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Post by stardiamond on Sept 22, 2023 13:29:21 GMT -5
Pretty nice. Is that morrisonite? yes.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 22, 2023 12:34:28 GMT -5
I don't collect, I have inventory but my wife had a list of cabs not to be sold. This is one.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 21, 2023 18:45:05 GMT -5
From design to polish, I average less than an hour. The harder material like Montana Moss, Morrisonite and Blue Mountain more and softer material like Morgan Hill less. I don't cut perfect cabs but I am satisfied with the results along with my customers. I am more interested in the design than the cutting. I start with a very aggressive 80 grit and like to cut fast. I mark the bottom with a extra fine sharpie and stay outside the lines. I see demos that what I call rock ticklers, grind, check against the template, grind some more, etc. I won't attempt calibrated circles and ovals. The slowest work for me is earrings because I want them to match as best as I can which means shape and dome. For a pendant, I don't have to match anything. The only reason I make earrings is I have a silversmith who wants pendant, earring sets and a little custom work.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 21, 2023 13:42:08 GMT -5
This is Biggs opal which is not the same as Opalized Biggs. I've bought this and cabbed it. There are multiple internet links for Biggs opal. The opalized Biggs is what the seller called it. I bought a small piece of rough and have made some cabs. It is much harder than regular Biggs and I've had it fracture working it. It could be agatized. I searched the internet and couldn't find any reference to either agatized or opalized Biggs. The internet is more about selling than informing when searching.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 21, 2023 13:35:27 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 20, 2023 17:18:31 GMT -5
I have an 8 inch Genie trim saw attachment. It is designed to use water with an additive and is hand feed. I use mk303 or equivalent and go through a lot of blades particularly when I hand slab. I bought a 10 inch HP high tone saw that has the same kerf .032, auto feed and cuts with oil. The blade in that saw lasts very much longer. All I recommend is using a water additive like lube-cool, kool-lube or DP water aid. I am using DP water aid now. It is less expensive and uses a lower concentration than the others. I also buy generic mk303 blades. Less expensive and works just as well.
If you are doing a lot of slabbing, get a small slab saw that uses oil or continue to keep buying blades. I used my trim saw for slabbing for many years.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 20, 2023 16:35:18 GMT -5
I slept in and today is garbage day so I got off to a late start. I had three cabs come off the dops so I quit after getting to 325 soft. At that point, there is very little to worry about and I know what each cab will look like finished.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 19, 2023 13:21:14 GMT -5
Getting new material to work on is a great motivator. Top left is opalized Biggs which is not new material but I rediscovered it. Biggs/Blue Biggs, Loma Prieta (big earthquake of 1989), bone. Second Biggs needs to be a flat top because the pattern is very thin.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 18, 2023 17:56:52 GMT -5
Some of us need a forklift. I store mine in plastic bins and cigar boxes. I bought some 6 tier wire racks on wheels from Costco so I can store vertically.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 18, 2023 14:07:55 GMT -5
Mine is a 30 minute drive. They have a shop. I haven't been there. 90 minutes total driving, set up and clean up time which is more than I spend working on rocks on average. I also am not driving now. antiochlapidaryclub.com/about/default.htmlThere is also a gem and mineral society that is closer that has meetings.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 18, 2023 13:42:57 GMT -5
I've been doing this a long time and I believe like everyone else overused the 280 soft. There is something comforting about a soft wheel that can remove material. When the 220 soft was offered, yippee. I'm not a fan of the 220 hard. When they are new and aggressive they are ok but after that they don't cut much and won't remove deep 80 grit scratches. Since I have a Genie with a removable right arbor, I get more choices of wheels. I do the rough grinding on the right side and then move to the left the more traditional set up. Highland Park had a sale on wheels and I bought a 140 grit soft and swapped it for the 220 hard as a backup for when my DP 80 retired itself. I use the 280 soft as a sanding wheel the same as the 600 and 1200.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 18, 2023 13:09:07 GMT -5
I work on a lot of hard material, so I am always battling scratches. I start with 3 different 80 grit wheels. Since I like to work fast, I start with a textured 80 grit that leaves Mariana Trench deep scratches. I move on to another textured 80 grit that has lost a lot of it's bite and then on to a very worn DP 80 grit. The 280 soft is the most overused wheel. Deep scratches laugh at a 220 grit hard. Scratches do a good job of hiding from me. I don't see them until polishing even though I inspect frequently. I try to refine my technique to hit all the of the face. My scratches look like ||| |||. Yours are random. I kind of agree with Jason but have not experienced anything like that.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 17, 2023 21:47:24 GMT -5
Some cabs are difficult for me to photograph, some are easy. The best compliment, I can get from a review is that it looked exactly like the picture. Since I am selling, I invested in a better camera and macro lens. I don't use a lightbox or a formal set up. The best I can do is post multiple photos taken under different lighting conditions. I recently tried selling on FB and had a learning curve from what I do on Etsy. On Etsy, the primary is cropped in a particular way and the width needs to wider to prevent chopping the top and bottom. When I tried using those pictures on FB, I got a giant cab. To make the pictures look good on FB it required a larger background to cab ratio.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 17, 2023 20:45:55 GMT -5
A nice result from the slab. I bet it looks better than the picture. 3d is better than 2d.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 17, 2023 14:54:34 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 14, 2023 20:35:43 GMT -5
Of course you can. eBay is no longer a place for American cabbers to sell. Most of the stuff offered is made in India. You can also sell cabs on Amazon.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 14, 2023 20:16:31 GMT -5
My lapidary material buying philosophy includes only buying material that I can make and sell cabs. I attend the HP lapidary sales and see a lot of beautiful agates. The pitch is how much that can be made using the material. Agate cabs make up 10% of my sales and banded agates less than 1%. John Rowland mentioned that Etsy is not a good place for banded agates. I have looked and not found any place that allows selling banded agate cabs other than Etsy. I messaged John on FB stating what I posted here. The response was a thumbs up which wasn't much help.
I joined the FB page Agate Collectors Worldwide and saw some beautiful agates but it isn't a sales site.
Does anyone know a good site where agates can be sold.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 14, 2023 18:16:20 GMT -5
The only one I saw in operation was for cutting large thundereggs. It was really slow and using water as a coolant is harder on a blade. A slab saw should use oil. I considered getting one to make rocks fit in my 10 inch HP Hi-tone.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 14, 2023 16:28:17 GMT -5
My son and his dog were sprayed recently. He gave the dog a bath and took a shower. He washed all the bedding. The smell permeated the entire house including my bedroom which had a shut door. I opened all the windows and the smell dissipated over time.
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Post by stardiamond on Sept 14, 2023 15:22:11 GMT -5
I don't toss it on the floor. Gravity takes care of that. Everything starts on the table. I am going to hang a small trash bag off the arm of my chair and have a 5 gallon bucket to empty the butts.
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