Hello everybody!
Started cabbing, wire wrapping & cutting rocks only about 10 years ago in my late 40's...got away from it a bit, but now I am back into it & looking forward to doing it with a vengeance once retirement is here in about 12 months, 9 days and 18 hours...I have come here often for tips and pointers (I think I registered back in the day), but there are some extremely knowledgeable, talented and helpful folks on here. In Florida, we have precious little in the way of stones other than fossilized coral, but I met a friend in north FL who sold me a saw and a couple cabbing machines. I have a bunch of old rock and continually scour the web for more. I figure I better be cutting it since my kids will be left with a bunch of rocks when my time comes. Anyway, I have a bunch of questions since I'm largely self taught and have done my share of trial and error. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the lapidary art field tends to be a relatively open one compared to others, but it's such a blast making something out of that appears to be just a rock to most people. No one ever threw a away a beautiful stone. In a sense, it's our way of leaving something beautiful in our wake.
So glad I found this forum again. Cheers!
--JIm
PS - First question, but unofficial...If the grinder motors work, is there anything that can go wrong with equipment that has sat unused for 6 or 7 years? Also, is there an easy way to tell when Galaxy and Nova wheels need to be replaced? I'm a patient guy, so spending twice as long cutting something with an old wheel might not be something I'd notice, especially after this long.
