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Post by parfive on Oct 14, 2010 23:39:03 GMT -5
Nice Brazilian.
You might want to keep a few hardwood wedges handy for clamping odd shapes in the vise. The top bar in your pic looks cocked at a pretty severe angle – too easy for a rock to pop loose like that, especially with a blade jamming up.
A couple of wedges in the back would get a better bite on the rock. They can also help orient a rock when it won’t quite sit the way you want to cut it.
Rich
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redrummd
starting to shine!
Member since July 2009
Posts: 38
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Post by redrummd on Oct 15, 2010 0:08:11 GMT -5
Old cutters trick for "dressing" a blade without pulling the rock. Take a hammer and hammer the edge of the blade at a bit of an angel to put tiny dents in it. I hit mine about as hard as I would hit a 6 penny finish nail. I hit my 16 inch blades 125 times while turning the blade quickly by hand. This cracks diamonds and lowers the metal at the impact points allowing the hard stone to peel off a bit of it to expose more diamonds. This is pretty much the only dressing I do on my normal blades. You need to pull the blade out of a cut and let it run back into the cut to smooth off the tiny burrs you will create on the edges of the blade. They wear off after about 1/2 inch into the cut on hard agates so you don't get a lot of deep blade ridges even if you need to do this in the middle of a cut. I cut a lot of stone and this works.
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juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
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Post by juzwuz on Nov 5, 2010 23:52:03 GMT -5
I was finally able to cut the last slab off and take the rock out for some pictures: Here's the outside: Here's a picture of the slabs: This is a closeup of the remaining piece
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juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
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Post by juzwuz on Nov 5, 2010 23:54:45 GMT -5
Nice Brazilian. You might want to keep a few hardwood wedges handy for clamping odd shapes in the vise. The top bar in your pic looks cocked at a pretty severe angle – too easy for a rock to pop loose like that, especially with a blade jamming up. A couple of wedges in the back would get a better bite on the rock. They can also help orient a rock when it won’t quite sit the way you want to cut it. Rich Do you have any pictures where wedges are being used?
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Post by parfive on Nov 6, 2010 1:02:50 GMT -5
No, just a couple of rock clamps. I’ll try and get a couple over the weekend. Check back Monday. Finally, got the local rock show this weekend!! About a half mile from the house. ;D
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juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
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Post by juzwuz on Nov 6, 2010 1:43:02 GMT -5
I'm actually planning on going to the same local rock show where I picked up this rock. They have two shows a year and it's a small show but fun. I'm going to see if they have any more of these agates. maplewoodrockclub.com/pages/annualfallshow.html
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Post by parfive on Nov 7, 2010 17:44:21 GMT -5
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