Cabbing Question

It happens to the best of us still, but here's a couple things to try-

First I highly reccomend going out and buying a decent quality jewelers loupe (pronounced "loop" -those little magnifying glass thingies) typically these are 10X power (that is what I would reccomend, they have higher and lower ones, but 10X does the job quite well) -and they really help you see what is going on on the surface of your stones.

Also you need to pause and dry the piece you are working on before you willbe able to see down at that level of detail.

That will give you a much better idea of where in the process you are missing the scratches.

In the end it probably will- as you suggested, come down to spending a bit more time at each step, but having the visual insight offered with the loupe helps you spend that time working on the right portion of the stone rather than wasting time working over areas that are already as good as they'll get with that grit.

isellwood, You bring up a common issue by all cutters, new old, good and bad. The main issue though comes down to Patenice. After years of cabbing, i know from how worn my belts or wheels are, how long i must grind each stage.

But the main concner comes from checking your work as your progress. Water will fill in to any scatch, large or small. So you MUST wipe the cabs dry before polishing to inspect that you have taken care of all scatches.

The biggest problem is from the initional preform grind, or rough grind on your 100grit. Move it to 220 and make sure you get all scratches, by wiping the stone dry before moving on to high grit stages.

Also some types of materials, notable darker color stones will show straches much easier than lighter color stones or highly pattern stones. So use this to your advantage.

I can do a cab, from preform to polish in 15 minutes on a two wheel setup, but i myself can get caught in missing some scratches. Once i get to the 600 stage i clean all stones, dry. And check for low spots or staches i missed. In which i go back to a lower stage grit. 220 would be the lowest i take it unless i missed some from the frist 100grit grind. But those you usally can see even with water on the surface.

Be careful, I tried the "marker trick" once only to find that particular stone had these little swirly vein structures in it that absorbed the ink and stained it irrepairably.

Loupes aren't that expensive, a decent one can be picked up for about $20-30 and it REALLY helps...

Just one other note- It appears you go from 1200 grit- to 50,000 grit- which is a huge jump- Following everones elses advice on drying and magnifing- I think I would consider adding a 3000 grit in there- maybe even a 14,000 diamond paste also??? I started using a 3000 Diamond belt last year and I was amazed at what a difference it made- I polish using 14,000 mesh and then 50,000 mesh diamond paste- and the results are stunning!