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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 9, 2017 20:08:32 GMT -5
How about a picture of the pinolith piece as a teaser? Sure. I only have iPhone pics, but you get the general idea. The silver link is a hand made box clasp. I'll make it custom to the size it needs to make the bracelet the correct length.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 9, 2017 20:03:11 GMT -5
I find horses much less annoying than people. Have some of my least annoying conversations with horses, and also dogs. Now I just spent the day with my Covington saw. Man, talk about friggin mega annoying. Most our interaction involved a fifteen minute long string of swear words..... Mel Me too! Animals are the best people! At least I didn't have any equipment malfunctions today. Nothing like equipment malfunctions to take the pep out of your step.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 9, 2017 20:01:17 GMT -5
Hi all. Hope you enjoy this.
So I spent the day on the grinding wheels, on and off. The verdict is that the following stones are now eliminated from the competition (can you tell I've been watching the Voice?):
#1 - (Buzzer sound) Too many little vugs and holes and druzy pockets and I didn't like the moss.
#2 - (Buzzer sound) The line disappeared in one area exactly where the top of the cab needed to be. It came back on the bottom of the cab of course. :/
#3 - (Buzzer sound) The yellow moss on the left side was too soft and opened up a freaking sand trap.
#5 - (Buzzer sound) Big honkin vug opened up right in the middle of the cab.
#8 - (Buzzer sound) I decided it's ugly. Too close to baby sh*t yellow.
#11 - (Double extra buzzer sound) - Came out looking dirty. And the yellow was pitting. Didn't make it past the second wheel.
Which means I only have 5 cabs (they're finished through the 1200 wheel). 5 is less than 7, dagnabbit! Went and looked through all my lavic slabs, hoping I had something good enough to make two more from. Nopers. Gonna have to go back to the shop next weekend and spend a couple more hours at the trim saw (have tons of rough). But, I will be able to hopefully get a slab of that red brekker at least.
Stay tuned.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 9, 2017 13:47:34 GMT -5
In jewelry class this last time I learned how to make hinges to attach bracelet links together. Made a really attractive Pinolith bracelet to wear to work. But now that I know how to do it, I want to make one with self-hounded stones from Lavic. It will probably take a couple of months so have patience, but I will post updates to this thread as I go. So you saw my thread Lavic was Lousy . . . with Moss from my trip with aDave to Lavic earlier this spring. I've spent about 7 hours cutting the best of those rocks (or what looks like the best from the outside, haha - about 2/3 of them end up in the trash after making the facing cut), and have enough preforms now for the bracelet. I need 7 finished cabs this size, so these 11 will allow for 4 not to turn out. If more than 4 turn out ugly, I'll have to cut more. I have lots more rocks to cut! Here they are (trying to show rough, slab and preform where I can). These are about 3/4" x 1" or so. The links will sit vertically quite close to each other (long ends joined by hinges). The idea is for each cab to be a bit different from the others so I can keep turning it around on my wrist gazing at it and remembering good times hounding whenever something annoys me at work (which is all the time!) 1. 2. 3. This one was from a prior Lavic trip - forgot to photo the rock or the slab. 4. 5. 6. (here's the back of that last one, which will probably end up being the front once I grind the preform to shape: 7. Preform pic is a little light, the slab pic is more true and even a little light itself. 8. What's a Lavic Bracelet without a classic striper: 9. 10. 11. This last one I'm not too sure about, but it's worth a try. That yellow is looking pitty and soft. You've probably noticed the glaring omission: El Lavico Classico. I only had a small slab (so far) from this rock and I screwed up the preform. After I get all the cabs done, I'll see how I feel about the omission. Just for amusement: Here's the tank of my little saw after I cut out these preforms - looks like somebody cut their finger off or something!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 9, 2017 13:05:20 GMT -5
I have a quick update to the review. I still love the saw. I've now used it to cut a whole bunch of preforms, and it has worked like a champ on all of them. This morning I was cutting Lavic Jasper, which can be very hard. I was cutting end cuts into preforms, so some of the cuts were like 1/2" thick. Also, I was splitting some too-thick preforms, so those cuts were like 3/4" thick. I found that as long as I slowed down, this little saw cut them just fine. It cut them faster than the low rpm 10" lapidary saw at our club shop was doing yesterday. The .02" blade probably doesn't hurt with that. Also an update on mess: I'm keeping a little more water in the tank than Ameritool recommends, just so I don't have to pay as much attention to whether I need to add more. In doing that, it creates a little more of a mess. This particular mess was a good example since it's bright red and easy to see. Lavic jasper! Not blood, don't worry. ;-) You can see that I added a tupperware on the edge of the table and that helps a lot, but still got some crud on my apron and a little on the floor. I'm still super happy I got it - didn't have to go outside to cut preforms this morning! And see all that red crud on the table? Soooo nice to just pick it up and shower it off in the sink!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 21:22:23 GMT -5
Thanks y'all! Another year of . . . memories of Quartzsite! lol
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 20:07:14 GMT -5
Thanks @shotgunner!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 20:06:35 GMT -5
Thanks Dave! That's cool that you got to cut some - I love that moment when you cut it and hold it in your hand, just before looking at it . . . thinking I HOPE I HOPE I HOPE it magically looks like Wingate Pass Agate . . . lol.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 20:05:25 GMT -5
Got it, will do, thanks!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 18:18:13 GMT -5
That last one . . . Drool! Well, lots of them are awesome. But the last one is way beyond awesome!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 18:12:11 GMT -5
Awww, Thanks guys! So far so good, cut up some more of that Lavic jasper today.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 18:03:58 GMT -5
No kidding! Amazing what the dealer who sells the wheels "forgets" to tell you. Hmph. Off to go research it! Thanks Tela.
Kingsley North seems to carry a 220 and a 400 (and a 24 but that one says it's for blades). Which one do you use on which wheel?
Also, by "rotate your wheels" do you mean reverse them so they turn the other way?
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 11:07:26 GMT -5
I'm not going today Craig but maybe tomorrow. It's a pretty long drive for me.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 11:01:34 GMT -5
I was just over in the faceting thread where QuailRiver suggested that a resin bonded lap might need to be dressed. Admittedly, I don't even know exactly what a resin-bonded lap is - or whether it is the same as diamond-impregnated resin or what. I'm curious because I hadn't heard of dressing anything other than saw blades before, but I'm newish at this so it wouldn't be so surprising I hadn't run across it. If it's possible, what is the prevailing wisdom on when and how to dress wheels and laps. I had only heard of dressing saw blades. I find my soft cab king wheels (resin right?) get really smooth feeling after awhile - I thought that meant they were worn out. But maybe they just need dressing? My hard wheels are starting to feel a little less aggressive than they used to also - can I revive them? Same with the resin Ameritool discs - can they be dressed back to life?
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 8, 2017 10:56:12 GMT -5
Love the little white agate, and the Idon'tknowite. It looks a lot like a rock that is being sold on ebay by one of those Utah sellers - can't remember name - now I want some!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 7, 2017 15:13:45 GMT -5
Glad to have the opportunity to get some!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 7, 2017 11:15:59 GMT -5
Mine!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 7, 2017 10:38:46 GMT -5
Wow drool alert right there! Very interesting seeing the different varieties next to each other like that. Wish I had been buying rocks back then! Great job grabbing them when you did.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 6, 2017 13:32:00 GMT -5
Also Ikea Billy shelves are about perfect for them.
The containers don't last forever, but they're cheap.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Apr 6, 2017 9:55:46 GMT -5
Plastic shoe box sized bins with lids from the Dollar store. You can pretty much stack them 3 deep before they collapse.
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