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[William Phillips]

Should I change ceramic media every time I change to a finer SIC? Or can I use the same after washing and moving to a finer grit. Do I use ceramic media when using polish?

Bill

[amrap1]

From all the videos I've seen ceramic is used for step 1 and only step 2 if there is too much unwanted material on your goal. I'm doing that now with Petrified Wood and Agates. I'll pull a few rocks from the tumblers every couple of days, wash them and see how they are doing. I'll keep them in for step 2 if needed.

On steps 3 & 4 some people use only grit or less grit and sawdust as a filler if the stones are getting to small. They also sell small rubber cubes that a supposed to help smoothing.

Ed
You won't learn if you don't try.

[irockhound]

On finer grits people also use the small plastic pellets that look like semi flattened peas.  Many supply houses sell these.  They are cheap enough I don't think most people would risk the batch when it is simple enough to keep some pellets for each grit level.

[lithicbeads]

I tumbled beads and pendants for decades and just washed the media when it was free of stones then inspected the stones and added them back then on to the next grit. Media works for prepolish and polish as well. Corn cob with diamond is also nice for the finer grinds but very slow.

[William Phillips]

Thank You for the information,  I acquired many slabs from friends who have stopped cabbing and tumbling. So I sorted them and decided what to keep and what to cut down in size to tumble. I have enough to do 2 batches in my 12lb. tumbler. Nov. 8 will be the day I look at what has happened in the 90 grit tumble.

Again Thank You

Bill

[HoosierGuy]

Thank You for the information,  I acquired many slabs from friends who have stopped cabbing and tumbling. So I sorted them and decided what to keep and what to cut down in size to tumble. I have enough to do 2 batches in my 12lb. tumbler. Nov. 8 will be the day I look at what has happened in the 90 grit tumble.

Again Thank You

Bill

How did things turn out?