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Post by Peruano on Feb 27, 2021 7:57:26 GMT -5
If I'm not mistaken, the flip up design of your 6" must be a Raytech. A very handy saw. Your own design seems to be well thought out. Big issues to consider are draining the saw table, controlling the splash, cleaning the accumulated grunged oil/water, and room to run through different (think larger) sized rough or stones. I wish I could plan like you do.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 25, 2021 8:35:52 GMT -5
Clean up ease is king. The Raytech trim saws with a plastic pan that can be lifted out and dumped are super convenient. The Hitech is light enough that the whole saw can be picked up, inverted, and hence drained instantly. I find it a bit underpowered. The rock rascal is large enough that you can't invert it, but rigging a drain tube works. I left the top loose on mine for ease of access and especially to facilitate the drying of the tank after it was drained. I did not clean it === just let it dry in New Mexico's dry environment. Cleaning was done when enough grunge had built up to warrant the closer cleaning of the tank. All are great saws in the hands of a dedicated user. There is not bad decision.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 23, 2021 7:10:54 GMT -5
e6000
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Post by Peruano on Feb 23, 2021 7:09:09 GMT -5
The wrench holding the drip light is one of my fav lapidary toolbox tools. It has a wide gape for removing the wheels on arbors and saw blades, and yet it has a short handle allowing its use in confined areas. For those that don't know it is commonly called a ford wrench and as I understand it was a standard accessory on Model T and A vintage autos because if fit axle bolts and other important components. Ford probably stopped making them in the the 1940s.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 22, 2021 16:44:39 GMT -5
Little imperfections get magnified when white polish gets lodged in and dried in them. Your problem may in part be related to the rocks you are tumbling. Things like quartzite can be polished but they will almost always have a grit texture that will not be as smooth as cryptocrystalline materials like agates, jaspers and their cousins. You may be able to remove some of the highlighting white material by running your stones in soapy water or borax after the polish. You can do it in the vibe just use more water than you would for a typical run. I have a vibe 5 too and often suffer an attrition of stones that don't make the final grade when they are viewed dry. Its not the vibe, its the stones and the time spent. Depressions like those in the last stone pair will not go away in a vibe without a pre-grind step. Luckily beach stones are abundant and the price is right when you are at the beach. More stones!
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Post by Peruano on Feb 22, 2021 13:42:09 GMT -5
Wow I must have been buying my Brazilian agate from the wrong barrel. I can tell you that no matter how you work it you won't be able to get rid of that bright orange color. You are stuck with it. Wow
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Post by Peruano on Feb 21, 2021 13:13:54 GMT -5
Since I just mentioned it in another context, I'm apologetic in directing you to the Nebraska Dept of Nat. Res. geology web page which has an agate lexicon with over 3000 names documented with some locality, bibliographic, and descriptive details. I found your primary name there described as a breciated jasper agate with red, white, and blacks with a citation for its presumed first mention in the Lapidary Journal. I doubt that it is complete, but together with the geographically sortable photo collection and other resources its useful in chasing names and synonyms. snr.unl.edu/data/geologysoils/agates/agateslexicon.aspx
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Post by Peruano on Feb 21, 2021 13:03:32 GMT -5
All you need is a friend on the US side of things who will hold packages for you and or route things your way opportunistically. Sharing is part of the game.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 21, 2021 6:45:19 GMT -5
I too have that Beacon start cab machine and a second in parts status. Its a good machine.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 20, 2021 18:26:10 GMT -5
oldschoolrocker - Thank you! Shipping from Texas would give me a heart attack though. I had a 15 pound box from the Rock Shed shipped last month, and it was $65 USD. greig, you reminded me of an old timer I knew (know?) in BC. Maybe I'll hit him up again. Darn hobbies....Shipping is where all the cost is.... How far is it to drive to the US border once quarantine issues resolve themselves?
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Post by Peruano on Feb 19, 2021 6:50:10 GMT -5
I'm thinking its sedimentary and probably not bone. Not all fossils are adequate for identification. Too often they have been crushed, broken, tumbled, eroded, and subject to time to the extent that they become things.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 18, 2021 13:07:03 GMT -5
If we tell you its a fairburn, you won't cut it. But if we say eh, its just a prairie agate, you might cut if and find a princess on the inside. I say its a Prairie Agate and should be cut. Smiles
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Post by Peruano on Feb 17, 2021 16:37:24 GMT -5
Oil on the interior surfaces of a saw box will protect it from rust and in essence repel water that might condense there (hey there is no humidity in Nevada or New Mexico). Cleaning the surfaces of my hood or sides of the saw tank is the least of my worries, except to facilitate visibility through the plexiglass windows on the side of the hood.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 17, 2021 11:53:27 GMT -5
I have a friend that likes to produce creative animals using broken pieces of tile with cement lawn figures as the base. She challenged me to do something with stones so the somewhat abstract rattlesnake pictured below was produced with olivine/peridote granules as the general body background and brighter body chevrons and head differentiation of misc. coral and turquoise (probably faux) beads that were left from another project. The tongue is AZ petrified wood, and the rattles a mixture of carnelian, jasper, quartzite and ?? What I failed to realize is how hard it is to define the various coils of the snakes body without a contrasting line or color separating adjacent body segments. It lives in my flower bed.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 16, 2021 12:42:54 GMT -5
Jason, I knew you didn't need photos of material laying in your own backyard, but was highlighting the Lexicon on that site. A search for prairie agate lists water agate, and eye agate as synonyms and mentions that prairie agate is a striped to scenic jasper/chert which may even appear to have wood grains. Some of the sources they mention may be located on the net or worth chasing through your libraries.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 15, 2021 18:03:55 GMT -5
Mel hit the basics and you can probe the Nebraska DNR agate site (explore all the names in the agate lexicon for the terms you are hearing) but they point out that bubble gum agates should look like their name implies and that prairie agates are indeed cherts with multiple (can I guess more fuzzy) color inclusions. The fine lines that you are seeing in these agates suggest to me that they are a true agate and and not a colorful chert (even if hiding under a misnomer name of prairie agate) The distinctions may not be clear, but fairburns are supposed to have fortifications. Simple lines may be a matter of orientation or indeed a different agate formation. Here's the general web site both the gallery, and the lexicon are relevant to you guys lucky enough to have them in your little pink hands. Educate us please. snr.unl.edu/data/geologysoils/agates/agatesdatabase.aspx
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Post by Peruano on Feb 15, 2021 17:54:32 GMT -5
Great ! Go slow, go small, and go soft until you have a good feel on what it will do. Clamping and feeding are key to long blade life and good slab material. Enjoy Share some details on size, feed type, and other features if convenient.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 15, 2021 17:48:40 GMT -5
Getting too hung up on a clean saw could ruin the fun or efficiency of the entire discipline. I clean my oil saws when the oil gets so much rock material in it that it starts to 1. stick to and obscure the viewing window; 2. hangs on other vertical surfaces in anything beyond an oily film; and 3. especially for my trim saw in which I use oil as well when it is opaque enough to mask my lines drawn on the stone when I'm cutting it, and tends to climg to the saw table making it a bigger mess and uneven for sliding the rock around. Lighter weight oils tend to allow the sludge to precipitate out with a relatively clean pool of oil floating on top (but the grunge in the bottom is like rubbery paint), where as the heavier oils tend to hold the sludge in suspension but the point of needing cleaning is about the same in my practice. Dirty oil clings to the slabs and thus results in a bit of extra effort in cleaning them. I drain everything on which every saw is not being used that day to recover oil off of the slabs and to reduce the amount carried into the oil dry or soapy water. Waste not, want not.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 12, 2021 8:18:14 GMT -5
No likely to be agate or jasper (in my eyes) . . . . because 1. They have pits and at time a flaking texture - they should be smooth at least in small areas. 2. No conchoidal (shell-like) breaks that are so typical of microcrystaline and cryptocrystaline stones. 3. By fondling a rock, you can get a sense of texture - these don't look smooth to the touch and probably have small crystals like you would expect in quartzite. The grey colored formations are typical of metamorphic rocks. I hope these off the top of the head suggestions are helpful.
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Post by Peruano on Feb 8, 2021 8:44:22 GMT -5
Cutting up big rocks is hard on equipment, especially if hand held (resulting in alignment problems and excessive pressure = un even speed). A small trim saw will have a rougher time than a larger one. At the minimum you need a 10" saw if you are going to hand feed it. If you can rig a gravity feed or use a power feed your blades and motors will last longer. For both preshaping and removing blems in early stage tumbling you need a grinding wheel. An 80 and a 180 or 220 hard diamond would be ideal but you could do both with silicon carbide wheels if you manage them correctly (and a lot cheaper). (They work and were used for years just don't let them get out of round and or water logged). So the ideal would be a two wheel arbor (not so expensive as a multiwheel cab machine). 6" wheels would suffice for your needs, its only for faster cabbing that the 8" wheels are preferred in my view. One alternative would be to buy an old HP combo machine which would give you a 10" saw and a room for several wheels. They are not sooooo expensive if bought from old lapidary sell offs but best would be one where the saw does not have to run when the arbor does and vice versa. Folks rave about the Harbor Freight saw that mimics the MK saw, but again its probably related to not pushing it too hard, too fast, and with too big material. On a simple arbor its really easy to change wheels on the ends of the shaft, so a one lunger or simple double machine can meet most needs. Depending on how big the material you want to 'chop' up is, a 6 or 8" saw is just going to frustrate you more.
Shop the used equipment sources and be willing to drive and you can probably stay within a tighter budget than buying new or equipment that is too big. Good luck and keep asking for alternatives.
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