Poor man's thin slicing

[Peat Burns]

My first attempt at thin slicing to identify rugose corals.  Used a tile saw and a belt sander  followed by sand paper.  I think I can see enough of what I need to for identification of this specimen, but I think I'm going to invest in a flat lapidary grinder and a diamond embedded wheel.  I'm tired of putting corals into the collection with only coarse identification.  Here's the poor-man's version / first attempt of a thin slice (obviously needs to be a lot thinner).

 

[Sagebrush Steve]

Pretty good for a tile saw and belt sander.  Let us know what you eventually end up getting. 

[Peat Burns]

25 minutes ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Pretty good for a tile saw and belt sander.  Let us know what you eventually end up getting. 

Thanks.  My impatience paid off.  I just kind of wanted to try it out and see how it worked before investing in the proper (expensive) tools 

[Nimravis]

As Steve, nice job for tile saw. I use a tile saw to cut Ordovician hash plates down to size.

[Peat Burns]

1 minute ago, Nimravis said:

As Steve, nice job for tile saw. I use a tile saw to cut Ordovician hash plates down to size.

Thanks Ralph.  It's a good start.  Will hopefully get better at it.

[izak_]

Well done! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Excellent for a first effort. And I think it looks beautiful. 

[Al Dente]

You might want to try making an acetate peel. Here's some information on how it's done. http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2015/05/01/woosters-fossil-of-the-week-how-to-make-brilliant-acetate-peels-with-a-jurassic-coral-example/

 

Here's an example from the linked page-

[Peat Burns]

12 hours ago, Al Dente said:

You might want to try making an acetate peel. Here's some information on how it's done. http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2015/05/01/woosters-fossil-of-the-week-how-to-make-brilliant-acetate-peels-with-a-jurassic-coral-example/

 

Here's an example from the linked page-

I actually have that site bookmarked.  That's my next project, especially acetate peels of my piles of bryozoans labeled "unidentified Ectoprocta" 

[Ptychodus04]

Very cool. Can’t wait to see what you can do with the “right” tools! Looks really good already.

[minnbuckeye]

@Al Dente, if one would make acetate peels of corals and bryozoans, are there any semi EASY to UNDERSTAND references available to help in identification.

@Peat Burns, have I seen that coral before? LOL

[Al Dente]

1 hour ago, minnbuckeye said:

@Al Dente, if one would make acetate peels of corals and bryozoans, are there any semi EASY to UNDERSTAND references available to help in identification.

@Peat Burns, have I seen that coral before? LOL

I don’t think coral or bryozoan IDs are ever easy. I have older versions of the coral volumes of the treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology and most of the IDs are based on thin sections. The volumes have many illustrations of thin sections. 

 

 

 

 

[Peat Burns]

10 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

@Al Dente, if one would make acetate peels of corals and bryozoans, are there any semi EASY to UNDERSTAND references available to help in identification.

@Peat Burns, have I seen that coral before? LOL

You have , and it may have been a rather vicarious find for you, seeing how you kindly gave me directions to the site (for which I remain grateful) 

[Peat Burns]

Well, I went ahead and tried the acetate peel method.  Definitely the way to go if one's goal is simply identification and not mineralogical analysis.  Much easier and less time consuming.  These aren't great, but now that I have a diamond embedded grinding disc and know the steps that lead to a better peel, future attempts will turn out much better (I hope).  I will have to make a light box for my boom arm microscope (need light from below), as my regular dissecting scope can't zoom-out far enough to get a picture of the entire slice.

 

In comparison to my thin slice, the actual width of the septa (and variation from axis to margin) is better represented (important in ID), and the dissepiments along the margins are more defined.  It just seems to be a much less "muddy" view to me.

 

If anybody is interested in a "poor-man's" way of doing this, I can list the materials and methods.  I am not spending $600.00 on a lapidary table at this time  and have found a suitable alternative.  Everything else is very cheap and easy to acquire.

 

Positive and negative exposures (via Photoshop) below, respectively.