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Post by gmitch067 on Sept 16, 2017 8:17:26 GMT -5
I have a 10" slab saw and also a 7" tile saw but it seems like the dremel diamond wheel would be easier to cut the shapes with (Less grinding/shaping). Am I wrong? I am actually going to Home Depot as soon as my son wakes up so I can pickup my flex hose, drill press, and a few grinding wheels. The goal is to use the saw to get close to the thick black line surrounding the scribed line you laid down using the template - without causing chips to fly or fissures to crack the stone inside the scribe line. Either the tile saw or the dremel #545 will work, but at $20 a pop for dremel #545 replacements, using the tile saw would cost less in the long run. The tile saw should have a blade with a thin kurf to allow you to get close to the line without damaging the stone. Tela's suggestion of using the DeWalt XP2 or XP4 series blades (7" and 10") indicates using a blade with a thin Kurf and longer life per blade. Both DeWalt #4768 (7") and DeWalt #4769 (10") have blade kurfs of 0.06" - thin. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Sept 16, 2017 14:59:59 GMT -5
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. Having a tile saw is quite handy. My son and I are able to cut decent sized smallish rough with it by flipping the rock around. You'd be surprised how much you can get done. Another member told me about the tile saw a long time ago. He showed me how to use it--- backwards. Yup. Turn it around and flip the blade cover all the down behind the blade. (Or, take it off.) It is much easier to cut this way and if anything goes flying, it will be away from you. Done it this way for years with no troubles. Use common sense safety precautions and you'll be fine. Expect to get wet.  |
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Post by gmitch067 on Sept 28, 2017 11:25:30 GMT -5
Wow! Cut out 22 Malachite cab forms in less than 2 hours, and miraculously had no casualties! I had plenty of almost "OH NOOooooos" because the Malachite slabs were very brittle and the SkilSaw 3540 tile saw has a lot of vibration that is transferred to the stones during cutting... lots of breaks happening part way through the cut. The "miracle" was that every break was either straight through along the cut line, or broke in a direction away from the cab scribe line. I got a lot of practice varying the speed of the cut, but the vibration was enough to break some pieces without pushing the cut at all. All of the slabs were treated with Starbond CA epoxy as a stabilizer prior to cutting. I shifted to the dremel saw for 3 of the slabs though. Some of those had cabs laid out so close together that I worried about damage from the kurf of the blade. I am glad I decided to do that. The dremel cut the Malachite like butter without any breaks. The saw did kick back a little water, but my shop apron and face shield both proved their worth. Most of the cut-water was re-routed back to the saw's reservoir, and the rest was caught by the oil drip pan the saw was sitting on. I positioned the back of the saw toward the bushes outside my garage door - away from my Daughter's car in the driveway (I did not want to do a mess on her shiny!), but I did not notice any rooster tail splatter. My shop fan was set up behind me to blow air out across the table. I also wore my respirator and ear plugs. 'A good session! Happiness IS!  |
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Post by rockjunquie on Sept 28, 2017 12:17:09 GMT -5
A lot of slabs will break no matter what saw you use. A while ago I got a smaller slab saw for more valuable and soft stones. But, the tile saw does most of the work. I don't have much vibration in mine. I wonder if yours is messed up. Mine is sitting on a heavy picnic table.
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Post by gmitch067 on Sept 28, 2017 17:41:14 GMT -5
I think I will stick to the dremel and Skil-3540. For the size of my projects they are both ideal. I had the saw atop a collapsible plastic-composite picnic table. There were no noticable wobbles to the table or saw, and I did not notice any wobble to the saw blade. Oh well... I like my new saw+++
My goal was to create cabs for my family and grand-kids by Christmas... Their helpful hints and wishes for "green" pendants and necklaces was emphasized to such an extent that I felt a bit inundated. Now that I got the cabs roughed-out I can start the grinding and sanding. The Christmas deadline now looks do-able.
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Post by rockjunquie on Sept 28, 2017 19:23:06 GMT -5
I think I will stick to the dremel and Skil-3540. For the size of my projects they are both ideal. I had the saw atop a collapsible plastic-composite picnic table. There were no noticable wobbles to the table or saw, and I did not notice any wobble to the saw blade. Oh well... I like my new saw+++ My goal was to create cabs for my family and grand-kids by Christmas... Their helpful hints and wishes for "green" pendants and necklaces was emphasized to such an extent that I felt a bit inundated. Now that I got the cabs roughed-out I can start the grinding and sanding. The Christmas deadline now looks do-able. Sounds good! You should be able to get a bunch of those done in time. Malachite is pretty soft. The Africans did a lot with it with very limited resources. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 12, 2017 16:23:31 GMT -5
I think I will stick to the dremel and Skil-3540. For the size of my projects they are both ideal. I had the saw atop a collapsible plastic-composite picnic table. There were no noticable wobbles to the table or saw, and I did not notice any wobble to the saw blade. Oh well... I like my new saw+++ My goal was to create cabs for my family and grand-kids by Christmas... Their helpful hints and wishes for "green" pendants and necklaces was emphasized to such an extent that I felt a bit inundated. Now that I got the cabs roughed-out I can start the grinding and sanding. The Christmas deadline now looks do-able. How's it going with the cabbing? |
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 12, 2017 17:03:06 GMT -5
Not going very fast I am afraid... I have been having fun with domestic issues right now. Oh well... That is part of life I guess. Lol!
I did start on 8 of the cabs to be held in sterling silver coin holders (where both sides can be viewed) - 3 silver dollar size and and 2 of the 50 cent size survived handling all the way through 1000-grit sanding. The other 3 (all 50 cent size) broke into pieces (Drat!). I still have some more sanding to do - out to 3000-grit... But... I got side tracked.
I will post some pictures later. I have a back-log of unpolished cabs waiting for polishing as is. Because the Malachite is so brittle, I do not want to include them in any of the tumbling or vibe polish stages - too rough.
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 12, 2017 23:09:18 GMT -5
As stated earlier… Out of the 22 Malachite cut-outs I have only worked 8. Five of the stones have been sanded to 1000-grit. I will continue sanding to 3000-grit before dremel polishing (not sure which polish yet… I have had good results with Cerium Oxide, but have yet to try Tin Oxide). Three of the 50 cent size rounds self destructed during the grinding stage. This surprised me because all of the slabs were stabilized using Starbond Thin Fast CA glue before doing the cuts. I guess I should have also applied Starbond to the edges of each cut before using the grinding wheel to refine the shape of the cab. I wanted a mount that would allow the wearer to appreciate both sides of the Malachite cabs. At first I thought I could create wire wrap mounts, but later decided that my nubie skills were not yet defined enough to do the cabs justice. ‘Lots to learn, and not enough time to make my Christmas deadline. So I bought a bunch of cheap coin mounts from Amazon (and a few NOT so cheap made of sterling silver) to mount my cabs in. Here are some pics of the remaining 5 stones and the mounts (shown dry):  ...and the flip sides... Pardon the glare on the upper left stone, but a mixed blessing... I can see the sanding scratches of the previous sand paper. So I will take them all back to repeat 600-grit before advancing.  Here are a few mounted to give you the idea of how they will look...  |
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 13, 2017 7:19:17 GMT -5
Looking good! Too bad some broke apart. I commend you on your PERFECT circles. Very nice calibrated fit. I've used Zam as a final polish on malachite. I think others do the same.
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 13, 2017 11:04:15 GMT -5
Thank you Tela. I will order some Zam today.
Interesting note on the coin mounts... When the screw posts meet at the top, their alignment of threads must be exact when the cap is screwed on. In the picture above, note that the 50 cent size mount is not exactly matched on the right side - forming a small gap... gotta watch that...
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 13, 2017 11:17:48 GMT -5
Thank you Tela. I will order some Zam today. Interesting note on the coin mounts... When the screw posts meet at the top, their alignment of threads must be exact when the cap is screwed on. In the picture above, note that the 50 cent size mount is not exactly matched on the right side - forming a small gap... gotta watch that... Another perfectionist, I see. |
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 23, 2017 19:43:29 GMT -5
rockjunquie Ran into a minor problem with my perfect circles Tela... they are all the wrong size! Argh!!! It seems that the cheap coin holders are not so standardized in size. The ones I was using as templates for the silver dollar AND 50 cent piece sized cabs (see above photo of the ones shown mounted) were BOTH slightly too large. When I moved the cabs to the sterling silver mounts (or even the other cheap mounts of those sizes), none of them fit... now all my available mounts are too small. What were the odds of choosing two different sized template coin holders that were too large. At first I thought the metal was contracting with the cool nights we have been having, but there was no change in the coin holder size when they were warmed - the stones were still too big. At least the cabs are too big in diameter... I can still make them fit with a little dremel trimming and re-polishing. I just need to use their intended mounts as templates for when I do the grinding. BTW... ZAM is SWeeeeet! I like!!!
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 23, 2017 19:49:28 GMT -5
rockjunquie Ran into a minor problem with my perfect circles Tela... they are all the wrong size! Argh!!! It seems that the cheap coin holders are not so standardized in size. The ones I was using as templates for the silver dollar AND 50 cent piece sized cabs (see above photo of the ones shown mounted) were BOTH slightly too large. When I moved the cabs to the sterling silver mounts (or even the other cheap mounts of those sizes), none of them fit... now all my available mounts are too small. What were the odds of choosing two different sized template coin holders that were too large. At first I thought the metal was contracting with the cool nights we have been having, but there was no change in the coin holder size when they were warmed - the stones were still too big. At least the cabs are too big in diameter... I can still make them fit with a little dremel trimming and re-polishing. I just need to use their intended mounts as templates for when I do the grinding. BTW... ZAM is SWeeeeet! I like!!! Oh man! That is really crappy. But, at least you can grind them down. I have faith in you! Glad you like the zam. I've used it on a number of soft stones. |
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 27, 2017 9:41:44 GMT -5
How's it going with the cabbing? I finished the coin mounted Malachite cabs yesterday...  |
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 27, 2017 10:23:45 GMT -5
This is a sample of the hand cabbing I have been doing the last 4 months. They are not all of the 30X40 mm cabs I have completed… just not mounted yet. Next year I plan on developing my wire wrapping skills, and I needed some free cabs to help fill my efforts… (Where I got the slabs from: Consolidated Rock and Mineral Shop in Vacaville and Stone Age Industries) Top Row: Script Stone Cobra Jasper Chrysanthemum Jasper Mahogany Obsidian X3 cabs Row-2: Angelite Anhydrite Green Aventurine X2 cabs Australian Printstone Jasper X2 cabs Row-3: Actinolite (from Wyoming) Leopardskin Jasper X3 cabs Black chalcedony onyx Bottom Row: Viper Jasper X2 cabs Brecciated Jasper X2 cabs  |
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 27, 2017 10:32:56 GMT -5
Here are some of the display slab pieces (3" circle and 2"x4" ovals) Back row: all Pietersite from Namibia Front: Black Zebra Agate  |
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 27, 2017 12:17:42 GMT -5
WOW!!!!! That's a lot of work! Those look really great- you wouldn't think they were done by hand, that's for sure. I am truly impressed. You must sand every spare second of the day. The pietersite is fabulous and so are the pendants.
So, are done with Christmas stones?
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 27, 2017 12:18:55 GMT -5
I'm gonna go and ahead and move this. You've stuffed it full of good info and inspiration. |
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Post by gmitch067 on Oct 27, 2017 14:39:00 GMT -5
WOW!!!!! That's a lot of work! Those look really great- you wouldn't think they were done by hand, that's for sure. I am truly impressed. You must sand every spare second of the day. The pietersite is fabulous and so are the pendants. So, are done with Christmas stones? I have begun work on 12 more Malachite cabs from the original 22 cuts (shown in the previous post). ..Mainly I have just completed grinding their scribed shapes to fit inside mounts (not their surface contours yet). After grinding I noted, as I looked at their edges, that many of them had weak points and striations sandwiched between (where most of my previous breakage seems to have originated from). I currently have them drying from being stabilized with Starbond Thin Fast around their edges. I believe that I have enough to spend November doing mounts and putting together bolos, necklaces, tie clips/tie tacks, school backpack bling, and belt buckles. Sooo... I might put any new Malachite cabs on-hold until after my Christmas rush... we'll see... |
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