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Post by stardiamond on Oct 21, 2022 10:50:43 GMT -5
Lately, I'm finding a lot of great stuff at bargain prices on facebook. They are auctions and more like a flea market or rock show than ebay or Etsy. A lot of buy it now sales where a person needs to be there at the right time when it is first offered.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 20, 2022 15:33:23 GMT -5
Scotch on the real rocks. Put them in the freezer and don't chew or swallow.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 20, 2022 13:57:52 GMT -5
First stick agate for me. There are a lot of things that can go wrong when working with material; fracturing, appearing vugs and pattern changing as it is domed. This material looks low risk.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 20, 2022 11:53:52 GMT -5
The rainforest was a heel with a big cavity. I ground until I got it even. The pattern was blind so I couldn't frame it. With rainforest there had to be something. The other one was labeled as pet wood but was opalized. It broke in the mail, broke on the saw and broke again when doming. Not a surprise. I like to start a free form with the c curve and adjust the rest to it. I tis ready to dop and will adjust the shape when I dome it. The length is 55mm now.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 19, 2022 16:35:40 GMT -5
Also trimmed some Tahoma from Bluesky on ebay and a couple slabs from the person I bought the Butterfly from.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 18, 2022 13:31:23 GMT -5
I got a slab on facebook BIN. It arrived yesterday so I laid out the preforms. I prefer symmetrical shapes for cabs but will do a c curve freeform when it works.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 17, 2022 16:06:15 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 16, 2022 20:57:07 GMT -5
I grind my preform edges with a 280 soft. I lay the back of the cab on a metal template, put a #2 pencil flat on the table and rotate the preform against the pencil. The mark ends up at about 3mm and doesn't wash off. When trimming the preform, I mark the top with a fine sharpie. After trimming, I mark the bottom with an extra fine sharpie. The top and bottom markings washed off using pencil. Since I dop with superglue, I use acetone and q-tips to remove the glue and the ink.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 16, 2022 19:33:23 GMT -5
In the last two weeks I've cut 22 cabs and sold 3. It's good thing I have a lot of empty Riker boxes.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 16, 2022 18:06:15 GMT -5
There were 3 preforms along the same area of the slab. I completed the third.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 16, 2022 13:10:51 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 15, 2022 13:18:17 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 22:03:54 GMT -5
I don't work one at a time. When new material arrives, I mark all the preforms. Then cut all the preforms with a trim saw. I then choose what I want to work on, grind the shape and then dop. The number I pick is what I feel like. When motivated I work on more. Too many and I can lose focus. I break up my work sessions to avoid physical and mental fatigue. I do all the cabs on the same wheel before moving on to the next. After the first two wheels I'm in autopilot mode. When I retired, I did more work and like most things, practice makes things simpler. One of the things that comes with practice is being more fearless. Having confidence in my ability. I would not have dared to start cutting soft material on an aggressive wheel. Wheels cut rock at a varying rate and as long as I feel in control, it is all about speed. I've watched cabbing tutorial videos and see a lot of rock ticklers. I'm a rock punisher because I have confidence.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 21:14:35 GMT -5
I think the starting point is equipment cost. Next is the control factor. I want to be able to control how the product looks at finish. There are a lot of crossovers. Tile saw, grinder/Dremel finish in a tumbler. If I were making cabs for myself, I wouldn't care it they were cut perfectly only the overall appearance.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 18:40:20 GMT -5
What caused the scratches? Go to the next finer wheel. Material makes a big difference. Gem Owyhee and Montana scratches aren't going to go away with a 360. Why spend the time and adding wear. Soft material like Morgan Hill is easy. Scratches will go away with a 280 or 360. What I have seen is that wheel choices are very individual. I know of two expert cabbers who start with or go right to a 60 soft.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 17:36:33 GMT -5
And there's nothing wrong with using a 360 hard wheel prior to sanding with a 600 belt or soft wheel. Back in the 70's when man-made diamonds were still really expensive, the larger the diamond particle (grit size) the more expensive it was. Which made the coarse grit wheels really costly compared to smaller grit wheels at that time. So a lot of cabbers used 180 grit diamond hard wheels for their first grind, followed by a 360 diamond hard wheel for final shaping before going to 600 diamond paste on a canvas resin or leather belt. I know that sounds like drudgery today, but after having had to use 100 and 220 grit SC wheels back in the day, a 180 diamond wheel was a vast improvement and time saver. I still keep a 360 grit diamond hard wheel in my line-up for cabs that have stubborn scratches on the dome. No point in spending a lot of excess time and wear on a 280 soft wheel trying to remove stubborn scratches when a 360 hard diamond wheel will make quick work of them. I wore out a lot of 280 soft wheels because I was misusing them and that is a mistake a lot of people still make. A 280 soft is a crutch because it cuts and feels safer than a hard wheel. Mistakes are fixed on a lower grit wheel not overusing a 280.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 17:24:26 GMT -5
I spend 80-90% of my time on 80 grit hard; an aggressive Lithuanian top 80 and a worn but usable DP 80. The top 80 leaves significant scratches that are too much for a 220 hard but cuts very fast. The DP 80 removes the scratches and fine tunes the shape. I treat every subsequent wheel as a sanding wheel, spend very little time on each all prepping for the final polish. 220 hard, 280 soft top, 325,600,1200, 3000,14000,50,000 soft all JB. I have a Genie with 3 right side adaptors. When my 600 and 1200 wear out, I will consider buying the wider HP wheels to try them out. The only time I swapped out a bunch of wheels was on my 8 inch Star Diamond machine because it took more than an hour to disassemble and reassemble. I replace the top 80 frequently because I like speed and the rest at the end of their life.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 16:21:03 GMT -5
I bought a large butterfly wing jasper slab from an ebay seller. I got 6 preforms from it. When I completed the first cab, I sent her a picture of it. This something I do frequently. Many sellers like to see what was made from the slab. When I completed all 6, I sent her a group picture.
She mailed me a box of stuff for free that will arrive on Tuesday. I told her if I can use the material, I would make a cab for her. She did lapidary work and is unable due to an injury and is looking for a good home for her material.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 16:10:03 GMT -5
I have a trimming that I can swoop. I started on 4 today. The fat pear, the Owyhee, a Deschutes scrap and a flame agate. The flame and the Deschutes are not pictured. The Owyhee is coming along fine. I couldn't frame the pattern and another vug on the bottom appeared. Through 280 soft so the vugs may improve with sanding and pre polishing. The vugs pass the fingernail test.
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Post by stardiamond on Oct 14, 2022 12:47:49 GMT -5
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