ThomasT
spending too much on rocks
Trying to keep the dust down.
Member since June 2022
Posts: 259
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Post by ThomasT on Mar 27, 2024 18:12:34 GMT -5
@hefty It could possibly be done, maybe... if you made or bought a strongly precise built mast, a very stable mast mounted on the plane of the flat lap machine and have some speed control for the motor.
Phenolic resin laps or copper laps and other such laps are sometimes used with the 50,000-grit and finer polish for finish work on gemstones.
Obviously, in Madagascar and other places, they have a method to put the facets on some large pieces of stone in a production type way.
Probably a YouTube video exists out there somewhere of that being done.
Overseas they seem to be able to do about any size carving, hollowing or faceting of any size stone.
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Post by Rockoonz on Mar 28, 2024 2:24:57 GMT -5
Would it be possible to make it capable of faceting? Yes, in the same way you could figure out how to put a race car engine in a yugo. Will the results compare to a high end machine? No, in fact the Graves MkI ancient faceting machine I have would probably do visibly better. The platter cannot be made to run perfectly flat being directly attached to the lightweight motor shaft, and the motor only has enough power to spin the plastic base laps the machine comes with, precision metal master laps are far too heavy for that light duty machine.
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Post by Starguy on Apr 3, 2024 16:24:25 GMT -5
Polishing flats is tough to do. During the limited faceting I’ve done, I noticed that the table was the toughest facet to polish. Smaller facets were much quicker. I also took a shot at polishing a flat on the back of a star corundum cab. It’s bigger than a quarter and there was a lot of time involved in getting any kind of polish. I took it to 100k diamond on a ceramic lap. I’ve only looked at it under 10x.
It seems like facet machines hold such a precise angle that you can approach “perfectly flat”. I’m not sure that’s possible by hand.
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Post by Starguy on Apr 3, 2024 18:21:14 GMT -5
Interesting video. The machine looks very accurate. It seems like a facet machine could be adapted to work. The size of the slides might make it tricky. I assume you’ve tried a standard cover slip.
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