An ENTIRE Petrified forest!

[Fossil Claw]

On ‎4‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 6:30 PM, FossilDudeCO said:

Ok, I got a little side-tracked this weekend with the March for Science in Denver, but I have boxes packed and ready to go!

 

@Jesuslover340 - You get LARGE pieces the idea being your rock shop friend has a saw and you can make some slabs and cabs

@ynot - You get a box of medium sized pieces that I am hoping will work to slab and cab, if not, polishing the ends will work for sure.

@Sacha You get some pieces that are more geared towards polishing up a side or 2 that can sit in a cabinet

@digit - You get some REALLY weird pieces! Smash 'em, break 'em, whatever you have to do to get them to fit in that tumbler! You get a few very colourful pieces!

 

I can't wait to see if any of these work out!

 

The 4 of you have about 50% of what I collected and really all of the decent stuff!

 

I set aside 3-5 pieces that had some nice coulours I enjoyed, but that is it! The primo stuff is headed out!

 

 

Four Musketeers above, what tools do you use to cut and polish?

 

I have a bunch of coral I want to cut and polish.  @FossilDudeCO i'd be willing to trade some polished coral for some of this wood.  I still have to source some tools from craigslist but plan to do so this summer.

[Fossil Claw]

18 hours ago, Sacha said:

First 4 pieces are done. 3 pieces are giving me a little trouble, so they will be another few days.

 

where do you get those awesome stands?

[ynot]

2 minutes ago, Fossil Claw said:

what tools do you use to cut and polish?

Diamond rock saw and cabochon (grinding wheels) unit. If You want the large piece with a flat side polished You will need a flat lap.

[Fossil Claw]

3 minutes ago, ynot said:

Diamond rock saw and cabochon (grinding wheels) unit. If You want the large piece with a flat side polished You will need a flat lap.

 

so a tile wet saw wouldn't work even with a diamond blade?

[digit]

19 minutes ago, Fossil Claw said:

what tools do you use to cut and polish?

 

I use a Thumler's Tumbler Model B:  http://www.thumlerstumbler.com/rotary.html

 

So far it has been dedicated to tumbling several batches of silicified fossil coral from the Withlacoochee. Now it's loaded with the pet wood and later I'm hoping to collect some nice tumbler material out in Idaho this August (agates, garnets, jaspers, etc.) which I'll probably ship home to myself.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ynot]

27 minutes ago, Fossil Claw said:

 

so a tile wet saw wouldn't work even with a diamond blade?

Tile is just a man made rock, and a tile saw is a rock saw.

[FossilDudeCO]

@Fossil Claw Sure thing Dom, send me your address and I will mail out a box tomorrow. Those awesome little wood stands can be had at the Denver Fossil show in September for just a few bucks each. I would be glad to pick you up some if you can wait that long!

@Fossil-Hound has a box on his way, I mailed out yesterday as well.

 

 

Maybe I will sort some lots tonight and post them in Member Trades for those interested.

 

 

[Sacha]

2 hours ago, Fossil Claw said:

where do you get those awesome stands?

 

I get mine from "Kingsley North" a supplier of lapidary and jewelry materials hat is located in Northern Michigan. You can order online or from one of their catalogs.

[Fossil-Hound]

1 hour ago, FossilDudeCO said:

@Fossil Claw Sure thing Dom, send me your address and I will mail out a box tomorrow. Those awesome little wood stands can be had at the Denver Fossil show in September for just a few bucks each. I would be glad to pick you up some if you can wait that long!

@Fossil-Hound has a box on his way, I mailed out yesterday as well.

 

 

Maybe I will sort some lots tonight and post them in Member Trades for those interested.

 

 

 

@FossilDudeCO thanks! So this weekends Chesapecten trip has been postponed due to rain and high tides. It's a shame because the spot we were going to should yield 6+ inches in diameter of Chesapecten jeffersonious and nefrens. Really large, colorful scallops. I still have some pretty good ones back at the ranch and will send them out tomorrow.

[Sacha]

I have lots of spare time he last few days, so here are a couple freeform cabs I've made from the slabs I cut. I just got new wheels for my cab machine and it's a pleasure to cut again.

 

[aerogrower]

Fantastic job @Sacha

[digit]

Nice!!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[FossilDudeCO]

@Sacha  Those cabs turned out GORGEOUS!!!

[Sacha]

3 hours ago, FossilDudeCO said:

@Sacha  Those cabs turned out GORGEOUS!!!

 

Thanks Blake. They took a nice polish on the diamond wheels. I'm going to Georgia for coral next week, but I'll try to get a few more done for you.

[digit]

Good luck next week for coral. Hope you find some stunners!

 

Those cabs really took a nice shine and show off the texture of the wood grain really well.

 

I'm off tomorrow to the Turks & Caicos for a week so I took a moment to check on the tumbler in the garage before I leave. You can see how much the tumbler barrel has emptied now that the sharp corners have been knocked off the chunks of petrified wood allowing them to pack more tightly. When I tumble silicified coral the thick sludge that I see when opening the drum after a spin is a battleship gray color but the pet wood has infused some earth tones resulting in a pleasing putty tan.

 

   

 

I dumped the drum and rinsed off the contents to see what progress has been made after two weeks. This material doesn't seem quite as hard as the chalcedony of the silificied coral as it has already taken quite a pleasing shape after just a (relatively) short time in the tumbler.  I may run this material for just one more week or I may leave it a little rugged and start the polishing. More time shaping will result in pleasing smooth shapes but it also removes a lot of material to do so.

 

 

I only had room in the tumbler for half of the material for the first spin and you can see by the comparison below the changes that have been made in this first phase of tumbling.

 

   

 

I've loaded up the barrel with the rest of the raw material and I'll give that a spin for two weeks again. After which I'll combine the two loads into a larger batch to better fill the tumbler--tumblers work better when they are not so empty. I'll have a closer look when Part B is done spinning and I'll decide if it looks shaped enough at that time or if I think it might benefit from a little more smoothing. After that it is on to finer grits where the surface will start to take a shine much like John's fine handiwork above.

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

[Fossil Claw]

On 5/11/2017 at 11:17 AM, FossilDudeCO said:

@Fossil Claw Sure thing Dom, send me your address and I will mail out a box tomorrow. Those awesome little wood stands can be had at the Denver Fossil show in September for just a few bucks each. I would be glad to pick you up some if you can wait that long!

@Fossil-Hound has a box on his way, I mailed out yesterday as well.

 

 

Maybe I will sort some lots tonight and post them in Member Trades for those interested.

 

 

Pm sent with address.  If this stands are only a couple bucks yes I can wait and I will take 10 if them!

 

Thank you

[Fossil Claw]

Wow those look pretty awesome already!

[Fossil Claw]

Good thing you put the wood and a heavy duty bag. The Box arrived with a big hole in it and all beat up. The bag kept it from being lost.

[FossilDudeCO]

3 hours ago, Fossil Claw said:

Good thing you put the wood and a heavy duty bag. The Box arrived with a big hole in it and all beat up. The bag kept it from being lost.

Those bags rank among my top purchases!

[digit]

Yup. The box of petrified goodness that was shipped to me was also no longer cuboid in shape when it reached me--looked more like a proto-meteorite in shape. Though it was in danger of splitting into what would be the world's worst birthday piñata (unless the kids liked fossils over candy) the thick gauge plastic bag kept everything safe and sound. As I'll be rockhounding in Idaho this August and likely shipping back some boxes of roxes it would be good to know if those bags can be purchased online.

 

BTW: Just back from the Turks & Caicos Islands (where it rained for all but the last two days). Didn't stop us doing our coral reef survey training workshop though. The second load of the petrified forest is still churning away in my garage and I'll probably add some new grit today to refresh the batch and let it tumble for another week. Then I'll see if the pieces if both batches are adequately shaped to start the finer polishing stages or if they need to be combined and tumble with coarse grit for another week or so. Will keep this topic updated on any progress.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[doushantuo]

Pity about the rain,Dig.

Glad you still had a good holiday

[FossilDudeCO]

@digit I actually got them from my work at a print shop. They ordered them by the pallet for the products they ship. They are made by Elkay Plastics and are 8" x 10" gusseted 4mil bags. The size is perfect for a medium flat rate box! Rain happens, at least it didn't hinder work!

[JohnBrian]

On 5/11/2017 at 9:38 AM, Sacha said:

I have lots of spare time he last few days, so here are a couple freeform cabs I've made from the slabs I cut. I just got new wheels for my cab machine and it's a pleasure to cut again.

 

 

Beautiful! That is some fine looking material!

 

BTW, I notice that your freeforms are a bit triangular in shape. Do you find that happens with the bulk of the material? I ask because when I freeform opal (which is what I primarily work on) most of mine come out rather triangular even when I am trying NOT to make them triangular! I use a home-brewed flat lap machine.

[Sacha]

8 minutes ago, JohnBrian said:

 

Beautiful! That is some fine looking material!

 

BTW, I notice that your freeforms are a bit triangular in shape. Do you find that happens with the bulk of the material? I ask because when I freeform opal (which is what I primarily work on) most of mine come out rather triangular even when I am trying NOT to make them triangular! I use a home-brewed flat lap machine.

 

 

I think I just like triangular stones, so I sort of force the stone in that direction. I've got several more pieces I'm working that are more like the center stone....just odd polygons to make the largest stone I can from the fractured rock. I hate trying to cut calibrated stones....maybe because I'm not very good at it. Doing it this way, I never make a stone too big or too small....always just right! I use a 6" Cab King machine.

[JohnBrian]

8 hours ago, Sacha said:

 

 

I think I just like triangular stones, so I sort of force the stone in that direction. I've got several more pieces I'm working that are more like the center stone....just odd polygons to make the largest stone I can from the fractured rock. I hate trying to cut calibrated stones....maybe because I'm not very good at it. Doing it this way, I never make a stone too big or too small....always just right! I use a 6" Cab King machine.

 

Maybe I'm doing it subconsciously then. I don't mind triangular, but it is annoying to be concentrating on polishing a stone & you suddenly notice it is not the shape you were looking for. 

 

I've never tried calibrated. I don't have the patience or the fine motor skills.