you using a vibratory tumbler.
@@amrocktumbling8298 I have only a rotary tumbler maybe that's the problem.
In the rotary I feel like it can be a time issue. I run stage 1 for seven days then wash them then add new grit and go 7 days again until I am happy with them. With the rest of the stages in rotary I go 10 days and I do 120/220 silicon carbide then 500 aluminum oxide then 1000 aluminum oxide then aluminum oxide polish. I have a batch finishing up all rotary in the next couple days and the video will come out not long after so we can see the results and you can see my process when doing all rotary, I hope it helps!
@@amrocktumbling8298 thank you for the info, I'll look forward to the new video
No gas buildup in the rotary?
I tumbled some glass one time that had some gas build up but other than that I've never had an issue. Normally on my 3lb barrels it looks like it does the opposite and the bottoms are sucked in a little.