smittys
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2017
Posts: 165
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Post by smittys on Aug 16, 2017 16:40:38 GMT -5
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Post by melhill1659 on Aug 16, 2017 17:03:32 GMT -5
What machine do you use to cab?
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smittys
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2017
Posts: 165
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Post by smittys on Aug 16, 2017 17:07:36 GMT -5
Diamond Cab Grinder/Sander - Belts Polishing Unit cabbing machine
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 16, 2017 17:16:53 GMT -5
They look great, but I think you need to stay with the polishing wheels a little longer. Tell us what grits you are progressing through.
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Post by radio on Aug 16, 2017 17:51:30 GMT -5
Some nice materials there. The first thing that caught my eye was the uneven edges of the cabs. I rarely cut a calibrated shape in favor of free form cabs, but the edges need to have a smooth "flow" to them or they look unattractive in a bezel setting. rockjunquie I'm not going there again!
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 16, 2017 17:56:58 GMT -5
Some nice materials there. The first thing that caught my eye was the uneven edges of the cabs. I rarely cut a calibrated shape in favor of free form cabs, but the edges need to have a smooth "flow" to them or they look unattractive in a bezel setting. rockjunquie I'm not going there again! I gotcha and I agree. I think he needs to work on polishing first. The smooth shaping will come with practice. I think he is having an issue with the grit progression.
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 16, 2017 18:03:55 GMT -5
For someone who knew diddly squat about rocks just a short time ago- I have to say you are impressing me with how you have just jumped in with both feet and got to it. You are such a newbie, yet here you are. The old adage is true: Practice makes perfect! Keep it up!
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Post by coloradocliff on Aug 16, 2017 18:05:24 GMT -5
I also think quality over quantity is better. I know you are a quantity guy by your stack of buckets but slower work till you get better. You sure are putting a lot of drive and effort into it. I would practice on lesser material and save the nice stone for later when you become a bit more accomplished.
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Post by radio on Aug 16, 2017 18:12:23 GMT -5
Some nice materials there. The first thing that caught my eye was the uneven edges of the cabs. I rarely cut a calibrated shape in favor of free form cabs, but the edges need to have a smooth "flow" to them or they look unattractive in a bezel setting. rockjunquie I'm not going there again! I gotcha and I agree. I think he needs to work on polishing first. The smooth shaping will come with practice. I think he is having an issue with the grit progression. Polishing was already mentioned, so I didn't My first priorities when cabbing are evenness of edges, consistent girdle and a good dome or sometimes flat surface. If I'm not happy with the polish, I can always go back to 600 or finer, then spend more time on the 1,200 and 3,000 wheels. Going back to even up edges means reworking the girdle and possibly the dome, so one must basically recut the cab.
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Post by captbob on Aug 16, 2017 18:17:15 GMT -5
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 16, 2017 18:17:32 GMT -5
I gotcha and I agree. I think he needs to work on polishing first. The smooth shaping will come with practice. I think he is having an issue with the grit progression. Polishing was already mentioned, so I didn't My first priorities when cabbing are evenness of edges, consistent girdle and a good dome or sometimes flat surface. If I'm not happy with the polish, I can always go back to 600 or finer, then spend more time on the 1,200 and 3,000 wheels. Going back to even up edges means reworking the girdle and possibly the dome, so one must basically recut the cab. Yes, I agree. I would be very surprised if Smitty has seen anyone cab anything for himself, so your post will be of great benefit to him.
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Post by captbob on Aug 16, 2017 18:23:27 GMT -5
Adding before moving on - learn rocks. Save the better material for later. I'm sure you have plenty of common rock to practice on.
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Post by coloradocliff on Aug 16, 2017 18:46:59 GMT -5
Polishing was already mentioned, so I didn't My first priorities when cabbing are evenness of edges, consistent girdle and a good dome or sometimes flat surface. If I'm not happy with the polish, I can always go back to 600 or finer, then spend more time on the 1,200 and 3,000 wheels. Going back to even up edges means reworking the girdle and possibly the dome, so one must basically recut the cab. Yes, I agree. I would be very surprised if Smitty has seen anyone cab anything for himself, so your post will be of great benefit to him. Lots of videos and tutorials would be helpful.
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Post by orrum on Aug 16, 2017 19:58:22 GMT -5
Lookin good!!!
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smittys
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2017
Posts: 165
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Post by smittys on Aug 16, 2017 20:09:38 GMT -5
Adding before moving on - learn rocks. Save the better material for later. I'm sure you have plenty of common rock to practice on. I have tons of rocks to practice on , litterly
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Roger
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,487
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Post by Roger on Aug 16, 2017 20:31:10 GMT -5
smittys, not sure where you live but if you live anywhere near Austin Texas, I would be happy to show you how I cab. I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I cut fairly decent cabs. Like others have mentioned already; get some cheap stone to practice on. I ruined a lot of high dollar material before I was really ready to work with it. I recommend picking up some onyx or obsidian to practice with. Onyx is soft enough to shape and dome easily. Once you are consistent with it, obsidian is great to practice polishing on. It is also a soft'ish stone, a little harder than the onyx, but it is unforgiving on the polishing and great to practice with.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Aug 16, 2017 21:31:33 GMT -5
These look a lot like my first week of cabbing! The shaping is a little blocky, if you know what I mean. Our goal is to be graceful, more rounded.. and I found when I focused on re-shaping I was infinitely more happy with my results. There was a poster who used to be here, I think it was BikerRandy, who was very much a fan of the teardrop shaped pre-form, and his concepts really helped me take my cabs to the next level.
Here are my suggestions-- not really "criticisms" but more ideas you may want to play with as you develop in your cabbing hobby.
1) Don't be afraid to go back & reshape a stone later. The shape that looked "OK" when you were a beginner, you might look at it again and say, "Wait, Can I improve that?" Many of these can be re-cut, and you will be pleased when you do so. When you're learning something, don't pressure yourself to finish too fast. The time you invest in learning & experimenting will pay many dividends later, even though it feels like you're very slow in the beginning.
2) I have some differences of opinion from others so please... take my suggestions if they help and leave them if they don't. I personally believe if you have "Lots" of material -- and don't you literally have tons?-- you end up regretting starting with very cheap material. In the early days of my cabbing hobby I spent too much time working material that was not worth working because I was fearful. You have a lot of material that is hard, can take a good polish, and yet is reasonably inexpensive. (As do I.) Don't be afraid to be critical. Toss the cracked material. If you work "good stuff" from the beginning, it's easier to stay motivated, because your end product is more satisfying. Start with jaspers, agates, jaspagates that take a good shine. Solid, fracture-free rock that's reasonably hard like good Agates. I think you can be picky and choose materials that will inspire you, and it pays dividends in the long run because you are less likely to get discouraged.
3) The final polish is of course important but if you start with jaspers and agates, you can achieve a very high quality polish in the tumbler, and this is why I think a beginning cabber does best to focus on the shaping stage. Get shapes right, because the tumbler can do the polish for you... Now if you want to do the entire cab by hand (not just the shaping) then you can follow Roger's suggestion to work with onyx and obsidian, which are softer, fast to work, and can produce very gratifying results. However, I find them more difficult to polish in the tumbler. I feel like for a beginner, if you are working with obsidian, you are committing to doing the whole project on the cabbing wheel. My suggestion is more aimed at the person who wants control of the shape of the gem but would also like the tumbler to take over the sanding/polishing stages and for that it's much easier to start with fracture-free Agates or Jaspers.
I have a rotary tumbler. I don't know if that changes some of the advice others offer.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Aug 16, 2017 23:07:18 GMT -5
I agree with the general trend of the comments. A lot of the cab shapes are uneven. You can do an asymetrical shape, but it has to look like you meant it to be that way. I mark my girdle once I have the stone shaped to the desired size. I make a series of dots at 1 mm or 2 mm above the bottom of the cab and then connect the dots. Having that girdle line helps you make a consistent dome no matter how round or flat you want. I also make "test" cabs of materials i have not worked before. That first slab off of the rock may have some cracks or boring design, but I make a rough cab out of it to see how fast or slow the rock works. The next cut off of the rock will give me a consistent slab to work with and i will have a better understanding of soft spots in the stone or other defects to work around. Certain stones polish best with certain polishing media. Soft stones like the rhodenite look better if you use the right final polish media. One of the equipment companies has a chart of which polish media works best with which stones. It is not all inclusive, but it covers the most popular ones.
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Post by captbob on Aug 17, 2017 9:24:11 GMT -5
Adding before moving on - learn rocks. Save the better material for later. I'm sure you have plenty of common rock to practice on. I have tons of rocks to practice on , litterly yeah, awesome. Lots of material is a good thing. There may come a day, once you can tell a valuable rock from schist, that you look back and think - what the heck was I doing practicing on Guadalupe Jasper? Enjoy your rock stockpile. Hope you don't butcher too much high end material and regret it down the road.
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Roger
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2013
Posts: 1,487
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Post by Roger on Aug 17, 2017 16:43:15 GMT -5
If you are tumble polishing, I agree with peachfront. I always assume everyone does all their polishing by hand. 4 or 5 Onyx cabs should be plenty to figure out basic shaping, doming, and smoothing. I wouldnt worry to much about polishing it. It is just a good stone to practice shaping with. Once you can shape a cab the rest is pretty straight forward. When I started, I didn't know to dome the cabs. I tried to cab essentially flat top stones. When I finally held my first real cab (thank you Bikerrandy) I saw what I was missing and everything clicked.
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