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Showing results for tags 'abrasion'.
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It took a long time to find my first comco blaster, and it's been a couple years since, but I finally found another auction, 2 in fact. I wanted 1 more for a second prep station, but I couldn't pass up a good deal. So now I need to open them up, clean, and replace anything worn out. Glad I already learned how to overhaul these from my first blaster. I plan on selling one of these after I'm sure it's in good working order.
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I finished the dust collection system in my prep station this morning so I had to put the tools to use and start practicing! In a nutshell, I LOVE AIR TOOLS!! I picked out one of my random BOBs collected over the years from the South Dakota Hell Creek fm. Typical of my digs, this one had a lot of surface CA and matrix adhering to it, but it was about as clean as I could get it by hand.. I started out by cleaning half of it with just the soda blaster. You can see in the picture that it was doing a phenomenal job. I wanted to get a pic that showed the condition before I worked over the entire piece (in case I ruined it LOL). OF course there were some spots that just wouldnt budge. So I started using the air scribe. So amazing! Watching those little stubborn spots and every other bit of matrix just blow away from the tiniest touch of the stylus. I left the associated bone bit attached with its matrix just because. It looks to be from a different animal, possibly some type of theropod as those often have the hard, shiny surfaces. Trying to clean out the exposed marrow was the most challenging. Lots of tiny flakes of it came off during cleaning, but to just look at the fossil you wouldnt know. One thing I did notice was that the media blaster can eat though a lot of soda in a short time! I finished out the piece by conserving it with a coat of PVA.
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Big difference between an airbrush and air eraser O_o
joshuajbelanger posted a topic in Fossil Preparation
I have been trying my hand at prepping for a few months now. Started with some nice air scribes, then tried air abrasion. I bought a cheap badger airbrush and threw tons of media at fossils. To me, it seemed that no matter what the pressure or sand agent, I saw absolutely no results. So, I bought a AEC and had it overnighted, hoping I was just using the wrong tool. Well, absolutely I was using the wrong tool. The moment I got the AEC up and running, I finally understood why it's called an air eraser. Slowly, but surely, the tough dolemite matrix melted away, as if it was being miraculously erased. HOTDOG! I thought these calymenid trilos I found in Kentucky were gonna be a wash...but dag nabbit, the details are coming out! This isn't the final prep, and I don't have any before prep pics, but this is a huge improvement. This trilo was just showing 1/4 of one side of its body. I didn't even know if it was fully intact...sure is! Even pulled out both the eyes. Super stoked guys. Level up-points into prep skill. BAM