skrapyard
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since June 2023
Posts: 75
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Post by skrapyard on Jun 16, 2023 10:33:43 GMT -5
So Ive been debating on picking up another shaft for my 6" cab king and installing 8k, 14k, and 50k diamond resin wheels on it. My thought process behind it is when I have stones that arent polishing up as nicely as I would like on the 3k I can swap the shaft out and polish up to 50k if needed.
I know I could get some polishing pads (felt, canvas, leather, etc...) and different polishing compounds to use on those pads. But I am curious if I could get away with just using the resin wheels instead. Plus in my mind its easier to just swap the shaft out with the second set of polishing wheels instead of keeping track of which polishing pad has which compound on it.
Currently I kinda batch process stones and categorize them based on their hardness along with placing them in little trays in front of which wheel they need to be processed on next. To keep me from having to constantly swap out the second shaft I want to purchase, I would build up a decent size batch of stones I want to hit with the 8-50k and then swap the shaft and polish all of them in one session.
Is this a good idea? Will I get the nice shiny polish I want to see on malachite, turquoise, opal and other softer stones on the 8-50k resin wheels?
Im fairly sure I could get an amazing polish on harder materials with the 8-50k wheels, but Im more curious if they would be helpful for softer materials.
Im open to any thoughts on this and especially comments from anyone who has tried it.
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2022
Posts: 3,172
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Post by rockbrain on Jun 16, 2023 12:42:36 GMT -5
Don't know the answer to your question but I just got some small muslim wheels for my dremel and a pound of Zam which my kids will inherit 3/4 of if I live another 20 years. Haven't used it much but so far has helped considerably. It's definitely a lower cost/easier option.
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Post by chris1956 on Jun 16, 2023 13:01:56 GMT -5
I polish a lot of Petoskey Stones (hardness 3 to 4) and other similar hardness fossils. When I started I had the regular set of wheels to 3000 and used polish after that. A lot of Petoskey Stones have very small pits that would collect the polish. My solution was to get 14,000 and 50,000 grit wheels and skip the polish. After I mentioned that on the forum, several people indicated that you could get rid of the polish with sonic cleaners or a textile spot cleaning gun. I haven't tried those yet as the fine grit wheels worked really well on the Petoskey Stones. I haven't used the fine wheels on many other softer materials. I have polished some softer jasper material and they worked well on that.
I typically use the finer wheels on harder materials like agate but you don't see as much improvement from the 3000 wheel as you do with the soft Petoskey Stones. When you use the 14K and 50K wheels on Petoskey Stones, you can feel the stones getting more slippery as you progress.
I went one step further than what you are thinking about in that I bought a second, 2 wheel cabbing machine. I put my two metal coarse grit wheels on that machine and then put the finer wheels on the same machine as the other resin wheels.
One thing about doing the batch process is that if you miss a scratch, going back would mean changing shafts. I guess you could just keep the ones that needed fixing until you switch shafts.
I think the 14K and 50K wheels were good for what I do. I kept it to those rather than adding 8K so I could fit all the wheels on two cabbing machines. Hope this helps.
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Post by chris1956 on Jun 16, 2023 13:07:51 GMT -5
Don't know the answer to your question but I just got some small muslim wheels for my dremel and a pound of Zam which my kids will inherit 3/4 of if I live another 20 years. Haven't used it much but so far has helped considerably. It's definitely a lower cost/easier option. Glad you mentioned the dremel. Maybe it is my fat fingers, but I never had much luck polishing on a large buffing wheel. Probably was doing something wrong. Flung a few stones and you have to be careful with something like Petoskey Stones because they can heat up and crack quickly. I have used a dremel a few times with the small polishing wheels and that seems to work well polishing without heating up the stone. |
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,980
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Post by khara on Jun 16, 2023 13:42:43 GMT -5
chris1956 Good info here. I haven’t worked much with softer stones but hopefully I’ll remember this if I do in the future. I like the idea of the two hard wheels on a separate machine rather than the other way around.👍
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skrapyard
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since June 2023
Posts: 75
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Post by skrapyard on Jun 16, 2023 14:27:44 GMT -5
chris1956I actually had thought about picking up a second cab machine and doing exactly what you are doing by putting the metal coarse grit wheels on it. It seems like a great idea. Great minds think alike lol. I was actually eyeballing a lortone lu6x someone had for sale at a show a few months back (a bit bigger than needed with the trim saw and I dont need a second 6" trim saw). The only issue I have with it is that the bench I currently use for my cab machine is just about out of space so squeezing a second machine in on it isnt really an option for me. Good to know youre getting great results on the petoskey stones. Especially being a 3-4 hardness. Hearing results like that makes me optimistic that Im not completely out of touch with my thought process on this. I actually already have an 8k wheel. Its just that I hardly use it since I have to swap out my 3k wheel every time I want to use it. So truthfully Ive only used it a couple times on some agates that I wanted a better polish on. Since that its just sat in a drawer. Most likely Im going to go ahead and move forward and get the shaft and other wheels. But Im going to wait a little bit and see if any one else chimes it with their experience first, just in case they have any other words of wisdom about it.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 16, 2023 14:54:23 GMT -5
I have a Genie and have three extra right side adaptors. I only use two. The third had stripped threads and I didn't know if I could fix it (I did). The reason for my first adaptor was the left side adaptor froze and I couldn't get it loose. I put new wheels on the extra adaptor for the ones on the left that needed to be replaced. The second adaptor only has a 14,000 and a 50,000 soft wheel.
I also work in batches. I don't know about cab king but here are some advantages of an extra adaptor or two:
1. Wider wheel spacing or wider wheels is possible.
2. More grits to work with. Does a person need the grit grits, probably not but the adaptor is inexpensive and good less expensive wheels are available.
3. This is the big one: two eighty grit hard wheels; one aggressive and one worn. My aggressive is on the right and the worn is on the left.
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realrockhound
Cave Dweller
Chucking leaverite at tweekers
Member since June 2020
Posts: 4,495
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Post by realrockhound on Jun 16, 2023 15:33:39 GMT -5
I don’t think you need them personally. Some materials just don’t polish as well as others. I just read in another thread the other day how doing certain materials dry on the 1200 can do the trick.
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gunsil
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2023
Posts: 345
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Post by gunsil on Jun 16, 2023 16:46:44 GMT -5
I am one of those who likes lots of wheels, if the cost doesn't bother you do it. Zam only works on softer stones, if you're cabbing hard stuff it won't do. Myself, I go 220 belt, 400, 600, 1200, 3,000, 14,000 and either 50K belt if material undercuts or leather disc with Linde A. I like more stages and have two 8" four wheel machines. I also think cost wise that the more wheels one uses the less each wheel gets used so in the long run it isn't really much more to have the extra grit wheels.
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