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Post by jakesrocks on Dec 30, 2011 17:35:24 GMT -5
Another delay on the build. My $15.00 yard sale drill press fried the bearings. It lasted me for 15 years, so for a buck a year of hard use, I think I got my monies worth out of it. Went to Menards today and bought a brand new drill press. I'll be back to building tomorrow.
Don
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quartz
Cave Dweller 
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,359
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Post by quartz on Dec 30, 2011 22:45:42 GMT -5
Ain't those garage sale motors just awful? My $10 tumbler motor died after running non-stop for most of 12 years, put another sale one on it {tightwad}. Thanks for this great thread, keep it coming.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 4, 2012 12:13:02 GMT -5
Well, I can get started building again. Here's my new drill press, bought with my Christmas money. Sorry for the messy work bench.  Don |
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Post by stoner on Jan 4, 2012 13:36:33 GMT -5
Nice Drill Press. I put mine through 20 years of pure Hell, and it's still working great! Got mine at Sears, same machine.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 4, 2012 14:10:58 GMT -5
I have an old Sears Dunlap drill press that was built back in the 40's, that is still going strong. The quill bearings are worn, and it wobbles a little. Still OK for general purpose wood drilling. But for something that needs more precision, I had to get this new one.
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sdgoldpanner
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2006
Posts: 226
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Post by sdgoldpanner on Jan 4, 2012 19:10:18 GMT -5
Nice machine Don. I got to break down one of these days and replace mine.
Went Fairburnin today. Found one real nice one. Will have to post a pic after bit.
Jan 4, 2012 and 62 degrees, Wow!
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 4, 2012 22:00:59 GMT -5
Hey Bob, hope to have pics of progress on the machine in a couple days. Now that I have a working drill press again, I can start getting it put together.
Hit 55 over here today. Maybe 60 tomorrow. First month of winter without measurable snow. A new record for Aberdeen.
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sampson
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since April 2011
Posts: 222
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Post by sampson on Jan 5, 2012 0:29:29 GMT -5
Nice press don, and don't worry about the workbench mess, ..... that is how they are supposed to look.  I am starting to get a little frustrated here, i don't know what happened to my motors. I went into town today and they still haven't arrived. The tracking number from the Surplus Depot only tracks to the border and they got there well over two weeks ago. I placed my order just over 6 weeks ago now and they still haven't arrived yet. I paid almost $60 on top of the motor cost for shipping and now i am starting to think that i should have paid extra to get them shipped faster or with another carrier or something. i checked the invoice and the shipping address is right, hell, they don't even deliver to my house way out here all they need to do is get them to town. I am trying to be patient and i have lots of other stuff to do right now but i would sure like it if these motors would ever arrive so i could get started building. |
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 5, 2012 11:24:12 GMT -5
After this long, I suspect that someone else has your motors. No reason why used motors should be held up this long in customs. Have you tried contacting the Surplus Center ? Maybe they could track them from their end.
Don
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 5, 2012 12:58:12 GMT -5
Hey Sampson, If I lived nearer to the Canadian border, I could have run down to Lincoln, NE and picked up the motors for you. Then arranged to meet you at the border with them. Problem is, the border crossing nearest to you is about 700 miles from here.
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juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
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Post by juzwuz on Jan 5, 2012 15:24:57 GMT -5
Nice press don, and don't worry about the workbench mess, ..... that is how they are supposed to look. I am starting to get a little frustrated here, i don't know what happened to my motors. I went into town today and they still haven't arrived. The tracking number from the Surplus Depot only tracks to the border and they got there well over two weeks ago. I placed my order just over 6 weeks ago now and they still haven't arrived yet. I paid almost $60 on top of the motor cost for shipping and now i am starting to think that i should have paid extra to get them shipped faster or with another carrier or something. i checked the invoice and the shipping address is right, hell, they don't even deliver to my house way out here all they need to do is get them to town. I am trying to be patient and i have lots of other stuff to do right now but i would sure like it if these motors would ever arrive so i could get started building. I'm guessing they are stuck at the border (customs) depending on how surpluscenter filled out the paperwork. Definitely tell surpluscenter that you have not received the motors yet and they need to track down where the shipment is. Was it shipped through the post office (which is usually cheaper) or some other way like UPS? |
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sampson
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since April 2011
Posts: 222
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Post by sampson on Jan 7, 2012 0:05:34 GMT -5
I got ahold of Surplus depot yesterday and they were great about tracking down my order for me. It was shipped usps through the states but it had $60 worth of duty fees attached to it at the border and then was shipped with UPS with COD for the duty fees. UPS are the ones screwing around and they replied and said that they had tried to deliver three times and no one was home. They were lying about that and i called them on it since i have been home the whole time and there have been no tracks in the driveway snow or anything. They finally replied again today to say that i am out of their delivery area and they will try to ship it to a "delivery associate" where i will have to drive and pick it up. Pretty disappointing that they would lie and say they tried to deliver three times then finally admit i was out of the delivery area. I do live in a pretty remote area and don't mind going to pick it up but the least they could have done was to phone or email me to let me know rather than just let my package sit in their warehouse.
Ohhhh well, at least i may finally get my package but since the shipping and duties end up costing more than the motors themselves i don't think i will ever order from there again. Too bad about the shipping hassle but i do have to give surplus depot cresit for being so good about tracking down this package for me. The shipping associate in town is a little tourist gift shop so i will be going in there monday to see if it gets there and if not then at least i will talk to the staff to make sure they hole it for me until i can get into town again and pick it up.
I've been doing a lot of wood work recently but i can hardly wait to get these motors so i can build this machine and get back to some stone work again.
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juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
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Post by juzwuz on Jan 7, 2012 23:13:46 GMT -5
Finally had some success with the sphere machine! While I was in the garage cleaning up my cabbing machine, I decided to give the sphere machine another try. I had bought some more 2" diamond core drill bits and they did the trick on the geode I was trying to grind. Here's a short video:  Here's the 1.6" sphere.  It's not much to look at but it sorta looks like an eyeball to me. Now I have to work on some polishing process. I was thinking of using some velcro backed diamond polishing pads mounted on some plastic or wood cups. |
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 7, 2012 23:34:19 GMT -5
Hey, that came out great. How long did it take to grind it round ?
For polishing, you could always try fitting a piece of leather over your cups. Soak the leather over night in water to make it soft. Use your sphere to shape the leather, and fasten it to your cutters with hose clamps. This is what I do with my little 2 head machine.
Medical problems on the wife's side of the family made me put my build on hold. Hope to get back on it next week. Maybe even tomorrow.
Hey Sampson. Glad to hear you finally located your motors.
Don
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Steve
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2005
Posts: 506
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Post by Steve on Jan 8, 2012 1:01:22 GMT -5
You can always polish your sphere on your cabbing machine. If you look up the old articles in Rock and Gem on making a homemade sphere machine that was their recommendation. I've polished a couple of spheres that way when I couldn't get the sphere machine out. You have to carefully note any landmarks on your sphere to keep from getting lost. When I tried to polish a goldstone sphere on a cabbing machine I was not particularly successful since I had no landmarks to make sure I fully sanded at each stage.
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juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
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Post by juzwuz on Jan 8, 2012 1:32:28 GMT -5
The rock/geode started around 2.25" so it actually ground down by quite a bit. The "eye" part was a big divot so it took a while to make the whole rock spherical. I was hoping to grind through the muddy looking outside part to get to some crystals but it's only showing a few shiny/flashy parts. I'm guessing it took about 45 minutes to an hour. I kept stopping it to check the progress.
I purchased a couple of sphere preforms from snowdog and I think I'll work on them tomorrow.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 8, 2012 9:26:42 GMT -5
It takes a lot of grinding to get the matrix off of nodules. You may have to go to smaller cutters and grind another half hour or so to expose a good amount of agate. Looks like you've just about reached the bottom limit with the cups you're using.
If you have a Covington catalog, check their sphere cups. They tell you what size cups to use for different size spheres.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 9, 2012 22:35:37 GMT -5
Man, getting old sucks soooo bad. Got the base all cut out today, and mounting holes drilled. Still have to round off the sharp edges on the router table, apply a little wood putty to the nicks in the wood, sand everything, then 3 coats of primer and a color coat. Damned arthritis in my hands got to hurting so bad that I had to stop work today. Give it another try tomorrow.
Ordered a couple of Mil grade waterproof switches last night. As soon as they come in I'll have everything for the build.
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sdgoldpanner
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2006
Posts: 226
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Post by sdgoldpanner on Jan 9, 2012 23:00:36 GMT -5
Some of the spheres I have made with my home made sphere machine.  |
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 10, 2012 14:35:45 GMT -5
Made a little progress today.  Everything has to come off the wood base for 3 coats of primer, and 1 coat of color. Watertight box at bottom will house all of the electrical parts. |
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