Hand cabbing - Info request

Hand cabbing as in no power tools?
kk Kurt does a bit of that as I recall.
I keep one of these at work and sometimes I'll use it to window little rock chunks, might work for shaping soft stuff.
www.harborfreight.com/4-sided-diamond-hone-block-92867.html

Is hand cabbing where you just use abrasives without power equipment? I know a guy who buys a pile of sandpaper and does this with feldspar and I'll be darned if he doesn't turn out a few nice cabs! He's got to have the strongest fingers in town! He even showed me one last month that had some cats eye in it.

Files and sandpaper.... Is there another way?
Do everything with blade attachment for Dremel/Foredome (Jade, agates, no problem), followed by sandpaper and return to Dremel/Foredome for polish. Right now, with Spectrolite, I suppose sandpaper is even preferable (for me at least), as it is easier to adjust angles for colours.

I can not stress enough the importance of good ventilation over the work table and use of personal protective clothing. People who work in stone must not inhale the dust particles created during the cutting and grinding... BAD for the lungs! Research "silicosis" or "black lung disease" and see. Grinding should not be done in an enclosed space unless there is a good forced ventilation system exhausting the dust to the outside (through a window or dryer vent arrangement). Keeping the rock wet during cutting and grinding also keeps the dust down.

As this picture of my Daughter shows, using a common shop vacuum to suck up the dust does not work well. She works over a tray of water which she uses to dip the rock into... Dip-grind...dip-grind... but you can see she is still kicking up a dust cloud. That is why I now only grind/saw with the garage door open and a shop fan with decent air flow (4000 cfm) directing the flow across the table to the  outside.




In the photo you will also note a dremel drill press. I have not found much use for it yet...BUT... I think it might come in handy when I get around to figuring out how to drill holes in some cabs for jewelry making ideas. I have to figure how to use a water dish and small clamp to hold the cab as I drill. The Rock Shed has a video in their web site of how to do the drilling by hand - without a drill press. They make it look easy.

Another topic... Tumbled stones... or... Slabs... I started out cabbing using the rocks that I had tumbled - none of which had a nice convenient flat side that I could use when gluing the stone to the mounts. I had to grind one side first, before I could match the stone to an appropriate mount (cheap from Amazon). I purchased a small belt/disk sander to help with that...



That worked... BUT... the sanding disk and belt were brutal on brittle stones. I kept forgetting to cool the stones in the water bath, and the heat of sanding (and dust clouds!!!) did not bode well for my health or the stone's health. I had many mishaps and broke many stones. The little beastie also chewed up sanding disks in the process ($$$). I had purchased wet/dry sanding disks of 80, 220, and 600 grit, but ended up only using the 80 grit ones (bad purchase as far as I was concerned... unless I pickup wood working as another hobby...).

So... I began using pre-cut slabs - found in the local lapidary shop - Consolidated Rock and Minerals, and from online places like Stone Age Industries. The template layouts were easier, and the massive cost of replacing dremel grinders and diamond saws went down (yippii! ... saving money!!!). I could also see the patterns of the stones which helped me plan my cuts better.



Oh... BTW... I found some more pics of the stones shown in the previous post...



And the finish (Peruvian pink opal, 2 carnelians from the same tumbled stone, and the last is script stone jasper from a slab)

Thanks so much gmitch067 this all was extremely helpful!!!!

Dave - I order a lot from Amazon...

Saw: Dremel EZ545 1-1/2 in. EZ lock Diamond Wheel ~$20 each (OUCH!!!) When working with hard stone - like Agate slabs - expect to go through a few of these in a sitting. I would like to know if there is a place to send used blades to get them re-coated with diamond dust - could save some $$$ there. (these require a Dremel EZ402 lock mandrel ~$9.50 - re-usable. Regular ones have a screw-on shaft - Dremel #545)

Small Saws: Soledi 10-piece Cutting Disks 22mm Sharp Vented Rotary Diamond Mandrel Dremel Tools - pack of 10 for ~$8. I like using these on brittle stones like Obsidian and Malichite... a thin blade - not as rough as the Dremel 545 blade... but do not last as long.

Grinding Wheel (I use a lot of these... my Fav!):  Diamond Wheel Lapidary Grinding Tool 3/8" Fits Dremel. ~$12 each (another OUCH!!!). Available from "Generic" - non-Dremel sources, but sold at Amazon. As with the saws... I would like to know if there is a place to send used wheels to get them re-coated with diamond dust (maybe another Forum member knows where?...).

If you buy either wheel or saw that has the tool screwed into a shaft, check the screw tightness out first. About 20% of the grinding wheels had loose screws that caused the wheel to spin on top of the shaft.  I put a drop of very thin and fast Starbond epoxy on the screw before using - LockTite would work well also. 

You can probably save a lot $$$ by purchasing and using a nice small trim saw. I am currently considering the purchase of a Rock Rascal(?) Model-T 6" Combination saw and grinding wheel (~$416 at The Rock Shed - see "Other Rock Equipment" in their trim saw section). Because of my space constraints where portability plays a large part in my use and storage, I am not sure I will be able to fit it in my garage (Hmmm... I do have a walk-in closet in my bedroom with an electrical outlet... Naaaa...)

Nice Tela! Thank you!

$90 vs $300+ (Model JM - saw only) for a trim saw does represent quite a savings! Do you prefer the 7" DeWalt blade over the one the Skilsaw comes with - or is it just because it is a good replacement for a worn blade. How long will the blades last (ballpark - from your experience)?

Are there any accessories that are of value to have/use? (the tile saw does not come with accessories)

OK Tela... Based on your wonderful advice, and a YouTube video with terrible terrible audio (make that 3 terribles), I purchased the SkilSaw 3540 at Lowe's today (along with some Acetone to check out my Amber... another thread...). Here is the YouTube vid link:



What is shows is a guy using the SkilSaw 3540 cutting cab forms from slab pieces. It sort of alleviated any of my remaining doubts (not about your advice... about my uncertainty of whether I even NEEDED the tile saw. All of my projects are SOooo small.)

Thanks again for the advice.