[Rockhounds] Polsihing slabs

[Lapidry at aol.com]

Or is  the vibrating kind for  me?:
<http://www.covington-engineering.com/vibrating_lapidary_unit.htm>
Upside  is it works in the background like a tumbler. Downside is it is 
slower for  each piece 
and use slurry that you need to clean at each step.  


 
Mike:
 
Vibratory laps aren't 100% hands free. You have to make sure thy don't  dry 
out. I know people who rig up plastic bags over the pan to reduce  evaporation. 
They also round the edges and will wear a little into softer  spots in the 
slab.
 
If you can possibly find one used, there's a machine called the  
Rockhounder's Paradise. It is a dry lap using 18 inch floor polishing discs  that are only 
$3-4 at most rental places. It has two chambers about 8 inches  each that you 
can put your rock or weighted slab in. The chambers are designed  to rotate 
the rock at the same time the 18 inch disk is rotating too. The  slabs come out 
dead flat and a mirror polish.
 
You have to break in the polishing disk so it's worn enough to polish,  after 
that it can take as little as 5-6 hours to get a good polish. You glue  the 
polishing disks to an 18 inch metal lap with Elmer's white glue, then soak  
them off in a tub of water when you need to replace them. A disk will last  
several slabs though. The machines haven't been made in a number of years and  the 
older units with low serial numbers are better than the newer ones, after  the 
original guy died and his son started making them. I'd look for a  serial 
number less than 600. Obviously, since it hasn't been manufactured  in close to 
20 years, I have no ties to the manufacturer.
 
Hope this helps....
 
Dan






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