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Post by stardiamond on Sept 26, 2023 19:58:13 GMT -5
I'm guessing it takes me between 15 and 45 minutes to finish a cab, but I don't typically polish the backs. jasoninsd and others, I'm sure, mentioned the soft materials working faster. It takes me longer to do soft stones. Because soft stuff is so easy to mess up, I slow way down. With hard stones, I can cab really fast with few mistakes. I have been known to miss scratches, though. Seriously, my eye sight just gets worse and worse. I was afraid to cut soft stones. The first one I tried was Indian Paint and I made a potato chip. My wife bought a Clay Canyon variscite cab with the purpose of having it recut. I cut the preform and then waited 10 years to dome it. I am no longer afraid of softer materials and start with a higher grit wheel and don't rush it.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 26, 2023 19:53:27 GMT -5
I also bought a parcel of Owyhee rough from Roy two years ago. When I slabbed it there was different types. This cab was made from what was identified as Spring Mountain. I also bought a few small pieces of Gem Owyhee from Tony (catmandewe) at fullmoon facebook.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 26, 2023 14:04:50 GMT -5
Drying needs to be an extent that the precipitate from grinding is dry and shows up in the scratches. This is a high dome Montana (almost 10mm) that I completed today. Despite careful inspection, I needed to go back to my worn 80 6 times.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 25, 2023 19:18:19 GMT -5
I'll be leaving these out for a while and replace when sold.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 25, 2023 17:21:05 GMT -5
My philosophy for things I don't need is sell cheap, donate or give away for the cost of shipping.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 25, 2023 13:37:39 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 25, 2023 13:35:18 GMT -5
I have hundreds of cabs that I won't sell individually so I am offering them here in bulk. Some I made and some from my wife's collection. I'm starting with 3 selections and I can create more if they are sold. The price is $50 a selection and $10 shipping. An additional selection will ship for free in the same box. They will be shipped as shown in the picture with bubble wrap in a cigar box in a flat rate padded priority envelope. Requests for individual cabs will be $10 each and I can check my bulk inventory for them and respond with a photograph. For size reference, the tape is one inch or 25.6 mm.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 24, 2023 18:08:39 GMT -5
My wife had an extensive collection of cabs she bought on eBay. I don't know how many times I've gone through the Riker boxes, but I had a stack on my fireplace mantle that I took down. I have hundreds that could be sold in bulk lots and all I wanted to do was identify some. I pulled out a box of keepers. Most were part of her collection and I found some I made. Most notably, Hells Canyon, Rhodochrosite and some nice agates. I found some c grade Koroits that I made a long time ago.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 24, 2023 17:07:41 GMT -5
The only real scratches I see are from the 80 grit, so go to the next wheel otherwise you are wasting your time. You are GREATLY appreciated. Thank you for your time and effort. A lesson most of us learn the hard way. The toughest thing for me is seeing the scratches. Drying and inspecting, rubbing a pencil. Sometimes I need to get to the polish to see them. It is frustrating. When working with softer jaspers they are more forgiving. 80 grit scratches unless really deep can be fixed with the 280 or 600 soft. Porcelain jaspers and agates can't.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 24, 2023 16:43:37 GMT -5
The only real scratches I see are from the 80 grit, so go to the next wheel otherwise you are wasting your time.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 24, 2023 14:56:14 GMT -5
The top box is the won't and the bottom box is to choose to list from. The enjoyment from all of them was the making. I currently have over 500 listings and over 10% are expired. The ones that I let expire had few views and are less expensive and not the best of my work. When a customer is a repeat buyer or buys multiple cabs, I add a better one to the order. The one bottom right in the first box and two bottom right were ones my wife bought because of the material that could be recut. I recut one and got a nice cab. The others I couldn't improve.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 24, 2023 13:28:12 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 23, 2023 16:43:50 GMT -5
The template width was only slightly narrower than the original so most of the grinding was off the bottom. The dome was off center and moving the sides slightly didn't help or hurt. I'll mark the girdle, dop and fix the dome and then decide how much I want to lower it.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 23, 2023 16:06:38 GMT -5
I made cabs a long time before selling. I made them to make them. When I started listing on Etsy, I listed my better ones. Every so often, I sort my Riker boxes so it is easier to find a cab when it is sold. I just did that with my Morrisonite cabs. I found all the ones that were listed and then sorted the rest into ones I could list and those I won't. I have more than 30 wont's. With material that has a bad pattern, not even a 'designer' shape can save it. I ran across this one, 55x20mm and a whopping 10mm depth. Best described as big and clunky. Bigger is not better. I have a template shape about 1mm narrower and 10mm shorter and lower the dome about 6mm. I'll see how it looks and go smaller if necessary.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 23, 2023 13:17:02 GMT -5
Rocks polish differently. Most of my polishing is done with 100k diamond paste. Some rocks do better with something else. I have different polishing pads on my Genie and if I don't like the polish I try something else. I don't tumble but have bought tumbled pieces to recut as cabs and they all had a nice polish.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 23, 2023 11:37:25 GMT -5
Morrisonite has become so expensive that I rarely buy any. Buying rough is a real crapshoot because the rock usually doesn't give up its secrets. Most of the Morrisonite on eBay is overpriced junk. Your junk pile is far superior.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 22, 2023 16:23:28 GMT -5
Hi all - I wonder if someone can offer some insight...clearly I'm struggling here - what on earth happened? It was not this bad....I did try to go back to the 220 wheel after the 280 soft wasn't getting out all of the scratches after about 30 mins of trying - but holy wow, now it's three times worse. Is this salvageable? Is it because the dome is flat? What would you do with this? Ugh. I did not feel like I was pushing hard at all, but also trying not to allow it to skip along the wheels - too new of a wheel yet? Should I try the 360 lap on the side? This was formed from a slab of pigeon blood agate. This is the technique I try to follow when I cab - although I'm thinking maybe I rush things - I need to make a mental note to slow down and take my time with each step. Thank you. Looks to me like the edge of your 80g wheels ate it up. Def looks like the side hit it. This isn't one and done. Takes time, Patience, and throwing a few cans across the room before you get it right. Ha ha I watched the video. I am also self taught. I noticed that he controls the stone with his fingers not the dop. I do the same. The dop is needed for polishing and helpful to prevent grinding fingers. I didn't watch the part (if it was in the video) for cutting the groove. I don't groove so it wasn't relevant. It resulted in a lower dome which means less grinding. I didn't see him mark top and bottom. Did he use a sandwich template or just guess. I mark the top to trim and then mark the bottom to grind. The top bottom marks don't line up but the top gets ground away. I also do something I think is unusual. When grinding the preform the top flares out from the bottom. I grind the dome to the girdle line and then square the sides. I do this for two reasons. It makes it harder to accidentally grind into the face and any chipping on the edges will go away when I square. I think he would be traumatized watching me operate the bulldozer (textured 80 grit). I like to melt rock. He might not be comfortable with things moving that fast. I also have never had a contamination problem using geysers.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 22, 2023 15:13:51 GMT -5
I found the OJ slab.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 22, 2023 15:00:25 GMT -5
This is a picture of the box from 5 years ago. Not all were untouchable but a lot are gone.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 22, 2023 14:41:48 GMT -5
Sorry about the big buildup. Two Howardite cabs one from Silverhawk and one from Top Gems. Gem OJ. I may have been required to not touch, but she gave away the best stuff. One of the untouchables was a slab of the OJ which would make a better cab than those. It's Mia now after reorganizing my slabs, but it will turn up. The others are Golden Ochoco tube agate. There was an untouchable slab of the tube that I touched and made this cab. I priced it high because I didn't want to sell it but wanted it seen.
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