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I also really like the first two w/ the pink plumes & the shape of the first one is beginning to grow on me. And I especially like # 5 with that long white plume against the mostly black background.
I use a flat lap (Ameritool) and I do things a little differently. I rarely use the 80 grit hard lap for doming any longer. It took me forever to remove the 80 grit scratches. I constantly had to go back to earlier laps to remove them and repeat the progression (which is a PITA on a flat lap). So now, I do my doming w/ the 180 grit hard lap. It takes longer to get the dome, but it actually saves me time later not have to remove 80 grit scratches. I then move to either a 220 soft lap or 325 hard lap. If I still have scratches in the center, I use the 325 hard lap. Either way I then use soft laps 220, 325, 00, 1200, 3000. I then go to diamond paste on leather 14K & 50K if needed).
When I only had a flat lap, I just didn't make cabs with flat sides. I just rounded them over and didn't worry about it. I've always wondered how people made nice cabs on flat laps.
I was making cabs today so I took a step back in time 10 years. I tried to do the first step of establishing a girdle line on the flat lap. The motion and process came back to me pretty quick. I was a bit heavy handed on one spot but corrected that in the next step easy enough.
With the horizontal lap I do not see anyway to physically be able to watch the girdle at the grinding surface. It is more of a grind a little and look process. There are several reasons why cabbing on vertical wheels is better and this is on that list.
Chuck
Great video! I have been cabbing on a flat lap from the beginning. My technique is very similar to yours except I hold the stone and dop in the opposite direction so that the side I'm grinding is angled toward the center of the lap. That way I can see the line while I'm grinding better. I do have to stick my face right down in the thing, with eye protection & lots of water, of course.
I especially like the first one, both shape & pattern. It reminds me of water coming over a waterfall, and both the pattern & shape add to that impression.
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Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
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