Prepping slabs for cabs

[sifu]

So I'm about to dive into making my first cabs! I've been slabbing a wide variety of material and my workflow is:

slab with mineral oil as lubricant (horse laxative)
Let it sit in cat litter for 24-48 hours
Let it sit in water with a healthy serving of Dawn detergent for 12-24 hours
Let it sit for a few days outside, exposing each side to the sun

Then it's off to the water lubricated trim saw and then cabbing

Preparation of material is important and I hope to get some feedback on what I'm doing. Especially: does having the slabs sit out in the sun/rain really help get the last bits of oil out of the stone if the weather is cold? Is this step pointless?

[victor1941]

I have found that a hard non-porous and/or non-fractured stone can easily have the mineral oil removed with dish washing soap. I use Dawm in water several times and place the slabs on the drive way for a day or so. I some times spray with the garden sprayer if the material has crystal pockets that trap the oil. If it is cold I use a space heater in the garage and have the slabs on aluminum trays placed in front of the heater.

[minerken]

Actually I think you are over complicating the whole thing, throw in a bucket of soapy water,scrub a little,rinse, wipe dry or drip dry, and trim away.

[QuailRiver]

I'm too impatient for all of that. I just squeegee off the oil from the slabs. Then wipe the slabs off with a paper towel and put them in a recycled one gallon plastic ice cream tub with about 1/2" of lacquer thinner in the bottom. Let the slabs sit in the thinner until the next slabs are sawn. Then using neoprene coated gloves, remove the slabs from the thinner and wipe them down with a clean paper towel and wa-lah. The oil is gone. When the lacquer thinner gets so dirty it starts turning yellow I replace it.

(*Only use lacquer thinner in a well ventilated area away from sparks or flame and read the safety instructions on the label.)

Larry C.

[roy]

Nov 17, 2016 17:24:06 GMT -5 sifu said:

So I'm about to dive into making my first cabs! I've been slabbing a wide variety of material and my workflow is:

slab with mineral oil as lubricant (horse laxative)
Let it sit in cat litter for 24-48 hours
Let it sit in water with a healthy serving of Dawn detergent for 12-24 hours
Let it sit for a few days outside, exposing each side to the sun

Then it's off to the water lubricated trim saw and then cabbing

Preparation of material is important and I hope to get some feedback on what I'm doing. Especially: does having the slabs sit out in the sun/rain really help get the last bits of oil out of the stone if the weather is cold? Is this step pointless?

i let it sit in cat litter for a few days then in the toaster oven at 200* for 45 mins and shazamo its clean

[Rockoonz]

Never thought of the toaster oven, super idea.
The stone I use for cabs needs to be oil free if I want it to stay dopped, so I go through all the steps, but I use Castrol super clean or Zep purple instead of dawn. Before processing into cabs they get scrubbed with a toothbrush, but I may switch to the oven baking right before dopping, the warmed stone would be good.
For doublets and triplets or intarsia cleanliness is critical as well.

[Fossilman]

Dawn dish soap,the king of soaps! I just soaked my slabs for a few days in it,rinsed them all off,put away in outdoor closed area,till I start cutting them for cabbing...

[Deleted]

At class, we kitty litter the main oil away, clean in water with dilute simple green, scrub away, cut preforms with water saw, dry dry dry (heat lamp helps with this)

Then dop.

Then (due to old wax with the shellac boiled off) cab falls off of dop stick and cab by hand, no stick. Some have used acetone at home to clean the slabs of oil residue, then done the same stuff at class. Still wont stick to the stick! Crappy wax at class. Most dop at home. Come to class with dozens of sticks!

[Rockoonz]

That's why I use epoxy on aluminum dops. Maybe one fail in 25.
Some friends are using HD double sided tape with success.

[TRG]

All excellent ideas for when there's plenty of slabs to work with that can wait. When there's that one slab you want to work on immediately, scrub the slab in a circle against the litter/sand on both sides. Make sure to press the sides into it as well. Then with a toothbrush and dawn type dish soap brush the whole surface and sides, rinse off with hot water, then put it onto the heated dop pot. Wait until you see it dry out by looking for any fracture lines that will turn white in about 5 minutes. I then take a black marker and put dots along these white fracture lines so I can see what useable sections there are to design the cab.

[orrum]

Superglue in coated 20 penny nails, dop after grinding on the 80 and 200 wheels.

[sifu]

Great feedback. Thank you!

[Roger]

I think I may wait as long as 60 seconds from the time the slab drops off the rough until I have it on the trim saw. I rinse off the oil with soapy water and pretty much "go". I almost never dop though