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Post by woodman on Jun 11, 2019 9:44:06 GMT -5
I have found that using additional"wedges of wood" in addition to the vice can help secure funky shaped rocks that will not cooperate. also try to avoid lining up the blade on the rounded side of the rock, this can make your blade veer off course and cause dishing if the rock is sizable just my 2 cents worth i have had a saw for 2 years,and roached 3 blades already! If you have roached 3 blades in 2 years, you are doing something wrong for sure. I have been cutting for 20 years and never have destroyed a blade. The main thing is to get the clamp as tight as possible and then a bit more. Use a wrecnh if you have too. and then tug on the rock to make sure it is not loose. If you can move the rock, reset it and try again. I cut a lot of thundereggs and old shaped pieces. JMHO
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Post by woodman on Jun 10, 2019 14:46:29 GMT -5
Im sorry your back is bothering you That is a gorgeous piece Has for years, learn how to live with it, and work in spurts when it don't feel quite as bad. combination of problems with it.
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Post by woodman on Jun 9, 2019 21:02:47 GMT -5
I'd be disappointed too. I'm a rank beginner. Until a couple weeks ago I was using an old 10" Frantom trim saw that I mounted a Lortone vise on to cut smaller slabs. No precise thickness control, but always could get 2-4 parallel-sided slabs before I moved the rock. Now with my new toy, an old LS-18, I'm feeling pretty spoiled. Exactly 6 turns on the crossfeed yields slabs exactly 1/4" thick. Pretty much idiot proof. Can't stress the comments others have made about vise tightness enough. Shouldn't be able to move the rock at all in the vise before starting cutting. I'm soooo paranoid about what a rock coming loose could do to the blade that I really reef 'em down tight. If for whatever reason a rock gets moved and you want more slabs, you can try to replace the rock in the vise by moving the carriage way back so that you are placing the sawn face of the rock up against the blade before tightening it down in the vise. Almost impossible to get perfect but might be better than what it sounds like you got. Due to limitations in carriage travel this might only get you a few more slabs. You could also just bite the bullet and place the rock for maximum slabs and count on the first one being a throwaway. Argh I got an old ls-18, great saw. had to have new jaws made for the feed a while back, works good again.
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Post by woodman on Jun 9, 2019 20:49:44 GMT -5
That is a beauty... Any idea what kind of tree was the donor? I love the shine and the reflection of the tall trees. It was an Oak, most like today's white oak.
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Post by woodman on Jun 9, 2019 17:51:51 GMT -5
Now that's worthy to display somewhere! Your place must be filled up with cool specimens. Wife says the house is sinking!
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Post by woodman on Jun 9, 2019 16:40:26 GMT -5
Been working on this one for while, slow going with a bad back!
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Post by woodman on Jun 9, 2019 16:36:37 GMT -5
Made a few slabs from a small Arizona round, they should polish up real good. 24 inch saw.
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Post by woodman on May 25, 2019 12:54:14 GMT -5
The last one from roy. hard to see in my photo but has nice iris.
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Post by woodman on May 25, 2019 11:33:04 GMT -5
Took four slabs off, still oily in photo. also phot of large chunk
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Post by woodman on May 24, 2019 8:58:48 GMT -5
We knew the people who helped open Maury Mountain up, they lived near Sherwood, OR and were members of the Newberg rock club, we were too. They put on a 2 1/2 hour rockhounding slide show one meeting. The pictures were taken in the mid 50's. Part of the show was the extraction and moving of a twelve hundred pound piece of Maury, and the story told of how many tires they blew getting it home on a rather primitive trailer. It's real, I've touched it. The club folded several years ago, maintaining contact became difficult because of their age. The people are both gone now, and I don't know what happened to the rock. The wife bought a pile of rock from the estate of Ralph Anderson who lived in Aloha. A lot of Maury Mountain chunks.
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Post by woodman on May 23, 2019 22:03:34 GMT -5
It is, probably collected in the 60s or earlier. Wife bought an estate sale pile of rocks years ago and I am working thru it. got a long way to go. I had a couple of 4 inch spheres make out of it that game out real good.
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Post by woodman on May 23, 2019 21:47:36 GMT -5
I has a tendency to undercut when polishing, I don't tumble but that is what I have found working with it. I got one chunk about twice the size of a basketball!
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Post by woodman on May 23, 2019 21:19:10 GMT -5
Slabs are kind of like chips...or cookies...you can't just have one So True!!
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Post by woodman on May 23, 2019 20:47:26 GMT -5
Took a slice off of a chunk of Maury Mountain moss today. may take a few slabs as long as it is in the saw.
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Post by woodman on May 19, 2019 17:07:23 GMT -5
That one polished like a mirror. I can see the ring on your finger and the red bill on your ball cap. They all take a real good polish and hard to get a photo without reflections. I do like working them up. need to get some more of them!
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Post by woodman on May 19, 2019 14:06:57 GMT -5
a couple of thundereggs I polished yesterday. one from Succor creek and the double I have no idea where it came from.
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Post by woodman on May 19, 2019 14:04:28 GMT -5
Another Brazilian I got from roy.
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Post by woodman on May 19, 2019 13:01:41 GMT -5
Got one piece polished. Inside not a colorful as I had hope but it pretty great. nice emerald green!
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Post by woodman on May 18, 2019 12:43:13 GMT -5
I decided to make two heel pieces rather than trying to face polih it. It is in the saw as I type. It would have taken a long time to lap one face. Will have two display pieces instead of one!!
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Post by woodman on May 18, 2019 11:19:31 GMT -5
Oh good! I was hoping you'd say that. Please post a picture of it when it's done. It's gonna be a beauty. It may take a bit of lapping! will take a look in abit and get it started lapping!
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