Steps in Doing a Flip

[Kane]

After a rubbish day at the bench trying to do something well above my pay-grade, I decided to take on some practice work that will help me in learning some intermediate level prep fundamentals, and expand my "prepertoire," so to speak.

 

This is a ventral Flexicalymene senaria, a fairly common bug and certainly one I could sacrifice to learning. I started doing the prep to make it ventral, but it seems to have enough complete shell to warrant a flip. 

 

Problem is, I've never done a flip. Well, actually I have and it failed spectacularly.

Something something stone meal? What kind of glue? Ratio? Levelling?

 

Here is the piece in question. Now, I know I can trim off the right side of the rock to function as the base. Any step by step help on this would be enormously appreciated. I just know this is a skill I'm going to need to develop as the years (and ventrals) accumulate. I need to develop this skill on common bugs before I ever entertain doing so on a rare one.

[jpc]

When you say 'doing a flip', do you mean preparing it form the top now that you have the bottom prepped?  Are you familiar with carbowax (polyethylene glycol)?  It is  water soluble wax used as a temporary support for exactly this sort of thing.  I use it a lot for small delicate fossils that are water proof. I think I have a pdf or ppt on its use out there somewhere.  

 

Edit:  Here is my paper on Carbowax.  

Since I wrote this I have discovered that Miralax is exactly the stuff I like best for fossil prep... pure PEG 3500... and readily available at the pharmacy

ell, heck... it won't let me attach a pdf.... 

 

[Kane]

3 minutes ago, jpc said:

When you say 'doing a flip', do you mean preparing it form the top now that you have the bottom prepped?  Are you familiar with carbowax (polyethylene glycol)?  It is  water soluble wax used as a temporary support for exactly this sort of thing.  I use it a lot for small delicate fossils that are water proof. I think I have a pdf or ppt on its use out there somewhere.  

Thanks, jpc! Yes, I mean preparing it dorsally. The ventral is only partially prepped, and I am abandoning that approach in favour of "starting over" dorsally. Although one day I do hope to prep a trilo entirely free of matrix and suspend it in resin (either dorsal or ventral completely done, dip in resin halfway, prep the rest, resin on the other side).

I'll look into the carbowax, but if you have the PDF kicking around I'll take all the knowledge I can get!

[jpc]

3 minutes ago, Kane said:

Thanks, jpc! Yes, I mean preparing it dorsally. The ventral is only partially prepped, and I am abandoning that approach in favour of "starting over" dorsally. Although one day I do hope to prep a trilo entirely free of matrix and suspend it in resin (either dorsal or ventral completely done, dip in resin halfway, prep the rest, resin on the other side).

I'll look into the carbowax, but if you have the PDF kicking around I'll take all the knowledge I can get!

PM me your email ad I will send it to you.  

[LabRatKing]

16 minutes ago, jpc said:

When you say 'doing a flip', do you mean preparing it form the top now that you have the bottom prepped?  Are you familiar with carbowax (polyethylene glycol)?  It is  water soluble wax used as a temporary support for exactly this sort of thing.  I use it a lot for small delicate fossils that are water proof. I think I have a pdf or ppt on its use out there somewhere.  

 

Edit:  Here is my paper on Carbowax.  

Since I wrote this I have discovered that Miralax is exactly the stuff I like best for fossil prep... pure PEG 3500... and readily available at the pharmacy

ell, heck... it won't let me attach a pdf.... 

 

For PEG 3500, just look in the laxative aisle!

 

However, I use PEG 8000 with great success on both fossils and microscopy and it is readily available from most industrial supply houses.

[Malcolmt]

Hmmmm. not sure that Carbowax is going to be all that useful in doing a flip. I agree that since it is water soluble that it is easy to remove . What Kane ultimately needs to do is to transfer the bug to either another piece of matrix or elsewhere on the same matrix or better yet in the same spot but flipped over  so that it is dorsal side up. I would approach this one by applying cyano acrylate to the ventral side as it currently sits to provide it some extra strength and to seal any microscopic cracks and weaknesses.  I would then grind up some of the matrix and create a paste in an adhesive carrier. I would apply this to fill in the current cavity and to provide more strength for the actual flip. I would then channel at an angle under the bug from all sides to the point where I could lever the bug off (with a dental tool)  breaking the central channel that still connects it to the matrix. I would then use matrix paste again to put the bug back in the original spot or at another cavity I create on that piece of matrix or another piece of matrix. Probably did not explain this very well but it works...... If you are carefull with the size of the cavity you put the bug back into you can make the join virtually undetectable.  I figured this method out a long time ago prepping Indiana Spathacalymenes that were almost always found ventral side up. The smaller the bug the easier it is to do the flip. ....

[Malcolmt]

I have used PEG 6000 in the past when doing molds but not for doing what Kane wants to do.

 

[jpc]

32 minutes ago, LabRatKing said:

For PEG 3500, just look in the laxative aisle!

 

However, I use PEG 8000 with great success on both fossils and microscopy and it is readily available from most industrial supply houses.

Yeah, I only discovered this after I wrote the paper.  I find 8000 to be too rigid.  Used to be you could get free one liter samples from Union Carbide, then Dow just for asking them.  My samples lasted me decades.   

[LabRatKing]

I buy it in 500g powder form, then one has full control over concentration. Mix it thin for soft, thick for hard. I mostly use it for non fossil microscopy. However the penetration at that molecular weight is excellent, and miscabillity (sp) is readily adjustable with ethanol and or methanol in aqueous solution. I’ve been using the same 500g jar for so long, I was a bit shocked to see the price is up around 20$..I paid 4$ around the turn of the century!

 

if one desires a soft, somewhat gummy dust free solution PEG 75 works well, but one has to use somewhat nasty solvent combos (stuff like DMSO/acetic acid/water) that no one should ever attempt outside a lab.

[LabRatKing]

19 minutes ago, jpc said:

Yeah, I only discovered this after I wrote the paper.  I find 8000 to be too rigid.  Used to be you could get free one liter samples from Union Carbide, then Dow just for asking them.  My samples lasted me decades.   

Also, I’d love to read your paper, I’ll pm you from my desktop- I have a non-fossil research project going on that this thread has suddenly given me some feasible “solutions” to an issue I’ve been fighting for 18 months!

[jpc]

15 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

Also, I’d love to read your paper, I’ll pm you from my desktop- I have a non-fossil research project going on that this thread has suddenly given me some feasible “solutions” to an issue I’ve been fighting for 18 months!

Cool.  I hope the ideas from  this discussion work out.  I will look for your PM

 

I use the stuff pure, no diluting.  

[crabfossilsteve]

I used to use a diamond cutting wheel and cut out a rectangular shaped "hole" in some host rock deep enough to put your specimen and cut the rock with the specimen such that it would fit in that opening in the host rock. I used a product called Rockite, a concrete patch, and would add acrylic paints to match the matrix color to make a paste to infill any gaps and spaces between the host rock and the specimen containing rock.  If you first prep out a small spot of the positive side of the anterior/frontal border you can use this as a marker for were to begin prepping.  Hopefully that make some sense and may be of help.  Good luck.

[butchndad]

On 10/20/2020 at 3:56 PM, Kane said:

 

Pareidolia!  what is the trilobite doing on that dog?  upper left of the rock, i see a dog head; eyes, down turned mouth and even his/her ears.  snout a little cut off by photo.  i say prep the pup!