First prep with new air abrasive setup.

[Daveos]

First real run with my new setup. Prepped out my Priscacara today. Was a bit disappointed the spikes were not spread out and the tail seems to have been damaged before it was buried.

 

Very impressed with the powered iron. Working in the harder 18" layer stuff it seemed that ~50-60psi was good. Moving to the soft split layer stuff less than 10psi was more than sufficient. 

 

Collecting and reusing the iron is simple. Just use a magnet then filter it, stick it back into the problast. 

 

The cabinet wasn't ideal, but I realized that an adjustable laptop stand would fit right inside and hold the specimen in just the right spot. Worked like a charm.

 

All in all, pretty satisfied with this setup. I have a few fish left to prep out, need to get my hands on some more.

[Randyw]

Great prepping job! Looks really good!

[Daveos]

5 minutes ago, Randyw said:

Great prepping job! Looks really good!

 

Thanks!

 

I had been planning this out and piecing it together for a while. Was nice to finally give it a good test drive. 

[hadrosauridae]

Great job so far!

[Daveos]

4 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said:

Great job so far!

 

Thanks!

[Fossildude19]

Well done, sir.

Beautiful fish now. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice job. 

[Daveos]

7 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Well done, sir.

Beautiful fish now. 

 

Thanks! Definitely like these Priscacara.  Need to find another one. 

Planning a trip to WY this summer.

[Ludwigia]

Nice work. And good idea with that laptop stand.

[rocket]

well done, and, I agree with Ludwigia. This is a really really great Idea with the laptop-stand! I have a huge cabine I did not use often because I do not have a good support for the fossils to work on. Laptop-Stand! I will propose you for the next Nobel price in Prep for this idea! 

[Daveos]

29 minutes ago, rocket said:

well done, and, I agree with Ludwigia. This is a really really great Idea with the laptop-stand! I have a huge cabine I did not use often because I do not have a good support for the fossils to work on. Laptop-Stand! I will propose you for the next Nobel price in Prep for this idea! 

 

Ha! Thanks. Happy you found the idea helpful.

 

Cheers

David

[FossilNerd]

I was always under the impression that iron powder was too abrasive to be used extensively in fossil prep. Especially on delicate fossils like green river fish, but you have proved that idea wrong. I’m guessing the key is low air pressure and a careful hand to prevent burning through the fossil or blasting away details. Well done! 

[Daveos]

8 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

I was always under the impression that iron powder was too abrasive to be used extensively in fossil prep. Especially on delicate fossils like green river fish, but you have proved that idea wrong. I’m guessing the key is low air pressure and a careful hand to prevent burning through the fossil or blasting away details. Well done! 

 

This is my first air abrasive setup, and I've never used anything other than iron powder at this point. I'm far from any expert on this subject though.

 

I went with iron powder after reading this post which contained an email from Arvid Aase, the Museum Curator at Fossil Butte National Monument.

 

 

 

I get the impression that iron powder is a novel abrasive substance in fossil prep? Maybe you were thinking of iron oxide?

 

All I know at this point is that it works very well.

 

Cheers

David

[Ludwigia]

4 minutes ago, Daveos said:

I get the impression that iron powder is a novel abrasive substance in fossil prep?

Maybe in North America, but certainly not in Europe, where it's been the medium of choice for decades. No danger of damage to fossils as long as you adjust the pressure accordingly.

[Daveos]

1 minute ago, Ludwigia said:

Maybe in North America, but certainly not in Europe, where it's been the medium of choice for decades. No danger of damage to fossils as long as you adjust the pressure accordingly.

 

I do see that was mentioned in the email. This fish was from the 18" layer. I had to set the pressure pretty high. I was amazed that it wasn't just blasting right through the very thin bone layer. 

[RJB]

Brilliant idea with the laptop stand.  Nice set up. 

 

RB

[FossilNerd]

2 hours ago, Daveos said:

get the impression that iron powder is a novel abrasive substance in fossil prep? Maybe you were thinking of iron oxide?

Ah, I think you are right.  Iron oxide and not iron powder was what I was thinking of, or maybe my tired brain was confusing the metals and thinking of aluminum oxide.  I need more coffee this morning! 

 

Thanks for posting the informative link about abrasives. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by FossilNerd

[fossilhunter21]

You did a splendid job on that fish! 

 

Thanks for sharing,

 

-Micah

Edited December 8, 2022 by fossilhunter21

[jpc]

Nice set up and work.  A few comments... someone mentioned the danger of sandblasting on a delicate Green River fish.  This Piscacara is from the 18 inch layer which is not as delicate as the split fish.  Split fish do not prep well with air abrasive... they are way too delicate.  Also, when you collect the iron powder, do you wrap the magnet in plastic (like a ziplock baggie) so you can shed the powder quickly and easily?  A trick I learned from gold panning decades ago. 

 

[Daveos]

2 hours ago, jpc said:

Nice set up and work.  A few comments... someone mentioned the danger of sandblasting on a delicate Green River fish.  This Piscacara is from the 18 inch layer which is not as delicate as the split fish.  Split fish do not prep well with air abrasive... they are way too delicate.  Also, when you collect the iron powder, do you wrap the magnet in plastic (like a ziplock baggie) so you can shed the powder quickly and easily?  A trick I learned from gold panning decades ago. 

 

 

Thanks,

 

If you refer to the email from Arvid Aase in the linked email above, he talks a lot about the benefits of iron powder. At one point he mentions using it at very low PSI with great success. This didn't work at all on the 18" layer which I found works well at about 50psi. 

 

I figured maybe they were working on the split layer fish so I tried one of mine at around 5-8 psi. It actually works great. I'll post results when I finish preparing it.

 

I have magnets all around the case. Pretty easy to collect and reuse this stuff.

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Daveos

[jpc]

25 minutes ago, Daveos said:

 

Thanks,

 

If you refer to the email from Arvid Aase in the linked email above, he talks a lot about the benefits of iron powder. At one point he mentions using it at very low PSI with great success. This didn't work at all on the 18" layer which I found works well at about 50psi. 

 

I figured maybe they were working on the split layer fish so I tried one of mine at around 5-8 psi. It actually works great. I'll post results when I finish preparing it.

 

I have magnets all around the case. Pretty easy to collect and reuse this stuff.

 

Thanks for this info.

[Ptychodus04]

On 12/8/2022 at 10:07 AM, jpc said:

Nice set up and work.  A few comments... someone mentioned the danger of sandblasting on a delicate Green River fish.  This Piscacara is from the 18 inch layer which is not as delicate as the split fish.  Split fish do not prep well with air abrasive... they are way too delicate.  Also, when you collect the iron powder, do you wrap the magnet in plastic (like a ziplock baggie) so you can shed the powder quickly and easily?  A trick I learned from gold panning decades ago. 

 

 

The ziplock baggie trick is a gold mine of usefulness. Just drag it around and open the baggie over your dirty abrasive container and pull out the magnet. 

 

I do abrasive work on Sandwich Bed (AKA split-fish) material all the time. Granted, the pressure has to be a lot lower and there's no room for error in technique. The paddlefish I prepped earlier this year was Sandwich Bed and it did fine with low pressure abrasive.

 

 

On 12/8/2022 at 12:49 PM, Daveos said:

 

Thanks,

 

If you refer to the email from Arvid Aase in the linked email above, he talks a lot about the benefits of iron powder. At one point he mentions using it at very low PSI with great success. This didn't work at all on the 18" layer which I found works well at about 50psi. 

 

I figured maybe they were working on the split layer fish so I tried one of mine at around 5-8 psi. It actually works great. I'll post results when I finish preparing it.

 

I have magnets all around the case. Pretty easy to collect and reuse this stuff.

 

 

 

Great set up. Also, don't forget to screen your used abrasive before you reuse it. I use a 120 micron screen to pull out the larger particles. This works well.

[jpc]

42 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 

I do abrasive work on Sandwich Bed (AKA split-fish) material all the time. Granted, the pressure has to be a lot lower and there's no room for error in technique. The paddlefish I prepped earlier this year was Sandwich Bed and it did fine with low pressure abrasive.

 

Glad to hear this.