wediscount2

February 2012

February 2012

january 2012

Bumblebee, Maybe this will Help. Double click to enlarge. Thanks, Ronnie

Rich Two thumbs up on the sulphides. I was at your site yesterday or the day before admiring some of your handiwork, keep it up. I was at the Amana Iowa marble show 27 to 30 years ago and was talking to Larry Castle about repair work. At that time Larry was cooking a few mibs and the results were very good lookin marbles. One problem Larry was having was marbles exploding on him. I knew way back then that this was the wave of the future and still feel that way. Problem is we are all human and want it now. If we could just keep our damaged marbles in a box until something is available either for a kiln or a stand alone application we would be better off. Working with those high temperatures is not for everyone, and those interested in doing that type of work should be tutored by an expert and have a good knowledge of the fundamentals. As far as grinding the glass goes, once you grind it off, it's gone. Good luck to you. Ronnie

lstmmrbls"You Stated"-- You must also realize that a large percentage of marble collectors (and most long time collectors) look down on polished marbles. "End Of Statement" I take it that it means real advanced marble collectors don't want nothing to do with polished marbles. Thats not what the worlds most advanced collector team thought when they brought their 'Pair of doves kissing sulphide"in blue glass to my home and had me make a few tiny adjustments to it. The man had tears of joy in his eyes when I handed him back his marble that he had just bought at auction for $5000.00 less than 3 hours before. That was 20 to 25 years ago. Now back to your statement. Would that statement above have any bearing as to why you have replied to Scoops article on hand polishing 3 times? What and how do you put the finish polish to the marble? What grit # And you gave up the grapes on where to get the pads for the diamond polishers (at toolocity) This means you had to do a little searching. Inquisitive??? or are you one of those closet polishers! Now as far as this little Grime Shine or AKA Scrubber deal goes, You, Me, or anyone else simply cannot tell if a marble that has been through the process "ONE" time has ever been messed with. If the marble was put through a second time you would not be able to tell with the human eye and a loupe. If you had an expensive 4 digits to the right of the decimal point caliper you may be able to detect a difference of 1 ten-thousand's of an inch. I know these things because it was my intent from the start to build a machine that did not alter the original size. Now you want to see a marble that has been messed with, check this one out. I know the photo is not super hi-res (taken with a 1 megapixel camera) I did it about 20 years ago when I was employed at a firm that designed and manufactured optical and laser lenses and I still have the marble. Hope your future marble endeavors treat you kind. Ronnie DOUBLE CLICK THE THUMBNAIL TO ENLARGE

Glad to here from you John. Those were not my Akro's they were sent to me from a member here. Those are the types that really turn out well. Not a lot of damage but enough damage to merit a little help. Thanks Ronnie

Yes it's me again, thought I would bother you one last time. (other than one last post that's important, should be in a few days). I do apologize for my loss of memory. Had I not experienced this memory problem I could have saved a weeks time and the needless repair of some junk marbles. I do not detest the trial but rather consider it a true blessing from GOD as there was more correction needed in my life. Feeling a little melancholy from not receiving positive feedback from my recent posts, I went into a deep thought process that resulted in being able to solve a marble restoration problem that had burdened me for almost 20 years. Well enough of that lets get onto the matter at hand. I forgot all about some posts I had done on this board over 4 yearsago. Lucky for me I found some notes about these old posts and that is why I am posting this time. At this site (Marble Connection) and from the home page there is a list of selectable topics and the 8th one down from the top is the Restoration Q&A topic. Click on it and it will bring up the first page. Down towards the bottom of the page are three posts from wediscount. One of those (looking to polish a few marbles) is messed up as those are not my marbles or my posting . The other 2 are my posts and my pictures, Looking to shine some marbles and Grime Shine. If you will go there and read the content and view the photos it may help and be of an interest to you. The marbles photoed was my first batch I received from a member at Lou's Marble Connection. Thanks, Ronnie... Please Remember.....Never allow yourself to become so exalted that when your test does come, that you fail because of your pride. IF NEED BE DOUBLE CLICK THE THUMBNAIL TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE

First I need to give my rereference. I have been a member here at the marble connection for 5 or 6 years. Alan Z on this board canvouch for me. I have beeen a member at ebay for 12 years or more. My seller and user name is wediscount. I have a positive feedbackof over 4600 and it's unblemished. Now to the marble. This junk marble had a chip about 15 thousands of an inch deep. The marble next to it had about the same depth of damage. Repairing this marble is a little different than the marble I posted yesterday. I start with a 3-M brand 320 crankproduction paper. It comes in a roll about 250 foot long and a half inch wide. I cut it in about 7 inch strips and I also cut some pieces in half and some about three eights wide. I sandwich the marble in a vise between 2 rubber faucet washers. leaving a little bit stick up above the jaws of the vise. Experience tells me that from the center of the chip I will be going about 5 eights of an inch all the wayaround the perimeter. You will be cutting a little more at the chip center but you also got to start taking off stock at the edge of the chip perimeter and work your way down the 5 eights outer limit. Now look at the depth of the scratches that the 320 left on the marble. Your objective now is to take the 400 and make those 320 scratches disappear. Once that is done try to get some 490 to 520 grit paper and again looking at the artifacts of the 400 paper make them disappear. Then take the 600 and make the 500 artifacts disappear. It's now ready for the buff. Would recommend you practice on a shallow small chip until you feel comfortable with the process. It took me aboutan a hour and a half start to finish but the most important thing is I maintained the curve and have no flat spots. Remember you have to go through a certain progression of grits to get the marbles surface ready to take a buff. Thanks for the read, Ronnie DOUBLE CLICK THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT.

SCRUBBER wasn't good enough for you Republicans, try this Since i got no response to my original posting, i made improvements. Along with the $2 scrub there i now a $5 scrub. (in lots of 5 or more). This $5.00 treatment will remove light to medium scratches, small in size and depth chips, small on the surface sparkles. and pinpricks. This process only removes about 2 to 6 thousands of an inch in glass stock. (the average thickness of a humain hair about 3 thousands of an inch). Most will have no idea that the marble had been worked on. Let me know, Ronnie

I had a small marble, not worth anything, but it had a closely cropped cluster of damage. I decided to try and repair it by hand just to see if it could be done without leaving a flat spot. I allowed myself one hour to do the project. I took some 350 sandpaper and started sanding, working the paper all around the area. It took less than 15 minutes to take out about 80 percent of the damage but I had to stop there as a remaining sliver of a sparkle was at the very top surface of the glass. If I had kept going with the 350 it would have opened up a seam and the buffing agent would have gotten in underneath and ruined the whole project. And if i had kept going and opened up a seam, i would have had to pop the remaining sparkle out which would have left a crater. I then started with the 600 sandpaper and it took about 35 minutes to get it ready for the final buff. It took about 70 minutes total start to finish time, and I had no flat spot. DOUBLE CLICK THE THUMBNAIL TO ENLARGE

DOUBLE LEFT CLICK THE THUMBNAILS TO ENLARGE THE PHOTOS. I built a new machine that scrubs and buffs marbles. It Will handle sizes up to and including seven eights of an inch. The cost is two dollars per marble in "minimum" lots of 12 marbles (plus return shipping and desired insurance). This scrubbing does not remove nicks, chips, bruises, moderate scratches or glass stock. Also if the marble has a deep valley or crease the machine will not take care of that issue. It does remove haze, crud, oxidation, teeny tiny hairline scratches, film and cloudiness and it leaves a real nice non greasy buff on the marbles surface. I am not responsible if I break one of your marbles, to date I have yet to break one, I know I said it's a new machine but I have done hundreds of marbles in the past and know a little bit about this stuff. At present turn around time is about a week. If interested you can contact me by email using this [email protected] Thanks for the read and please excuse any spelling mistakes. Ronnie

Was asked to post a photo of these double strike marbles. Ronnie

I too do not want to keep kicking a dead horse but I need to clear this up once and for all. I did not say with the naked eye and I agree with most that usually orange peel cannot be detected with the naked eye.

I hate to tell you this Jon but the marble you use as your ID here at the connection has a very nice orange peel surface. I know you do not believe that so just go ahead and take a decent size photo of it say around 50K and submit it here on the marble connection and I will circle the orange peel so that you understand what orange peel looks like

Now I said a "lightly pronounced" orange peel surface is desirable on a marble, just as I said that older killer marbles have a orange peel surface. Now I myself do not prefer a "heavy" orange peel surface. It's been over 15 years since I collected marbles and frankly I do not even know the newer marbles by name at all. I do no the older machine mades, and I do no what the surface of glass looks like.

A lightly pronounced orange peel surface helps authenticate it's age. It does not detract from the marble, it adds to the marble.