Post by rockjunquie on May 27, 2012 17:13:36 GMT -5
How long? 10-15 years that I have wanted to cut cabs?? Wow! Well, today, I finally did it, with the help of Randy (bikerrandy) and his tools, rocks and excellent teaching.
It must seem so mundane to you all, but to me, this is all new and exciting. I'm STILL excited! ;D
My husband and I went over to our neighbor Randy's lovely home. I drooled over his rocks and we talked lapidary and tools for awhile before I picked out a little slab of Outback Jasper, which I had never seen before. Then we got started on marking out cabs and trimming them.
I did my best to mark out three cabs. One was kinda messed up, but as it turned out, it was the best one I meant to mark it with the pattern going straight across, but it was off kilter, only to end up mostly right by the end of it all. Sadly, it has a partially healed fracture. Not that I mind much. It is destined to become a lovely pendant for myself-- My first cabbed stone. YAY!
I learned so much today! I had a blast and my husband did, too- who has never had a keen interest in this stuff till now. He also roughed and finished a cab. Truthfully, he did a better job than I did. One of the biggest things I learned was that it is probably a good idea to cut my long nails for this. Also, although the tile cutting blade was pretty safe (where I had imagined cutting my hand off) the sanding drums were not. I lost a bit of skin, but nothing to worry about. I found out, too, that doming a cab is harder than it looks. One of mine turned out pretty flat. My husband's has a real nice dome, though.
Randy was so easy going about the whole thing. He made me feel more at ease, since I was pretty nervous. I was pretty intimidated by the tile saw, too. He showed us how to fix our mistakes, which we had a few of. But, they all turned out nice, even if one of mine was a little flat.
YES!!! I AM addicted already. I'm already looking for a deal on a Genie. Anyone know of any good deals?
Our three cabs. Dh's cab is the one on the right, the last one.
Dh's nice domed, shiny cab.
My favorite of my two- the one with fracture which wasn't supposed to turn out nice.
Thanks for looking
It must seem so mundane to you all, but to me, this is all new and exciting. I'm STILL excited! ;D
My husband and I went over to our neighbor Randy's lovely home. I drooled over his rocks and we talked lapidary and tools for awhile before I picked out a little slab of Outback Jasper, which I had never seen before. Then we got started on marking out cabs and trimming them.
I did my best to mark out three cabs. One was kinda messed up, but as it turned out, it was the best one I meant to mark it with the pattern going straight across, but it was off kilter, only to end up mostly right by the end of it all. Sadly, it has a partially healed fracture. Not that I mind much. It is destined to become a lovely pendant for myself-- My first cabbed stone. YAY!
I learned so much today! I had a blast and my husband did, too- who has never had a keen interest in this stuff till now. He also roughed and finished a cab. Truthfully, he did a better job than I did. One of the biggest things I learned was that it is probably a good idea to cut my long nails for this. Also, although the tile cutting blade was pretty safe (where I had imagined cutting my hand off) the sanding drums were not. I lost a bit of skin, but nothing to worry about. I found out, too, that doming a cab is harder than it looks. One of mine turned out pretty flat. My husband's has a real nice dome, though.
Randy was so easy going about the whole thing. He made me feel more at ease, since I was pretty nervous. I was pretty intimidated by the tile saw, too. He showed us how to fix our mistakes, which we had a few of. But, they all turned out nice, even if one of mine was a little flat.
YES!!! I AM addicted already. I'm already looking for a deal on a Genie. Anyone know of any good deals?
Our three cabs. Dh's cab is the one on the right, the last one.
Dh's nice domed, shiny cab.
My favorite of my two- the one with fracture which wasn't supposed to turn out nice.
Thanks for looking