Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Hi Guys!  (Read 1127 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

denverkris

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 29
Hi Guys!
« on: September 19, 2018, 09:28:17 AM »

Hi Everyone!

I just realized I hadn't dropped by to introduce myself yet. I am fairly new to lapidary. I'm primarily in it to make cabochons for jewelry, and, well, just because it's fun :azn:. I just recently got my own machine after taking a class at the local cultural center and watching a whole lot of youtube videos (and reading books). For my endeavors I have picked up the following:


Lortone stainless steel 6 station cabbing unit with Nova wheels (similar to a Genie, Kingsley North sells them)
Lortone TS8-C trim saw (not quite sure why I went with something so big, but it sure does cut fast)

I think I also might have room for a dual arbor unit, was thinking of maybe picking up an 8" expandable drum unit? Any and all opinions welcome! Anyways, I'm enjoying all the conversation and pictures here, thanks for having me!

This is what I'm currently working on, definitely not finished yet.



Logged

55fossil

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 849
Re: Hi Guys!
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2018, 03:53:14 PM »

    Welcome to the club.  You have a good start. I definitely would go with an 8 inch dual arbor, so many ways to use it. Nice star on the cabochons.
Logged

lithicbeads

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3214
Re: Hi Guys!
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2018, 06:22:29 PM »

I love a dual arbor machine.Get good at switching wheels and it is lots of fun.Oh yeah, welcome to the group.
Logged

hummingbirdstones

  • Opalholic and General Rock Nut
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3055
    • Hummingbird Stones Lapidary Services
Re: Hi Guys!
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2018, 07:09:51 PM »

Welcome from Northern Arizona!   :hello:
Logged
Robin

vitzitziltecpatl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1176
Re: Hi Guys!
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2018, 07:00:11 AM »

Welcome.

Your 8" saw is a good size to start with. We outgrew the 6" we started with pretty quickly.

An arbor with a 8"x2" coarse diamond wheel and expando drum would let you do larger cabs and slab polishing. If you do the rough shaping on it you can usually do the rest on a machine where the wheels are close together. The dome will let you hold your bigger cabs at an angle that will keep it away from the adjacent wheels.

Have fun!

denverkris

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 29
Re: Hi Guys!
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2018, 08:44:42 AM »

Hi Vitzi, unless we can actually find a contractor to do our garage addition (housing boom here), I'm going to be fairly space limited for a while. I'm currently working out of a small walk in closet in a spare bedroom/office/jewelry/lapidary studio. The saw takes up as much space as the cabbing machine does, and right now I normally just buy slabs so all I'm doing is trimming. But that said, ya I see you know exactly why I'm looking at the 8" machine :). I've already sanded off a few knuckles. I got used to the machines in my lapidary class, which were gigantic 100 year old beasts with huge wheels. I didn't think the cabs I was doing were particularly large, but in hindsight my 6" machine (and my knuckles) would disagree. I'm going to work on doing some smaller ones at least until I can get the 8" going.

Speaking of, I just picked up an old Lortone SA-8 dual arbor 8" machine off of ebay last night. They say the motor works, but it definitely has rust and will need a good bit of restoring, I thought it would be a fun project for hubby and myself :p. Thanks again for the welcome!
Logged

vitzitziltecpatl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1176
Re: Hi Guys!
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2018, 07:25:54 PM »

Yeah, the SA-8 is exactly the type of unit I thought you were talking about. Good for you!

In combination with your 6" unit you'll be able to do pretty much anything you'll want to do. The 8"x2" (80 grit) to rough out cabs or window a chunk of rough so you know which way you want to slice it up on your saw. The expando with silicon carbide belts (diamond is $$$) to face polish specimens or slabs. You won't need anything else.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.109 seconds with 37 queries.