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Post by Son Of Beach on Jul 24, 2023 22:03:48 GMT -5
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herb
spending too much on rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 444
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Post by herb on Jul 25, 2023 9:56:09 GMT -5
Pretty cool! Shows you dont need fancy equipment to make things. Looks time consuming to do all the steps after the rough shaping thru polishing by hand though.
I thought he had a hi tech way of pre-forming the top and bottom of the core in order to get it ready for rough shaping, but it looks like he just kind of eyeballs it and keeps slicing till he is happy with the look. I liked how he had the core in that jig that he could just quickly rotate it. Seems like with some math and an accurate way to set angles, you could really quickly pre-form a core that way. Kind of like a giant rough cutting faceting machine
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Post by Rockoonz on Jul 25, 2023 11:16:09 GMT -5
That equipment may not be shiny and fancy, but it ain't cheap either. The core cutting setup he used is around $800 new, If you can find a good solid drill press cheap, adding the water swivel and chuck is still close to $400 bucks. sphereguy cuts cubes and has a jig to use a tile or brick cutter to knock it down to a preform for the sphere shaper, Richardsons rock ranch uses core drills and has a v shaped base for the drill presses so they can lay the core flat and use the same core drill for a 2nd (and 3rd?) pass to get it closer to a sphere faster. I like the rock lathe he used to polish it, I have seen a preformer that uses heavy saw blades on a cam follower setup to shape stone for spheres, I think HP China makes one, relatively easy if you have basic steel working skills. These can also make eggs and wands and a plethora of goodies... hplapidary.com/collections/shaping-machines Overly complicated for $3500 plus shipping, an open frame unit could be built for a fraction of that In the old days a sphere maker was basically an adaptor with a plumbing bell fitting that went into the old tub style flat laps, after shaping your preform you filled the fitting with slurry and placed the preform on, then held it down with your hand, using your hand to roll it around in random movements. Kinda like this, at 8 minutes into the video.
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Post by Mel on Aug 23, 2023 12:52:35 GMT -5
In the old days a sphere maker was basically an adaptor with a plumbing bell fitting that went into the old tub style flat laps, after shaping your preform you filled the fitting with slurry and placed the preform on, then held it down with your hand, using your hand to roll it around in random movements. Kinda like this, at 8 minutes into the video. Man, I wish I'd known this. I could've scooped up a flat lap for about $300 last week at auction. Of course I would've needed to scoop up $300 too, but that is a relatively inexpensive way to make spheres for someone not wanting to spend the $1800 for a machine. The sheer ingenuity of the lapidary community never fails to surprise me!
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