Raytech-Shaw

[Pat]

berfle I wanted to know about using the faceting machine for intarsia. I have the Ray-Tech Shaw, but have never used it (another story).

I recently bought the Al Sesona intarsia grinder, but it only gives the 90 degree angle --- and it does that very well. We are in the process of creating a 45 degree angler. At this point, I want that to make corners for intarsia frames. Not up to the Behnam intricacies yet.

We figure that if we take off the corner/s of a cube destined to become a sphere, we will have a good start. Must true up the edge to 45 degrees, and we are almost there. Theoretically.

Appreciate your experienced input. Thanks.

[Pat]

Should add that Al Sesona of Intarsia Grinder fame, has DVDs of Phil Magistro's old videos/tapes re intarsia. I've ordered the two; not here yet. $40 per set of two volumes. Sesona also has a set of two on Metalsmithing. Ordered those also.

[berfle]

May 24, 2018 14:11:50 GMT -5 Pat said:

berfle I wanted to know about using the faceting machine for intarsia. I have the Ray-Tech Shaw, but have never used it (another story).

I recently bought the Al Sesona intarsia grinder, but it only gives the 90 degree angle --- and it does that very well. We are in the process of creating a 45 degree angler. At this point, I want that to make corners for intarsia frames. Not up to the Behnam intricacies yet.

We figure that if we take off the corner/s of a cube destined to become a sphere, we will have a good start. Must true up the edge to 45 degrees, and we are almost there. Theoretically.

Appreciate your experienced input. Thanks.

Pat some of those articles have a lot of detail and photos showing use of the Raytech and should be able to get you started.

Regarding the Sesona grinder, he does have small 30, 45 & 60 degree guides that sit on the shelf and facilitate grinding at those angles. He also makes a larger 45 deg guide that attaches in place of the shelf and permits mitreing slabs to be used in making stone boxes.

Regarding the “45 deg angeler” you are making, is your intention to try to mitre the corners of the borders? This gets to be problematic because as you’re grinding a border piece to obtain a 45 deg angle you are also adjusting the length of the border piece. So in order for the corners to fit perfect and show no visible joints, you end up having to make 8 separate 45 degree grinds (2 for each border piece) without inadvertently making a border piece shorter. With some (probably a lot) of practice you might get good at this but it’s a lot simpler and quicker to overlap the corners of the border pieces.

Speaking of the Sesona grinder, are you aware that he also makes an indexing attachment?  This gadget permits making intricate intarsias with the precision of a faceting machine. Here’s another Lapidary Journal/Benham reference.

[goatgrinder]

What a beautiful piece of equipment. Makes me think that one day I might need one.

[slomoshun]

Mod:

I noticed this mod on Youtube in videos by “vaproie“. It replaces the original drip pan height adjustment thumbscrew with a knobbed screw. I got the knob and a 1/4-20 machine screw at a hardware store. The screw’s head was cut off and the knob drilled out to accept it, then both were epoxied together. The round knob is comfortable and less fiddly. Vaproie’s setup does not reach out as far as mine, so I may need to cut it shorter.

[berfle]

May 24, 2018 20:42:18 GMT -5 slomoshun said:

Mod:

I noticed this mod on Youtube in videos by “vaproie“. It replaces the original drip pan height adjustment thumbscrew with a knobbed screw. I got the knob and a 1/4-20 machine screw at a hardware store. The screw’s head was cut off and the knob drilled out to accept it, then both were epoxied together. The round knob is comfortable and less fiddly. Vaproie’s setup does not reach out as far as mine, so I may need to cut it shorter

This is a GREAT idea! Trying to raise and lower the pan with big hands/fingers is a problem.

[slomoshun]

It’s been an interesting and fun adventure. I made a decision to cut a large object [fused quartz sphere] so I could more easily see how the machine's adjustments made subtle changes. That proved to be a good thing because, as mentioned in another thread, I had some trouble with scratches and bomb craters during polishing with a Greenway lap. That was a walk in the park compared to the major disaster when the dop and quartz parted company while polishing the table. Not enough epoxy, apparently. During the flight across the work bench and onto the floor, the pavillion got scratched. The wise move at that point would have been to re-cut the whole thing, or just toss it into the garbage and start fresh. This was my 'learning project' and the mess was a perfect opportunity to get educated, so I stayed with it. Remounting was nearly perfect, but 'nearly' isn't good enough. The result was that every facet to completion had to have a custom setting, and a few of those eventually needed to be tweaked a bit so the meet points looked like a sober person cut them. I've come to greatly respect Louis Shaw for his design. Beyond the freedom to raise the handpiece to your eyes and view the work from all angles under good lighting, its adjustability is amazing. I was able to nudge facets around in all directions. The handpiece is more than capable of just indexed facets with transparent gem stone, you could cut free-form shapes with it from any kind of rock or other material. Here are some pics of my quartz 'standard round brilliant'. The next one will be better.

Shaping:  3000 grit Lapcraft
Polishing: Darkside with Cerium oxide

[berfle]

Jun 13, 2018 18:24:52 GMT -5 slomoshun said:

slomoshun I agree with you regarding the Raytech's amazing adjustability. With all the adjustments you’re able make all sorts of “on the fly” changes. On occasion I’m asked to repair damaged stones and, while it’s rarely easy, it’s almost always doable.

[slomoshun]

More from the Raytech.  Just off the dop is an emerald design by Jack Rowland tinyurl.com/y8sq3bkj . The plan is simple but for 32 index, so I had to tweak the numbers to use it on the 96 index handpiece.  A pleasant result overall.  It’s a big nugget, like the previous SRB, and cut from a chunk of pale blue Helenite glass.

[hummingbirdstones]

That emerald cut turned out really well.  Nice stone!

[flminer56]

Those are great looking stones .

[gemfeller]

Nice cuts! What photo technique are you using to get so much dispersion from rather low R.I. stones like quartz and glass?

[slomoshun]

It’s really difficult to get acceptable photos, I’m still sorting it out. Digital camera sensors tend to overexpose the highlights of bright things. If the light source on the subject is too intense, or straight on, detail and color is washed out and sparkles end up to be white dots. Softening the light either by bouncing it off a reflective surface, or masking it with something slightly opaque [white paper or cloth, or cloudy polyethylene] will help. Except for the earlier shot at the workbench holding the Raytech handpiece, and the partially polished pavilion image with the wood background, all machine and rock shots were taken in a simple lightbox setup with some LED lights. Using an unreflective background and slightly under-exposing the shot seems to help capture dispersion. Also, a lens aperture of f/8 or f/11 creates enough depth-of-field to keep the stone adequately focused. Take 40 pics and keep 3.

Does anyone know what lights are used in the display cases at jewelry stores?

[slomoshun]

This weekend's project, the same Trap emerald cut with green Helenite glass.  I'm ready to try something with a higher MOHs rating, can anyone recommend a good online source of synthetic gem rough?

[gemfeller]

There are a lot of them. I cut nearly all natural materials but a couple of the "good guys" I can recommend personally are Grady Harris at Creative Gems <http://www.creativegems.com/OurCatalog.aspx> and John Franke at The Gem Shoppe <http://www.gemcutter.com/syn-ruf.htm>

If you're interested in volume purchases let me know; there are a couple of places I can direct you to.

[NRG]

I have been very happy with purchases from All That Glitters.

They always have laser Alexandrite and the colors are quite striking. Even larger finished stones are not too dark.

www.atggems.com/Rough.htm

[slomoshun]

Another from the Raytech. This one is Siamite synthetic Spinel from US@Gems. The flavor is "104/3 Santorini Blue". MOHs is around 7.5. All shaping was done with a 1200, then it got polished on a Darkside lap with Pandimonium 60K diastick.