Gemstone Forum archive

If I am typing a long post I get logged out and to keep from loosing everything I have to copy, log back in then paste. I am a good typerer but it takes me a while to figure out what I want to say and how I want to say it. I am not talking hours here but under 30 minutes for sure.

Anyone else have this problem?

If you forget to copy you can go back to the previous page and copy before you log back in. I consider this a real pain in the patooty.
Jim

I am writing this from either my death bed or my really sore leg muscles bed and I am happy to say that it is Russ's fault. He did the research, scouting, driving and guiding and all I had to do is play follow the leader to some really kick a$$ rock.

I had been given a couple of large pieces of Spanish Point Dendritic Agate several years ago by the brother of the man that had mined or gathered the stone in the first place but had never gotten the chance to make the offered trip to the area by the nephew of the original owner, son of the giver of the stone. If I would have put a little effort into making that trip Russ would not have had to do all the research but I have a feeling he more than enjoyed the hunt and success.

Without further babble this is where we hiked up then down from.


This is Russ running out ahead to get all the good stuff. Actually, some of the best stones I have were found by Russ, handed to me to look at then he would walk away and say "there's more".


I was trying to take a photo of the area below us and some old man kept jumping into the picture.


Pay dirt/rock. Somewhere in the middle of this Russ yelled at me and I could tell from the sound of it that whatever I was finding it was not as good as what he had just found. What he found was the mother lode with solid unfractured stones all over the place.










Russ headed back up over the hill to the pickup and I started around parallel to the hill so I would not have to hike up. By this time my hips were telling me to not pick up any more rocks. Stupid hips don't know how important rocks are. I found quite a few as I was following a cow path.




Looking back we had been beyond and to the right of the two trees.


Came to a spring and there is a bunch of great stone there. I was full so couldn't take any of theme. Some are so big I don't think the two of us could get them in a cart. May be able to back right up to them with the pickup next time we go.







At the pickup. I was so whipped that Russ could see it and he came down a small drop off to help me with the rocks. I was real close to the point of laying down and offering up my body to the buzzards. I do not remember ever being that whipped. AT NO TIME DID I EVEN THINK ABOUT DUMPING THE ROCKS. Definitely shows that I am certifiable.


The next thirteen photos are along the road home. The creek we cross is Shell Creek and the canyon is Shell Canyon below Shell Falls.














It is now two days later and I can get up and shuffle along but not without pain in my leg muscles. Can't wait to go again.

After talking with my son I found out that a friend of his either owns the land we were on or land very close by. There are fences going several different directions from the area of the spring so we will not know until he talks with his friend. I mentioned that we saw a for sale sign on some land there and his reply was that his friend had put up a small piece of his land for sale. He is stoked up to go there now that he knows the area is full of artifacts which are his passion. When I showed him the stones he pointed out several places that had been worked and what happened with this stone and what happened with this other stone. I knew that with so many chips in one area something other than weathering had gone on but did not know the extent of it.

I am going to let Russ add photos of the stones that got back home with us then if I have anything to add after that I will post some more photos of rocks.
Jim

I am sure ya'll have been checking your computer everyday to see if Jim had posted anything. Sorry I have been disappointing everyone lately but my brain has been slacking and not coming up with any new ideas until a couple of days ago. The only things I had to purchase for this machine was an angel food cake pan and a 5/8" x 3/4" bushing for one of my pulleys.

This is about the easiest build I have ever done and it didn't take much time either. Bolted a grinder pedestal to my drill press deck and turned it 90 degrees.


Added some aluminum angle that I had left over from a previous project.


Checked the height of pulley and backer pad to make sure there was clearance.


Cut the cone off the pan about 1/2" high and bolted it down to the angles.


Cut a length of 1/2 inch tubing and attached the pulley to the drill chuck.


Screwed on the backer pad and it is good to go.


Drip system in place and electrical split conduit around the top to try to keep spray from going over the top. Doesn't work very good so I will have to keep experimenting there. Any ideas? The over spray is not bad but I think it could be better.



The really great thing about this set up is that I have four speeds. I put a 3.5" pulley on the drill press and a 5" on the machine to bring the speeds down to 107, 651, 1226 and 2102. The second great thing is that there is zero electricity below or to the side of the pan. The motor is way up out of the way. The only down side is the possibility of premature wear because of the side force on the drill stem from the belt. We shall see.

Prior to this I was using the drill press but driving it from above which limited me because of the shaft up through the middle of the pads. I was just flattening small slabs of jade so I could glue them together but it was still a pain in the neck, back and butt.

To start with I did some 50 grit grinding and the only problem was the backer pad backing off because I had not tightened it enough. I had planned to screw in a fitting and attach a hose to drain the water but a 1/4" hole at the outside bottom drains everything into a large pitcher sitting on the floor.

This works so good I am thinking about getting another drill press for making my rings and just leave this one set up as it is. Then I could get rid of my combo three wheeler/trim saw and just get a stand alone trim saw. Must be the minimalist in me.
Jim

I haven't been making much jewelry of any kind for a while but I am getting over my burn out and firing up again. So far I have only made a few rings but I have been working steady on my slab saw rebuild which I will post in another thread.

This ring was made for Tony's (catmandewe) wife Chris because she is an awesome people and I got to spend quite a bit of time visiting with her when she was here in Quartzsite. I procastrated while she was here and did not finish it so I had to send it with Tony when he left.

This is some really solid Wyoming nephrite that I picked up around Greybull Wyoming last summer. Normally I stop at 3000 diamond on the Wyoming nephrite but this time I tried going up to 13000 and I could not tell any difference as I went up so anything over 3000 is a waste of time.

I did a selfie while I was drilling. The stone I am drilling here was placed too close to the edge so it broke out and I had to go to plan B which is the stone in the ring photos.








This nephrite took close to a mirror finish. In one photo on the lower side you can see the reflection of my finger in the ring. I think it turned out great. Thanks for looking.
Jim

Judy signed up a couple of days ago and has not yet been approved. I don't remember it taking that long when I signed up. Did she get lost in a hard drive?
Jim

Hello all.

I am already on here. Well not actually ON here but I participate as wyrock, alias "wampidy" everywhere else. Well, actually not "everywhere" else. I am Jim everywhere that I am not "wampidy" or "wyrock". Ok, that is the last one.

The reason I am here today is to introduce Judy who is a friend of mine from another forum. Some of you know her as judy on RTH, you know, the one that did the steer skull that was to die for. I never thought to ask her but if it is available she will probably be judy here also.

The reason I am introducing her is because I want to ask a favor. Judy has had a rough time recently and could use a boost to help her through until she gets back to work. For this reason I am asking that she be allowed to try to sell some of her slabs here without meeting the selling rules. I would appreciate some feed back on this. Judy is more than willing to be a part of this forum like she was and still is on RTH. I bought two rhodocrosite slabs from her that are display slabs only because they are that good.

Judy will be introducing herself here and telling a little bit about herself.

Now, everyone should give approval so I do not have to beat you up.  hide35

Seriously, I have not crossed this bridge before and would like everyone to be honest in their opinion.

Thank you
Jim

Lithicbeads. I hope you are not the one that lost their house to a landslide on one of ya'lls islands out there in the Pacific.
Jim