[meteorite-list] Tumbling Weathered-up Stony Chondrites

From: STARSANDSCOPES at aol.com <STARSANDSCOPES_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 19:31:54 EDT
Message-ID: <bdc.48b06c61.37488fea_at_aol.com>

Hi Mike, I bought a few Kg. of small Ghubara fragments that were tumbled.
The before and after results were cool! They looked awful before tumbling.

I have never tried it myself but I have put dirty samples in walnut shells
in a brass tumbler dry for cleaning.

My call on the water would be to substitute rubbing alchohol for the water.
 It's cheap and it really draws out any water.

Tom


In a message dated 5/22/2009 3:28:26 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
meteoritemike at gmail.com writes:
Hi Listees!

I have a Lortone Rock Tumbler (QT66 with two 6-lb barrels) and I
decided to put some very ugly and extremely-weathered up UNWA stones
into it - just to see what the result is. They have been tumbling in
coarse grit for 6 days now - tomorrow night I will open the barrel,
check them, and decide if they will need another coarse grit stage
before moving on.

Has anyone on the list ever tumbled meteorites? And what result did
you get? I am worried about water intrusion deep down into the
specimens, so I assume a good baking in the oven will be called for
when the tumbling is done?......or would something like silica gel be
better?

Best regards,

MikeG
**************Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in
the U.S. (http://travel.aol.
com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlcntustrav00000002)
Received on Fri 22 May 2009 07:31:54 PM PDT