chadman
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2008
Posts: 106
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Post by chadman on May 26, 2008 3:23:30 GMT -5
I went to a show some time back. One of the booths had a fellow who had quite few cabs that he rough shaped and then tumble finished them. He probably shaped and then fine tuned them to about 600 grit and then tumbled them. Do you think this is an acceptable method?
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Post by larrywyland3 on May 26, 2008 5:59:35 GMT -5
A lot of people do that. Some will say a cab has to be hand done all the way. IMHO, what is important is how it looks and the girdle. The girdle is the flat part that starts at the bottom and goes up the side to where the dome starts. It is basically the side edge. It should be even all the way around. It is important because if you are using mass produced bezel cups to set the stones a high girdle will not work. An uneven one will not finish off nicely and the cab may pop out. If you make your own bezels than you have some more flexibility, but a huge girdle is a detractor; to me. Having an even dome is also important. You can get both a nice even girdle and a dome and then tumble in 500 and then AO. If you are setting the cabs differently; using bell caps or wire wrapping, then how nice it looks is all that really matters. I have seen beautiful examples of both on the board. Check out the wire wrapping section. Last, there is no time saving way to get the best shape and use out of the material. Tumble polishing is the only time saver I have found.
There are quite a few more experienced cabbers on the board; so look for their replies as well.
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adrian65
Cave Dweller 
Arch to golden memories and to great friends.
Member since February 2007
Posts: 10,790
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Post by adrian65 on May 26, 2008 7:21:54 GMT -5
I think it is an acceptable method, but me being unexperienced in tumbling, I don't manage to put the same shine on a tumbled rock as I manage by hand polishing. Besides, I'm afraid of the fractures/chips that might appear during the tumbling. I'd really hate to see a unique cab fractured because of the tumbling process. Maybe with a vibe it would be safer and it would really save more time. And I think the method works for hard and uniform hardness rocks only, eitherway would appear unexpected material removal and undercutting even in the 500/600 stage. But I'm not an "experienced cabber", only a few months of practice, so you have to wait for the HEAVY REPLIES  Adrian |
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Post by stardiamond on May 26, 2008 10:10:19 GMT -5
I have experience but wouldn't call myself experienced because I'm 95% self taught. I try to cut many of my cabs so they could be set, but my wife has had very few of the cabs she bought set. I look at them as mini sculptures. Most people seem to be wiring wrapping their cabs and I don't know how a girdle works with that.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on May 26, 2008 10:49:52 GMT -5
I've done quite a few cabs using the wheels to do the dome, bezel, and initial sanding. Then I finish in the vibe. I actually think I like this technique better than the hand finishing because the final polish is very even and no sharp edges remain to be chipped during mounting. Of course it only works well on harder stones as, due to hardness differentials in softer stones, a lot of undercutting can occur in the fine sanding stage.....Mel
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Post by sandsman1 on May 26, 2008 11:24:23 GMT -5
i think both ways could work very nice but if i finish a stone in a vibe i make sure i say it because its not a true hand made stone just hand shaped -- it works fine for the normal dome cabs but if you do anything with defined lines you will lose it all since it rounds out everything even in polish run unless you do only hard agates and such like if i put this in a vibe it wouldent look like this when it was finished all the lines would be distorted  but something shaped like this would prob come out great  |
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Post by deb193redux on May 26, 2008 11:25:48 GMT -5
I went to a show some time back. One of the booths had a fellow who had quite few cabs that he rough shaped and then tumble finished them. He probably shaped and then fine tuned them to about 600 grit and then tumbled them. Do you think this is an acceptable method? The only method I use. |
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Post by stoner on May 26, 2008 12:24:36 GMT -5
I agree with what has been said so far, so I'll just add my 2 cents. Whenever this subject comes up, I wonder what the big deal is as far as the time saving factor goes when polishing cabs by hand vs. a vibe. The majority of the time spent cutting a cab is the initial shaping and cutting the girdle and dome correctly, which is completed by the time you finish on the 280 wheel. From then on, it's a few minutes on each of the rest of the wheels and you're done. If you are using a regular cabbing machine with all the wheels required to cut a cab from start to finish, I think it's faster than using a vibe to finish them off. Even if you've sat and rough cut 100 cabs, you've already spent 75% of the time it takes to finish the them, so why wait 2 more days for them to get polished.
Stardiamond, just because you are 95% self taught doesn't mean you're not an experienced cabber. I'm 100% self taught but I've cut enough cabs to consider myself experienced, and your cabs and my cabs look just as good as someone who has been cabbing for many years. I think most of the cabbers on this board are self taught and are all very good.
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Post by fishenman on May 26, 2008 14:07:39 GMT -5
 with Ed. If you are using a cabber then, finish it right there, very easy. If you are commercial I can see automating the process. Cutting and polishing by hand gives you the most control of your piece and is best for Cutting designer shapes. |
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Post by Tweetiepy on May 26, 2008 14:33:52 GMT -5
Now if you're using the side of the workforce blade to preshape them, that's different
It also depends on what you plan on doing with the cab after - for me a cab is something that can be wrapped, holed, bell-capped or set - if you're not using a pre-made setting anything should go
I'm also mostly self taught - girdles always trump me up!
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free4rms
freely admits to licking rocks
My little pet walrus
Member since January 2007
Posts: 839
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Post by free4rms on May 26, 2008 14:37:30 GMT -5
I am a self-taught and experienced cabber, and I have considered finishing of some of my cabs in a vibratory tumbler. But like some of the others who replied, by the time you get past the 600 grit diamond stage, the rest of the polishing is very fast. I just can't bring myself to finish say, thirty or so cabs up to the 600 stage and them put them in a tumbler. I can finish them off fast enough by hand that I just don't want to wait for the tumbler to finish them. Also, when I am working on some cabs I really like, I am too anxious to see the final product so I would rather finish them by hand. For production, I suppose finishing them off in a tumbler might be a good idea, but it is just not for me.
Vance
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Post by Michael John on May 26, 2008 17:53:34 GMT -5
I'm just a miner. I don't do any finishing, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
If you have a cabbing machine, and you're making these cabs so that you can mount them in your own handmade jewelry, then hand-pick your material and make your cabs entirely by hand. However, if you're trying to make money, handmade cabs are are a hard way to do it. They're time-consuming and they're not an easy sell. On the other hand, you can cut enough pre-shapes on a tile saw in a day to fill a 10 pound tumbler. When they come out of the tumbler, glue a bell on each one with a cheap chain, and you'll have a whole slew of pendant necklaces. They'll be much easier to sell (because you can sell to ANYONE, not just hobbyists), and you'll make more money per piece than if you'd made handmade cabs to sell to hobbyists. Sad but true. For example ... $10 a pendant necklace versus $6-7 per cab.
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Post by texaswoodie on May 26, 2008 18:19:01 GMT -5
I'm not experienced. I've been cutting cabs for 6-8 months now. Acceptable or not, the only way I have of finishing cabs is a vibe. I have done a lot of practicing and can come out with a perfect girdle now. Soft stones are more difficult, but can be finished with a vibe. I have finished Leopard and Rain Forest Jaspers with success, but a cabbing machine is far more preferable for stones such as these.
I rough cut on a 80 grit wheel and finish on a 220. I put the harder stones in the vibe with 220 grit for 24 hours to get rid of any flat spots. Then I use 600 for 24 hours, then polish for 3-5 days depending on what stone it is.
I can do 100-150 cabs at once with this method. I don't know if it's any faster, but I do know it's a lot cheaper than a cabbing machine. When you are retired, cheap is the name of the game.
Curt
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Post by stardiamond on May 26, 2008 18:44:56 GMT -5
Very few people get good money for their cabs. If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't bother with cabbing or tumbling. However, I won't start on a cab unless I think someone might buy it. I think cabbing can come close to being a self funding hobby. My previous hobby, golf cost around $100 a month and I ended up with nothing material to show for it. If I spend $1200 a year on materials and equipment and produce 200 cabs, I might be able to get half of my investment back and my hourly wage would be in the negative numbers.
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