Shoestring budget faceting machine idea

[Mark]

I also saw two cheap books by an astrophysicist that i have seen in lapidary journal talking about faceting.  He made his own machine and people seem to rave about his books:

Amateur Gemstone Faceting Volume 1: The Essentials
Amateur Gemstone Faceting Volume 2: Expanding Your Horizons

Oh my God, i found it.  It must be from the 1800s all black and white.  Just kidding, but it is in black and white but there are all the pics and diagrams.  I think if you make this and have to have someone make you the parts, you might do better buying one.  This is not a simple tinker toy setup.

http://lapidaryworld.com/pdf/home_made_faceting_machine.pdf

[Mark]

From another board, someone asked the same question.  They were soundly discouraged as the accuracy will not be good enough unless you have someone machine you the parts as in the directions from lapidary journal and that will probably be expensive too.  Now if you want to make a cab machine or flat lap, those look pretty easy from directions i have seen online.  The difference comes from the amount of accuracy needed for cutting tiny facets on a small gemstone, versus cabbing a stone that is flat on one side and curved to whatever degree you want on the other.  Try looking for a used machine.

[light house jack]

My suggestion would to do a daily search on Craig's list. I know of a lady nearby who found an aging rockhound who wanted his Graves faceting machine to go to the right person. She got the whole thing with many laps for less than $200.00. And another friend got a Graves with many laps but no indexes for $125.00. Look for a machine which was designed to do faceting. And, if you are really on a budget there are vintage faceting machines out there like B&I Gem Makers that many of the older members here will recognize which can be picked up for around $25.00.  That is what I got my last one for at an auction a year ago as it was my first machine when I was 12 and it came from Sears.