Recent Posts

I'm in the Orca camp. I learned on a plumbers propane torch and its definitely not ideal. But, it will teach you heat control and if you can pick solder ok, you can do just about anything with one really. After moving up a bit in classes, I used my teachers acetylene/air set up. I don't know the brand. It gave amazing heat. But I didn't really love it. I decided I'd stick with propane air, so went with the Orca. It comes with 3 different tips, so you can switch them out depending on your job. Propane tanks are like $4 and last a long time I don't have acetylene in the house. But, the flame isn't as tight, so a Smith little torch would be nice in certain situations. Good luck!

Thanks Robin!  I was actually going to texture those areas, but the solder flowed pretty well, so I just darkened it a bit.  Often when I try something like this, the solder won’t flow, then it forces my hand and I texture to hide it a bit.  But texture and dark might be doubly interesting 🤔

irlcjrohr
I’ll add a bit of a close up for you below, I can’t seem to figure out how to do it here in my reply to you.  It’s just 18ga round wire shaped to a head or fin or flipper and then soldered to the backplate.  I did add JAX blackened to the areas within the round wire to add some contrast.  My son said I should cut some small stones next time instead of going the darkened route.  Maybe!

😄

I should do something more “Colorado”, like a marijuana leaf or something 🤔

Thanks Mike!

Ok, I absolutely LOVE tin oxide on my cabs. Love it. I was polishing with 50K and 100K diamond before trying it. My cabs were shiny, but I wasn’t getting that deep, warm polish I was looking for. I tried cerium on felt, but I just didn’t get the results I wanted. I usually go up to 3,000 soft wheel, then go to the tin oxide. But sometimes I’ll even go to 50K diamond and follow it with the tin oxide. It just all really depends on my mood or how I think the stone is finishing up. Sometimes I think I’ll just stop at 50K diamond, but will hit it with TO and I am always glad I did.
I played around a bit with it, and what works best for me is TO on felt. I think they are the 1/4” thick pads. I do have an old Graves Cabmate with a two speed motor, and I polish on the low speed. And that just might be the key to it. I use the spin off discs, like can be purchased for a genie or a cab king. I tried painting a slurry of TO on the wheel, but that did not work for me. What I settled on was just applying just a bit of TO dry onto the pad and rubbing it around evenly with my fingers. Then I use a spray bottle and hit it until it’s a bit wet. It took me some time to dial in the pressure, but the polishing really kicks in when it dries a bit and the stone drags on the felt. It doesn’t take long at all once you are there. I’ll never go back to polishing with diamond. Ever. Once in a while I have to, like if there are pits or small cracks that will pack full of the white TO powder and be impossible to remove. But all in all, I use it exclusively.

Nice toy! I’m glad you have some pictures of it right out of the box...it will never be that clean again. Enjoy and congrats!

Thanks Tela!  Your comment is interesting in that my girlfriends daughter said it reminded her of a pirate ship’s steering wheel lol!