steb
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2019
Posts: 21
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Post by steb on Feb 4, 2019 10:04:22 GMT -5
Greetings, My name is Steve McCollough (steb) and I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I love rocks and most of my dogs have been avid rock hounds as well. I loved rocks to the point of getting a BS in Geology circa 1970's. When I later developed an artistic bent, I migrated to wood as a softer, gentler art. I never could get rocks out of my mind and now that I am retired I am migrating to rock carving and tumbling. As Lake Superior Agates are so close and a local rock, I will casually start working agates with my new #3 Loran tumbler and my new Dremel 4000. My real interest is in carving. Another local rock that I love is the Petoskey Stone. I have carried a Petoskey worry stone in my pocket for the last four decades. So this is my goal, to carve Petoskey stones. I get mixed messages about hardness, mostly calcite with some silicate. The real question for me starting out is how to accomplish rough slabbing and shaping with simple tools already at hand. I am starting from the premise that a hack saw will give me the most reliable, safe cuts until I can figure a better option. I am hoping to eventually be able to use a standard wood cutoff saw with a ten inch dry diamond blade? Sanding is very easy and the finish acceptable given the beautiful patterning. Clamping a rock I find to be fairly difficult and have no real ideas other than a simple vise squeeze or stainless steel clamp wrapped around. One of my recent wood projects if I set up image uploads correctly.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Feb 4, 2019 11:02:47 GMT -5
Greetings, My name is Steve McCollough (steb) and I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I love rocks and most of my dogs have been avid rock hounds as well. I loved rocks to the point of getting a BS in Geology circa 1970's. When I later developed an artistic bent, I migrated to wood as a softer, gentler art. I never could get rocks out of my mind and now that I am retired I am migrating to rock carving and tumbling. As Lake Superior Agates are so close and a local rock, I will casually start working agates with my new #3 Loran tumbler and my new Dremel 4000. My real interest is in carving. Another local rock that I love is the Petoskey Stone. I have carried a Petoskey worry stone in my pocket for the last four decades. So this is my goal, to carve Petoskey stones. I get mixed messages about hardness, mostly calcite with some silicate. The real question for me starting out is how to accomplish rough slabbing and shaping with simple tools already at hand. I am starting from the premise that a hack saw will give me the most reliable, safe cuts until I can figure a better option. I am hoping to eventually be able to use a standard wood cutoff saw with a ten inch dry diamond blade? Sanding is very easy and the finish acceptable given the beautiful patterning. Clamping a rock I find to be fairly difficult and have no real ideas other than a simple vise squeeze or stainless steel clamp wrapped around. One of my recent wood projects if I set up image uploads correctly. Welcome from extreme SW California! Congrats on figuring out the image upload so quickly, we need more smart people like you! Not into wood carving myself, but your project looks great. Let it be known that we LOVE photos, lol. Welcome aboard! Jean Edit to add - Forgot to mention, most of us are dog lovers, too.
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Kai
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2018
Posts: 331
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Post by Kai on Feb 4, 2019 12:11:32 GMT -5
Welcome! The wood carving looks great and I can't wait to see your rock creations. I'm afraid I can't help you much because I only ever did carving on very soft flat stones - more like engraving, never actual full 3D shapes, so I didn't have problems such as clamping. Sorry...
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Post by MsAli on Feb 4, 2019 12:16:10 GMT -5
I and welcome from Fresno Ca
I love wood carvings so hopefully you will share more of that as well
Cant help with carving stone, but there are some others that can
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Post by vegasjames on Feb 4, 2019 18:55:14 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to seeing more of your creations.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 5, 2019 7:09:49 GMT -5
Welcome and thanks for contributing by sharing your creation already. A simple way to clamp a rock might be to use the large wooden clamps that woodworkers use. The ones I have like giant "F"s with the two parallel arms adjustable as to spacing. Think about gluing your stones temporarily to wooden blocks. Wood glues work well and can be removed with a water soak and a saw. Lapidary blades can be relatively cheap so don't go too creative in adapting blades from the concrete guys (they are thick and may not do as well on your stones as they do at faster revs on concrete). Most early novices use tile saws (Harbor Freights 80 dollar version equipped with a lapidary blade is close to real lapidary quality at 30% the price). Diamond bits as used by dentists are relatively cheaps (I believe its Lasco) and I've even seen folks talk about cheap pneumatic dental training units that work great for carving - supposedly the handleheld units are sold for training and can be had in the 50-70$ range. But I can't speak to the advantages of air over your Dremel. My hack saw blades don't hold up to stone even when its accidental contact as I'm sawing the wooden block from a stone glued to it.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 5, 2019 9:56:14 GMT -5
Welcome to RTH from Northern Arizona!
I think a cheap tile saw is a great start to cutting Petoskey stones for your carving. You need to use water or oil when cutting with diamond saw blades. Using them dry will wreck them and breathing in rock dust (especially fossil rock dust) is extremely bad for you. You want to keep the dust down and out of the air you're breathing as much as possible. Also consider using a respirator to protect yourself.
Petoskeys are relatively soft - 3 on the mohs scale, so carving them should be relatively easy. You can use any sort of abrasive tools you have to help you achieve your vision. Diamond cut-off wheels, diamond burs and sand paper drums, etc. for your Dremel, wet/dry sandpaper in various grits and diamond hand files, for working by hand. Basically anything abrasive that is harder than your stone. You can also make your own wood burs for the Dremel and impregnate them with diamond powder. You use them with oil. A lot of carvers make their own diamond paste by mixing diamond powder in Vaseline and use that to charge their wood burs. The beauty of making your own is you can make specific shapes for your carving as the need arises.
These are just a few suggestions of the top of my head. A good book on carving gemstones is by Henry Hunt - American Lapidary: Designing the Carved Gemstone. You can find it here: lewwackler.com/books.html It goes into detail on how to make your own tools, etc. It seems it's out of print again but is considered the bible of gem carving. Amazon has it too, but for a lot more money. He also has another carving book that deals with transparent gemstone carving.
Hope this helps a bit.
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steb
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2019
Posts: 21
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Post by steb on Feb 6, 2019 5:49:27 GMT -5
I do appreciate the responses and will look into the various suggestions, thanks. The first project is started with a hacksaw for trimming with some success. A tiny diamond bit with the Dremel carving kit works but I am looking for a carbide or diamond type bit that will take out a little more meat from the stone. The hummingbirdstones comment on tool making is interesting to me and will pursue that line. Here we have rough stone, shaped stone, and features outlined.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 6, 2019 9:04:08 GMT -5
It's looking like a turtle to me. I'll be interested to see more pictures as your carving progresses.
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mgrets
spending too much on rocks
Member since February 2011
Posts: 321
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Post by mgrets on Feb 6, 2019 19:41:42 GMT -5
Welcome from NW Ohio/SW Florida!
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goatgrinder
spending too much on rocks
Make mine a man cave
Member since January 2017
Posts: 368
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Post by goatgrinder on Feb 6, 2019 19:55:34 GMT -5
Welcome from sunny Atlanta, 'twixt mountain and sea.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,194
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Post by RWA3006 on Feb 6, 2019 23:12:18 GMT -5
Welcome from Utah.
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Post by TheRock on Feb 8, 2019 5:07:15 GMT -5
To RTH Forum steb From ~Duke in S/W Michigan Nice Carving look fwd to seeing more of your work! Cheers
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Post by As I in does tries! on Mar 4, 2019 16:34:41 GMT -5
Greetings from Scotland, United Kingdom!
I currently have the following Lortone QT12/66 rotary tumbler, Lortone C300 rotary tumbler, 2x Viking Vibrasonic 2x 14lb and 2x 6lb hoppers (Diamond Pacific) (USA) vibrating tumblers, Hans lapidary 6 wheel rock grinder and polisher, 6 inch blade and wheel combo unit that is currently under redevelopment, with Silicon Carbide grit Fixed80, F220, F600, F1200, with Tin Oxide (1.0 micron) and Aluminum Oxide (0.3 micron) polishes.
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steb
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2019
Posts: 21
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Post by steb on May 23, 2019 4:39:37 GMT -5
Welcome to RTH from Northern Arizona!
" You can also make your own wood burs for the Dremel and impregnate them with diamond powder. You use them with oil. A lot of carvers make their own diamond paste by mixing diamond powder in Vaseline and use that to charge their wood burs. The beauty of making your own is you can make specific shapes for your carving as the need arises.
"
I am interested in pursuing this idea you suggested of making my own wooden burs. Is this described anywhere online? I am wondering if I can use my carbide grits I got with a tumbler with homemade burs of wood. The options of construction methods for the burs and the various grit types and the solvents to hold the grit on the stick are the things I wonder about. Am about to experiment but do not want to reinvent the wheel. I was thinking of somehow gluing an 1/8 inch dowel into a 1/4 inch bur head dowel and then sanding into the shape I need to get into small restricted spaces that need finish sanding. I will get the book, if this is where those ideas are from, but would prefer an online source. Thanks.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,654
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Post by Tommy on May 23, 2019 9:46:36 GMT -5
Welcome steb it's good to have you here! I look forward to following your work and wishing I was artistical enough to create something from nothing. I draw stick people.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on May 23, 2019 23:05:10 GMT -5
steb - check your messages.
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