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[sparx]

Here are some of the cabs I've created since getting my Christmas present, a 6" cabbing machine. :)

I had mentioned in my post to vitzitziltecpatl and others in the Welcome! thread that I had some black marble material I snagged from a broken desk at work, so that's what I started with first. Some of that was obviously stabilized with a gold-colored epoxy, and those are the pieces you see with the colored swirls along with the natural white quartz veins.


black_marble_cabs-small.jpg (106.46 kB . 600x631 - viewed 2133 times)

I also cabbed up some Carnelian Agate, "Chinese Writing Stone", Unakite, Green Jasper, Sodalite, Tiger Eye and Turritella Agate during my first week on the machine (I had the week off after Christmas, so had a lot of nice quality time getting everything set up and cabbing on a machine again after decades of being away from it).


carnelian_agate_cabs-small.jpg (70.51 kB . 600x491 - viewed 747 times)

chinese_writing_stone_cabs-small.jpg (74.6 kB . 600x478 - viewed 817 times)

unakite_cabs-small.jpg (41.67 kB . 600x624 - viewed 806 times)

green_jasper-sodalite-tiger_eye_cabs-small.jpg (131.07 kB . 600x1005 - viewed 802 times)

turritella_cabs-small.jpg (51.5 kB . 600x715 - viewed 773 times)

As I have a full-time job in IT, things slowed down after that week, but I was able to cab up some Maury Mountain Moss Agate (a couple with druzy pockets), and followed that this past weekend with a little Mahogany Obsidian and Butterfly Jasper. There's a mix of forms depending on what material I had, but I was eager to also give hearts a try on this machine, so that's what I did with the Butterfly Jasper.


maury_mtn_moss_agate-a-small.jpg (109.07 kB . 600x404 - viewed 749 times)

maury_mtn_moss_agate-b-small.jpg (78.84 kB . 600x284 - viewed 760 times)

maury_mtn_moss_agate-c-small.jpg (103.59 kB . 425x500 - viewed 756 times)

mahogany_obsidian-small.jpg (73.68 kB . 600x480 - viewed 733 times)

butterfly_jasper_hearts-small.jpg (117.25 kB . 550x517 - viewed 922 times)

There are more details about all of them on my blog if you're interested (https://www.silverdimensions.com/), but figured I would show what I've been up to with my Christmas present!

[irockhound]

Great work and glad to see you are being prolific with that new present!

[peruano]

Congratulations. You clearly are enjoying the machine and producing great pieces

[sparx]

Thank you irockhound and peruano!

Yes, I'm having a total blast with the machine, definitely. As a matter of fact, my wife is getting a little worried about losing pieces off some of our "garden rocks" as I look around for material to cut and polish. ;-)

I still haven't broke into some of my "old stock" yet (though there's not much of it), but it's getting close! I think that when spring rolls around and I'm able to get back out in the workshop, I should have a halfway decent selection of cabs ready to start using in my silver work (another hobby), for sure!

[Felicia]

Wonderful work, you have been very busy for sure. Not cutting much now myself, silver prices are through the roof.  Enjoy your revived hobby.😸😸😸

[victor1941]

Those are some very exciting cabs with the epoxy. Excellent cabs!

[Ryaly2dogs]

Someone is having a lot of fun!   

Nice work you have shared.

[vitzitziltecpatl]

Nice variety, and good work.

Good to hear from someone who just jumps in and goes for it like you have. Talk about hitting the ground running...!

[sparx]

Thank you Felicia, victor1941, Ryaly2dogs and vitzitziltecpatl!!

Regarding the black marble cabs with the epoxy victor1941, I was actually taken by surprise by those guys. I had wondered about the stuff when I was "slabbing" it up with my tile saw, as some of it seemed to fracture quite easily, but wasn't really sure what it was until I started cabbing it, then the smell of epoxy became very apparent when I hit those spots and I knew, and was a little stoked at how the swirls took form and polished up so well.

Speaking of fractures, I also know now that material does NOT make for good guitar picks. I don't play the guitar (tried, eons ago, and failed miserably), but have a friend who does and with a thin slab of it, worked it into a really nice pick templated from an old Fender pick I had. It actually turned out beautiful, but literally right after I dried it off after the polishing and was handing it to my wife to look at, it slipped out of my fingers, landed on our wood floor and shattered into 5 pieces. I guess I should have taken queue from the slabbing.

I hear you on the silver prices Felicia, especially after the Reddit hoarders cranked up the prices even higher this past week... it's absolutely ridiculous! Fortunately when it took a dive down into the sub-$15 buy-price last year I tucked a little away (too little unfortunately!) since I alloy my own sterling, so plan on using some of this winter's stone work in this summer's silver work!

Yes, I'm having a total blast on the new machine, Ryaly2dogs. I knew I would be getting back into it someday, and just wish I had jumped on it sooner! The past couple weeks I have been quite busy with IT projects at work, so things have slowed down a bit, but will be sharing a few more pics in a day or so of what I've been able to get done since these pics were posted.

Thanks again vitzitziltecpatl, and I'm actually surprising myself (which doesn't happen often... usually too hard on myself according to my wife)! I know that since the wheels are new they start out a little more aggressive, so was taking it very lightly but amazed at how quickly things take shape. I have been super-pleased at how things have progressed, though I'm still working on getting stones that are not cabbed free-form closer to their calibrated template sizes (good thing I make my own bezels I guess!).