Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'prep'.
-
I probably should have started this thread years ago but better late than never. Ive got a bunch of fossil fish im going to prep out this summer. Im going to start with a Priscara serata that my sons friend found just last week. This serata has another right on top of it but missing some of itself so its going by by. This fish is from the bottom cap of the 18 inch layer and is in some very dense and very hard rock. The stuff I really like!!! A lot harder to prep than the split fish but nicer fish to say the least. Much harder bone too and can stand up against even pure dolomite! My kinda stuff!!! So, here we go........ RB This is the way it came up from the slab lift. You can see the other fish that is on top. The bottom one is about a 9 incher. This is almost 5 hours of work. The tail fin is a really hard prep job to say the least!!! but lookin real good so far. Luckily there is a tad bit of matrix between the fishes!
-
Okay, so everyone else is doing one it looks like, so I figured I would jump into the fray.
-
I recently finished this pulalius vulgaris and wanted to show it off. I may work on it more in the future when I get an air abrasive set up, but for now I'm pretty happy with it. It turned out well considering when I dug it out of the bank it rolled down the hill in two pieces. It was my first major repair and I have only prepped 7 or 8 of these. I think the practice is starting to pay off, but having a cooperative crab goes a long way. I know it's nowhere near the level of skill you see elsewhere on the forum, but I'm pretty dang proud of this one.
- 17 replies
-
- 6
-
-
- concretion
- crab
- (and 1 more)
-
What glue do you recommend for fixing broken fossils?. The one i currently use is called gorilla glue but i'd like a colourless one.
-
Found this cephalopod at Caesar Creek a month ago, just now got the chance to clean it up now that school is done. It's about 4.5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. My best guess at ID is Cameroceras but if anyone thinks it may be something else please let me know. Looking at about 450 million years old. Before After
- 4 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- cephalopod
- ordovician
- (and 1 more)
-
In tandem with the phytosaur prep, I’ve also started a very challenging bison skull project. This specimen is sub-fossil bone and VERY soft. The bone inside the foils wrapping is a crumbling mess. First step was to wrap it in towels and let it dry for a week.
- 9 replies
-
- 2
-
-
- bison
- consolidation
- (and 3 more)
-
Ive been thinkin about gettin one of these for years! I finally broke down and bought one, with extra scope lights. Right now its sittin on the kitchen desk. Just gots to clean up my prep bench now. I also have to find my micro scribes. Bought em years ago, never used them. I wonder where they are? Once I do fine em, I will be ready to join the Big Boys Prep Club. Maybe they will make me presidnt of the club. If so I will make my club goal to have happy hour! Ha!!! I should be a shoe in! RB
- 12 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- magnification
- prep
- (and 1 more)
-
Hello everyone I have decided to start prepping with some mechanic aid and was hoping for some advice. The compressor I have runs at 8 bar, 120l/min and has a 6l tank. The air scribe I am considering is from Krantz and has the following technical data: 36000 beats/min air consumption: 25–30 l/min pressure: 3–7 bar weight: 250 g size: Ø 17 x 160 mm length of the tube: ca. 2,5 m with internat. plug-in coupling pointer: acute, hard metal, medium, 38 mm My first question is if it looks like a good choice for a first scribe, any other alternatives anyone can suggest? My second question is if I need an external component to control the maksimum air pressure? On the compressor I can adjust the pressure range it runs on from x-8 bar, where x is the minimum pressure i allow it to go, before it brings it back up to 8 bar, but the scribe prescribe a 3-7 bar running pressure. Any spare parts worth getting straight off the bat? Best regards
-
Questions regarding solvents, sealants, and heat in trilobite fossils
Trinitydraco posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Okay so I have some questions on what you can and can't do with your typical trilobite in shale fossils. To help direct the discussion, I am interested in setting a small trilobite in silver as a gift. I make silver jewelry both using PMC (Precious Metal Clay) and traditional cutting and soldering. So, first question: Can you use high percentage (70% or higher) rubbing alcohol to clean all the dust and debris before sealing a trilobite? If not, what should I use? (I know you shouldn't use water) Question 2: What sealants can/should you use on a trilobite? I am looking for something that will be both waterproof and help prevent chipping. Question 3: Does anyone have any experience exposing them to high heat? It is common in jewelry making for heat to be involved, from both direct flame and indirect radiant heat. Is there any kind of precautions I should take and if so, what? What type of heat did you expose them to and what was the result? Different minerals act differently so remember we are talking about soft-medium shale. Question 4: Do you have any other advice or precautions you can give me regarding the use of fossil trilobites in/from shale matrix regarding their use in mixed media projects? The information I gather on this will help dictate my methods and help me create a plan for my project. There are many different ways I can do this and want to get a better idea of my options. Thanks. Picture is not of the exact trilobite to be used. It's just a reference for the kind of material/fossil I will be using.
-
I figured this might be a good thread in case it comes up for anyone else in the future. I recently purchased a used S. S. White 6500 model micro sandblaster unit for my workshop, which from here on out, I will likely refer to as a lab, as it now contains a higher dollar value of equipment than my media production office. Upon arrival, I discovered that it was not only pretty well used, but very poorly maintained, and was in fact, not functional. Since I got it for an absolute steal on the auction site, it's still worth every penny. After disassembling the unit, which I didn't have the foresight to photograph, I was fortunate enough to get on the phone with Joel, the president of Airbrasives, the subsidiary of S. S. White that manufactures these units. Joel was extremely nice, very talkative, and exceptionally helpful. We spent more than 90 minutes on the phone discussing the specific model, the parts that tend to wear out first, and what to look out for in terms of repairs and potential future pitfalls of maintenance. I figured that since I have had this experience and will be rebuilding this seized unit over the next few months, it might be a good project to share in case anyone else is able to get a similar bargain.
- 13 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- 6500
- air abrasive
- (and 4 more)
-
So I just started practicing my fossil prepping with just some basic dental tools on this little trilobite! I just got sent a set of 4 small, unprepped trilobites and as my new air tools still haven't come in yet I thought I would play with the dental tools for a bit. I'm going very gentle and very slow. I am finding the curved edge of an angle pick to be pretty good for going around the edges without running the risk of gouging anything. It's very relaxing! I'm sure my tools will arrive before I finish freeing this little guy but I couldn't wait to play with him! I need to fully extract a couple for a small display project I have planned involving the trilobites and some microfossils in a tiny glass case. I am putting sand down on the backing and placing very small shark teeth around the edges and then arranging two trilobites, a tiny ammonite, and some VERY tiny shells! As I am determined to prep everything myself it's gonna take a while but I think it will look awesome when done. Say hi to George! (I named him George )
- 10 replies
-
- 3
-
-
- dental tools
- prep
- (and 1 more)
-
Today I decided to try and prep a Sand dollar that was found by @digit and given to me at our March hunt at Cookie Cutter Creek. There was a good amount of matrix covering the top and bottom of this echinoid. While my main focus was uncovering the top portion I decided to also work on the bottom as well. Unfortunately I deleted the before pic by accident, but I took a pic that shows the pile of debris that I have removed so far. This is a work in progress so I will post more pics as I continue to work on it. First pic shows the top 2nd pic shows the bottom. As you can see from the pic all I have used so far is a pin vise and dental pic.
-
So a while back I purchased an Onnia superba in matrix from @ReeseF. I decided the other day to put a few hours into it, as I'm getting really tired of prepping Eldredgeops, lol. Before:
-
Hi all, I found this beauty not too long ago in Pauling Ohio. I am pretty sure it is some type of Eldridge trilobite. Any tips on how to prep it?
-
Ichthyosaur skull prep - saving a fossil that was poorly excavated
-Andy- posted a topic in Fossil Preparation
Sometime ago, I acquired an ichthyosaur skull that was poorly prepped. It had been roughly grinded and had lost much of its surface details. This is unlike the Holzmaden-style ichthyosaurs that were professionally prepped from the beginning, resulting in a beautiful fossil with scleral eye rings and full teeth etc. It's the reason collectors get unprepped Keichousaurus and send them to professional preppers, with the resultant Keichousaurus being more detailed than the ones you see from the Chinese market. This guy here is as flat as a pancake and so it would take delicate work to remove the hard matrix without damaging what bones still remain. Thankfully, @steelhead9 was up to the task of prepping him further. There is no restoration here. I'd say he has done one heck of a job.
- 11 replies
-
- 12
-
-
@DSMJake sent me this beautiful Edestus jaw to prep and I got the chance to work on it today. After a week of relaxing in the prep lab, chilling with the phytosaur, it came out of the box looking like this: To all appearances, it is simply covered in shale and the prep would require some simple abrasion. But as we all know, appearances aren’t everything! Under a good portion of the shale was a pile of pyritized shells! So, I abraided what I could and set to work with the Micro Jack. After the shells were gone, it went back into the cabinet for some more abrasive. After the abrasive, I blew the whole thing off and scrubbed the leftover soda off with acetone. The broken end of the bone had some cracking to deal with so they got a bit of super glue and the whole thing received a good consolidation. Why the whole thing you ask? Under the shale, the bone is also pyritized and the teeth are cracked with some enamel on the serrations missing. In order to lock all that down and reduce the risk of eventual pyrite decay, the whole piece got 2 good coats of thin Vinac. All this took a grand total of 3 hours of work.
- 18 replies
-
- 16
-
-
I just came across these nifty little things on the American Science & Surplus site, and thought they might come in handy sometimes for final touches on a display prep.
-
I found this beautiful whale vertebra this weekend. It fell out of the cliff face just a few days ago and tumbled into the Potomac River (brackish?) just far enough for the waves at the tide line to gently lapped it clean. Gotta love it! It is currently soaking in clean water to get the salt and anything else out as much as I can, but I've never done anything this big before. I'm used to stabilizing little stuff and blocks of matrix that really just need a thick, hard outer shell. The little bones air dry quickly enough that I don't have to worry about moisture at the center, but this thing is 4 1/2 inches in diameter! I have both Paleobond and Paraloid on hand. Anyone have any practice at this?
-
Hey everyone, I just started playing with this stuff called Q-O that I got from a friend on the forum. I don’t remember the exact specifics but it breaks down shale around fossils like brachs and corals really well. It doesn’t break down calcium carbonate so the fossils stay intact. I have a lot of Spinocyrtia granulosa specimens I’ve collected with some having amazing potential but still semi shale covered. The same went for my Pleurodictyums, Mediospirifers and many corals. All of these are from the Lake Erie shoreline. Patience seems to be my biggest issue cause it does take time to clean. So I took to the stove top to speed up the process. My gas bill will reflect my efforts This is one of my best..fully inflated, very 3D. I only have one other this 3D. These next 2 had a ton of extra fossils hidden!! I actually need too try and ID them. There is some type of branching bryozoan I think. I also see a more familiar encrusting bryozoan as well. I think the 2ns photo has aulopora all over the back of the brach. More to come!
- 29 replies
-
- 6
-
-
- abrasion free prep
- prep
- (and 1 more)
-
Here’s another phytosaur I’m starting work on. This one is missing some pieces and we are hopeful the collector can find more this spring. Until then, I have some work cut out for me. It may not look like much now but there appears to be a fully inflated skull under all that sandstone! I’ve already found where some of the random pieces in the trays did and have begun gluing and consolidating. I can see the occipital poking out of the back of the block as well! Finally, a phytosaur that is more prep than puzzle. There are fresh breaks on the maxillae where more should fit. for those bits showing up in a few months.
-
@snolly50 was nice enough to send me a mess of a Moroccan concretion to play with recently. It started out as what appeared to be bits of vertebrae poking out of the block. After about 4 hours of scribing with my ME9100, I had uncovered a few scraps of bone but no centra were evident. The natural crack that you see opened up from the vibrations of the scribe and no robust bone was evident in the crack either. With John's permission, I began exploring the back of the block, hoping to find something worthy to prepare. Bingo, I found some bone. The crack happened to peel through a small section of the centra rather than through a full cross section giving the appearance of a lack of large bone in the concretion. 4 or 5 hours later and the verts were mostly exposed. Unfortunately, this concredtion had a thin layer of softer rock on the outside and a significantly harder inner core. The matrix is MUCH harder than the bone and I fought the bones trying to crumble the entire time. This has copious amounts of Vinac on the bones to stabilize them. At this point, the ME9100 is almost making no progress on matrix removal. Enter the Super Jack scribe. This beast will plow through the matrix. It ultimately saved me around 12 hours of scribe work on this project. The one thing you have to be careful of is the increased vibrations to the block with the more powerful scribe. I spent more time consolidating and aggressively applied Vinac to any bone as it was exposed. Prep progressed quickly with me alternating between the Super Jack for bulk matrix removal and the ME9100 for close to the bone work. Including the exploratory time, I have 16 hours into this prep at the finish. I left some of the tool marks on the matrix rather than completely smoothing it out because I think it highlights the rugged nature of the piece and most Moroccan stuff has tool marks. The ones I have seen that are totally clean look off to my eye. It would be like @RJB leaving tool marks on his crab concretions. None of them have it so if they were there, it would look wrong. Here's the final product.
-
After a month of needle work, finally finished. This cluster is 65x30cm and I love it, lots of work but I just enjoyed it so much that I am sad it is finished Nothing to work on now This was my first work on a fossil and even though quite scary, very rewarding. I am definitely not stopping here. Besides 29pc of shark vertebrae I managed to expose many other fish vertebrae and bone fragments but the highlit must be an Enchodus tooth. Thank you all for your advise and helpful info on this project.
- 27 replies
-
- 16
-
-
Hi all, I have an ammonite specimen from Folkestone, UK that is locked in a phosphate nodule. Is there any way for it to be removed? Thanks, Jay
-
JohnBrewer kindly sent me some paraloid, i've gone out and bought some 98% acetone and a glass jar. How much Paraloid should i put into a small coffee jar? Thanks
-
I was thinking I could keep a running update on my bison prep, discoveries in learning, general happenings. . . Maybe a bit like Ralph’s aka Nimravis’ “Sometimes You Have to Whack It”, only my bison prep style if it isn’t too dull and boring. A recap. I found an almost complete, articulated bison with the skull in January 2019. I have collected the majority of it. I’m working on processing stuff still and prepping it. I’m totally new to vertebrate paleontology type stuff. So there is a big learning curve. I still have bits sitting in bags or small plastic boxes that I haven’t processed and removed the dirt from. That stuff is still moist for the most part. This post will be embarrassingly honest at times about how I messed up something out of sheer ignorance or how something didn’t work as planned. I’m not beating myself up over anything. Lesson learned and I move on all the wiser. I’ll be sharing my trials and errors for 2 or 3 reasons. 1. So someone else will know what worked or didn’t. 2. Hopefully give others the courage or motivation to just try and not be afraid to make mistakes. 3. Show how blond I really am. Noooo! Not really. 4. So others with more experience can chip in and give me guidance and insight. One thing I found out the wrong way is when you rinse the bones off with water and then let them dry, you’re not supposed to get them wet with water again. Never ever. I had no clue, but it makes sense. These specific type of bones are still like very old bone with little to no mineralization. So they’re fragile. When I rinsed the dirt and mud off I did a general, not a thorough cleaning where I got all the dirt out of the nooks and crannies. So I took one of the femurs that had thoroughly dried and went to rinse it again and clean the nitty gritty parts. After I was done I had it sitting next to me on the couch when I heard a very loud crack noise come from the bone! That was not good! I couldn’t find a crack, but clearly somewhere inside a crack had occurred. It was because the bone was dry. When wet it adsorbed the water, swelled and cracked. So no water. If I had known that I would have been more thorough on the initial cleaning.
.thumb.jpg.76796f25a72f97c9c2a87f953ebe4dca.jpg)
