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Question for faceting folks. I'm just getting into gem faceting after a 20+ year wait of wanting to. I know that I'll eventually settle into whatever works for me over time. But for now I'm looking for other people's input. Most of what I'm going to be doing is CZ or corundum. Roughing wise I'm looking at 360 or 600 grit to cut in the facets. (I have a bunch of mounted topper laps) Then go either 1200 or 3000 (both?) also on mounted topper laps. From there I have 1 micron (~14k) and 0.5 micron (~50k) diamond for polishing. I currently have a darkside lap and a matrix lap on order. Which would you suggest for either of those polishing grits? (along with any reasoning why)
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Apr 5, 2023 23:45
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 23:41 |
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Xun posted:I think you've got too many steps going on there. My usual process is 600 -> 8k prepolish -> 50k polish on corundum. Maybe start with 360 if there's a lot of material remove. Both the matrix and the darkside can supposedly be washed off for use with different polishing compounds, but tbh from a casual inspection it looks like most people are using those laps for metal oxide polishes? If you can I'd suggest checking out gearlooses polishing starter kit instead. If not, I would use the 50k on darkside and 14k on the matrix. Mostly because I've seen a few people use diamond on the darkside but not the matrix. Claes Oldenburger posted:The Mess TM can be beautiful and at the very least is a learning experience. Good job on trying! For a heatproof small container, my standard go to is a pop can. I chop it in two or closer to the bottom, flip it over, and fill the bottom with water. Use tweezers to hold the piece so the stone is submerged. I know people who will also fill it with sand or brown paper with the water to have more wet mass as protection. *hops directly into discord* Thanks for the input 
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Apr 6, 2023 02:41
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*Squee*  It's all packed up and waiting for the shipper to pick it up. Soon I'll be futzing around with gems.
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Apr 11, 2023 16:41
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Heads up for everyone. Gentleman who started/runs Gearloose is retiring  Announcement went out on their FB page last night.
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Apr 17, 2023 15:03
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Faceting machine is out for delivery!
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Apr 24, 2023 18:13
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jeff8472 posted:Found this while cleaning up at grandma's house. Vintage Helenite stones do have some value. I don't know if it's the same as it was back in 88 as it was still a lot more in public mind. Pieces of Rough still pull a descent amount of money. Might be worth getting them re-appraised.
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May 4, 2023 15:15
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Scarodactyl posted:I've been learning to facet. I'm only 11 stones in but I've really been enjoying pixel cuts in particular. Wazzup faceting buddy !!! What machine do you have?
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Jun 29, 2023 03:16
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Scarodactyl posted:Thanks! I almost went that route. Wound up getting one of the Sterling ST08. The whole handpiece type seemed to call to me over mast type polishers. If you've ever got any questions on polishing feel free to ask. I work for the company that owns Crystalite, If I don't know it already I can prod people who do.
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Jun 29, 2023 15:11
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Xun posted:Are you that guy in the faceting discord that works for crystalite? Yup! itttsa me!
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Jun 30, 2023 02:01
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Scarodactyl posted:Thanks! And yup, they've all sold pretty fast which is very encouraging. How do you usually market them to sell if you don't mind me asking?
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Jul 3, 2023 21:11
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Scarodactyl posted:Awesome! Eric is an amazing cutter, and he's worked really hard to source the best flame fusion cobalt spinels. Even minor impurities take the edge off the color--contemporary chinese production is hopeless. mmaaannn... now you're giving me ideas...
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Jul 7, 2023 15:46
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Nae posted:Those rupees are so cool and Zelda is so big right now that you could probably clear out all of your topaz rough by just churning out of a ton of rupees as practice and selling them at a discount. *looks over at the 2+ pounds of red CZ* hhhhmmmmm
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Jul 7, 2023 20:54
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Ssshhhhiiinnnyyyyy Think you made the right call with the toolmarks man!
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Jul 10, 2023 15:15
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Scarodactyl posted:https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/844202889060155433/1128962064082272297/lv_0_20230713040243.mp4 I really want to get my hands on some Moissanite. I used to have to polish technical ceramics for research. Mostly tungsten and vanadium carbides. Once in a blue moon had to polish some Silicon carbide. It wasn't facet quality but always seems to polish up really cleanly.
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Jul 13, 2023 15:33
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Scarodactyl posted:If you want moissanite I can definitely help with that! I'll defiantly hit you up when I'm buying the next round of rough. Also SOOO SHINY!!! I love looking at stones under a microscope.
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Jul 21, 2023 19:42
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Salt Fish posted:Is modern red glass still based on cadmium and gold chloride? I was looking for red crystal dishware and its been hard to find anything except cadmium glass from the 1960s-1980s and depression ware reds from the 1930s-40s. For that deep ruby read? yea it's still gold as far as I'm aware. Reds in general are very hard to have survive at molten glass temperatures.
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Aug 6, 2023 03:20
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Soon it shall begin. There's a D20 hiding in this. 
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Sep 5, 2023 15:39
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Scarodactyl posted:Heck yeah! I'm really curious how you accomplish it--I am not 100% sure my machine could even fit it. That chunk I posted a pic of is one of the Rubicon auction pieces. I'm curious if anything can be done with that feed stock. I.e. can it get treated hot enough to color directly or get it to try and solidify without it having to be brought up to fuckoff hot temperatures. I'd also defiantly be interested in some chunks off that F35 failure panel. One of the guys I work with helped with some parts development on both the F22 and F35. Making something for him out of an F35 part would be fun.
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Sep 5, 2023 19:26
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Scarodactyl posted:Yeah, it is a good question. From my research it seems to be an unusual product made for their particular furnaces but there has to be a use for it. shoot me a link. I'm having a derp
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Sep 6, 2023 03:39
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Scarodactyl posted:My store is at store.turtleshoard.com (finally starting to migrate off of etsy and it feels good). Got it bookmarked for the future I really like the soft pink those window shards have. I need to check finances but I could see making several sets of dice out of those.
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Sep 6, 2023 21:17
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Some interesting info on a project for everyone. Arya is a gentleman who's working on developing/redeveloping production of a lot of the "lost" synthetic colors. Djeva was one of the few remaining places that made a very wide range of synthetic colors but they went out of business a few years ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/Shinypreci...hare&utm_term=1
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Oct 31, 2023 16:41
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Scarodactyl posted:On the one hand I am super pumped, he has some amazing stuff lined up. OOHHHHHH preetttyyy let me know when you get some pieces cut off of that.
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Oct 31, 2023 19:45
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Scarodactyl posted:By the way dicecutter extraordinaire Hedron Rockworks cut one of our christmas garnets and it came out amazing! I really need to video/document when I cut up that piece of laser sapphire I got off of you. It's going to be a D20 in the end. Edit: Watched his video in it's entirety. Coming from the technical polishing world (stuff for 500x microscopy on one end all the way up to electron microscopes) It always amazes me how SLOW people are running their laps. It does defiantly gets the job done. But it's also REALLY hard on some of the laps and takes way longer. That sound the 600 grit topper lap made I probably visibly cringed out of reflex. Could hear the diamonds crushing in the clip. More zoom zoom! shalafi4 fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Oct 31, 2023 |
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Oct 31, 2023 23:37
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Scarodactyl posted:Hell yeah I want to see that. I need to make some dops to be able to really handle it first. That and for the numbers, I"m not planning on sandblasting them in. They'll be cut into it.  I have an essentially infinite supply of diamond dental burrs from our reject bin at work to use with a dental handpiece to cut them in.
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Oct 31, 2023 23:57
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Claes Oldenburger posted:This makes me happy, I thought it would be worse on them running them faster but I do it anyways For diamond electroplated laps? There are only a tiny handful of faceting machines that can even run a lap as fast as the diamond "wants" to. lowest end speed wise plated diamond wants to run cutting ceramics is about 4000 Surface Feet per Minute (ie how much lap passes under the stone per minute) for an 8inch lap the very edge of it hits that 4000 SFM at ~1900 RPM. the outer edge of a 6 in lap it's 2500 RPM Scarodactyl posted:For polishing it is necessary to run them slow. Otherwise I typically run at max unless I'm cutting a real small facet. eehhh not really? again from the technical polishing end of things? we'd polish Yittria, tungsten carbide and Boron nitride in the 1000~1600 RPM range on a 8in lap. Biggest thing is keeping it wet enough (oil or applicable coolant) to keep clearing the polished material off. I'll usually run my 6" darkside lap at 950 or so. It feels like it wants to run faster than that but there's a "do not exceed 1k rpm" on it's label.
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Nov 1, 2023 04:26
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Scarodactyl posted:I typically use a thin diastik smear with minimal wd40 and low speeds where the grip feels stronger and it generally works pretty quickly once the orientation is dialled in--but it's also just how I have been taught and I know polishing techniques are highly varied. I'm using a BA5T for most of my polishing, I haven't tried a darkside yet. Yup from what I've noticed that "low and slow" is how lapidary stuff is taught. (and totally works) It's just weird for me coming from technical polishing over to lapidary world. The other thing that makes me internally chuckle. People who go spouting over doing a 100k polish. (0~0.5 micron diamond) In technical world, if you're going to be going down to SEM part levels that 100k is the last pre-polish step. 
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Nov 1, 2023 16:31
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Soul Dentist posted:I gotta say out loud that I think gold work is bullshit and I greatly prefer working with platinum. What is this, flux? gently caress off! Oh you can just gently melt prongs without trying? gently caress off! Gimme the welding glasses and let me get to worrying-about-burning-diamond temperatures! The solder goes where you put it, not wherever it wants to go! man I just had one of those super brief trama flashbacks. From welding Platinum thermocuple wires 0.004" dimeter Platinum thermocouple wires. Any end ball bigger than 0.012" ? cut it off and try again. gently caress I hated that project.
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Dec 20, 2023 16:13
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Soul Dentist posted:Lol I work a lot in .6mm wire but that's a whole different ball game yea the threshhold for a "failed" ball on the join is ~ 0.3mm "feather light touch" was an understatement for it
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Dec 20, 2023 18:16
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Scarodactyl posted:
Okay I have to ask... How durable is this stuff generally? I've been asked to make a set of dice out of it at some point.
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Feb 5, 2024 18:52
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Scarodactyl posted:We typically sell cut stones for 40/ct, it is dense stuff so a 4mm stone is about 0.5ct. I can give a bit of a goon discount though. Any chance of a goon discount on rough sometime ? :P
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Feb 6, 2024 19:02
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 23:41 |
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Scarodactyl posted:Sure, shoot me a pm around the 20th when I'm back and settled in. Will do. Might be a little bit before I can pull the trigger on rough but I'll def PM you.
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Feb 7, 2024 03:03
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