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[bilquest]

I've lately become intrigued by inlay and intarsia work. Think southwest/Zuni patterns, or David Freeland's fantastic cosmic scenes. My question is, how are those small pieces of stone cut? Specifically, what tool should be used? My jeweler saw doesn't cut stone, and my 6" trim saw is still too course to make those 1 to 2mm slices.

[rocks2dust]

There are several tools that can be used for fine shaping and curves. At the lower end, you can visit your local tile center and look at the diamond bandsaws, ringsaws and jigsaws (like the Omni Saw line). There are (or at least were) lapidary versions of those, but whether they do a cleaner job, I have no way of comparing.

If you are just wanting to do thin slices, then most slab saws that include a clamping device and feed will do that.

[hummingbirdstones]

I don't know if this will help you or not, but it's a cool video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QRrULdnQ4s

[Amethyst Rose]

A friend of mine, Rick Olmstead, does incredible intarsia work.  When he was still living in the Denver area, he showed me how he did a lot of the work.  He has a standard trim saw which he had a home made vice attachment to cut the thin slices off of 1/4 thick or thinner slabs.  He would typically cut the slices about 2 mm thick and then use a flat lap to thin the slices to the thickness he wanted.

The pieces were built up one piece at a time starting from the center and building out.  He use a special epoxy for attaching each piece and after curing, ground the piece to the exact shape and thickness he wanted. 

Inlay is easier if you are cutting stones to fit a hollow in metal work because it is simply taking the time to carefully grind the stone to shape and fit it into the piece.

Bob Johannes
The Amethyst Rose

[Helene Fielder]

I bet if you built a pattern with thin slices but long you could then slice many slabs with your intricate pattern.

[freeformcabs]

vice attachment to cut the thin slices off of 1/4 thick or thinner slabs

Amethyst Rose is right. There are thinner blades and professional sintered types that works best. But if you have a vise on your trim saw, or fashion one. It can be done. I have been able to cut 2mm and thinner slabs using a 18inch saw that had a 4mm thick blade and wasn't meant for that type of cut. I would create a plaster of paris block of random agates and just let the saw decide if I was cutting the right patterns out or not.

once you have thin material, it will prove easy to work them into smaller cuts.

[bilquest]

Thanks for the suggestions! Methinks I need to cobble together a vise for my trim saw.

WTF is that wheel in the video??? Is it a home brew franken-blade-stone, or does someone actually make a hybrid grinding/saw wheel? ...and how is he gluing pieces on the fly? If that's super glue he's using, I am in awe of his technique. I merely open the stuff, and instantly glue myself to every nearby object.

[hummingbirdstones]

No clue, but he looks like he actually may have a saw blade behind the wheel on the same spindle of the arbor.  Notice he's not using any water drip on it.  We have a 4" trim saw that I bought many moons ago when I first started cutting opal.  It's perfect for this kind of work and Vince can cut little slabs on it free hand perfectly.  Me, no so much!     Vince gets to do all the sawing around here.

You can also use a flexshaft with diamond bits to fit your pieces together.  I think he is using super glue in the video, which I don't think I'd recommend.  I'd use an epoxy like 330 to make sure it holds together.  Super glue doesn't like to get wet and will fail if it does.

[Phishisgroovin]

i have the perfect little table top saw for inlay cutting.
its a 6 inch but i can only use 1/4 of the blade for small things i cut into.
I buy from an ebay seller, cheapo 9.99 blade that is .009 inch thick and a different one at .014 thick

Not long lasting blades by any means when i cut agates, but on soft stuff it lasts a long time.

[metalsmith]

Thanks for the suggestions! Methinks I need to cobble together a vise for my trim saw.

WTF is that wheel in the video??? Is it a home brew franken-blade-stone, or does someone actually make a hybrid grinding/saw wheel? ...and how is he gluing pieces on the fly? If that's super glue he's using, I am in awe of his technique. I merely open the stuff, and instantly glue myself to every nearby object.

I think it's a 6" cutting wheel mounted behind a 4" lap, thereby a 1" cutting edge protrudes, enough to do what he's doing.