NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 1, 2020 18:16:16 GMT -5
Warning: Long sob story
For me there are many great rock cabbing days where everything goes right, and some rocks even turn out better than you thought.
This was not that day. Let's just call it cab fail day. So, this is a vent.
I often think that there would be good, to start a forum post (sticky) where the rock hobby community could post their rock slabbing, cabbing, or tumbling issues. Almost like a support group.
To me, when cabbing I really hate the feeling that you get when working away on the grinding wheel, and then unexpectedly there is the sound of a rock chunk ricocheting off of the piece you are working on. Or the feeling of having a rock break in two in your hands.
Today started out that way. I was on the 800 grit expando wheel, and like 1/4 of my Chrysocolla cab broke off. The 800 wheel. Really? Was I pressing too hard?? Maybe. Move on.
Then I dug up a couple nice pieces of Jasper / Agate which I had sliced some time ago. I should have taken a picture of them (before). I was so happy that I might get nice cabs, that i picked them both up and went in the house to show my wife. Only I sort of dropped one of them (about 3-4 inches in the air) to the counter, and this is what I got"
Really!?! From a couple inches off of the counter. Sure the counter was granite, but come on!!
Here is how I salvaged one of the pieces:
So I went inside to show my wife and see which side she thought I should cab. One of the pieces was fabulous. It was rather large, and I probably could have cut it in to two pieces really. I should have taken a picture of it. One side was bright yellow Jasper / embedded in an interesting sea of Agate.
My wife wanted me to cab that. But no, I had my sights set on the other side. A pretty arrangement of Red and Yellow Jasper with Agate (or Chalcedony) in it.
So excitedly I start working on this one. It took my 1 hour to get the piece roughed out on the 80 Grit wheel. But I was being real careful. Why, because I don't get many nice looking rocks like this one.
Even though I don't post pictures of individual cabs, I was so happy with the way this one was coming along, I imagined myself proudly posting a picture of it on the RTH when I was done.
Then, out of nowhere, a chunk of the cab just breaks off and goes ricocheting around the basin. Really?!?! This came out of nowhere! I was being really easy with it, working around the bezel real slow .. and BOOM!
My award winning, bragging rights perfect 30x20 suddenly looked like this. And the break actually almost goes to the 50% mark on the back of the cab too. Rendering it pretty broken.
This is my consolation prize. Its some pathetic little jelly bean wanna-be cabochon!
Just like when you went to the carnival as a kid and wanted to win your (wish) girlfriend a nice big stuffed elephant at the place where you try to knock down milk bottles. Only you don't win. You spent too much money trying, and your consolation prize is one of those measly clown finger puppet toys, which you end up giving to your little sister later instead. Not me, just saying ...
These are my cabs for the morning. One almost-broken in half Chrysocolla tooth-thing, and two could've been Holt Canyon Jasper / Agates, and a couple others thrown in.
They all need to get polished, but that is like 5 hours work. The yellow one is also Holt Canyon Jasper / Agate (which has more Calcedony on the other side, the green is some Malachite from a local mine, the Agate at the bottom, we will just call Perkinsville-horribly-fractured-hope-n-pray-it-stays-together Agate.
Well, that is my vent. I feel better now.
Thanks for sticking with me, if you made it this far down.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 1, 2020 18:20:19 GMT -5
Oh sorry. Group photo ... I think I am still upset.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jun 1, 2020 19:23:11 GMT -5
Oh, I feel ya. I think we've all been there. But, like someone always points out- better to break now then when it's in a piece of jewelry. I know it doesn't make you feel any better, but it seems like it's a tradition to say it.
There will be better days. Thanks for sharing and reminding me of my losses. OK, maybe not thanks... exactly.
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EricD
Cave Dweller
High in the Mountains
Member since November 2019
Posts: 1,142
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Post by EricD on Jun 1, 2020 20:45:28 GMT -5
I know that feeling. Tomorrow is another day that you can have rocks blow apart on you for no apparent reason
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jun 1, 2020 21:19:02 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your CCD (Crappy Cabbing Day). I think we've all been there, done that. Because I've had that happen to me way too many times, I will smack a slab on the table to see if it will break before I even start trying to lay out a preform on it. If it's a really nice piece of something and I can see a fracture that may or may not be healed, I'll stabilize the fracture with some Hxtal first.
Hang in there, Bill! Tomorrow will be a BCD (Better Cabbing Day).
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Post by knave on Jun 2, 2020 6:51:06 GMT -5
Kinda neat to read about things not going as planned. Thanks for letting us glimpse that side of your (rock) life.
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Post by miket on Jun 2, 2020 9:58:08 GMT -5
I feel your pain. I've had some days a cab just goes together as planned and other days where I'll break 2 or 3 in a row after working on them for hours. And sometimes I curse. Loudly. But other times I'm grateful and do a little dance when things go well. It's all part of the game, my friend. Oh, and p.s.- Sorry to hear about the carnival experience. Even though it wasn't you...
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Post by knave on Jun 2, 2020 10:02:48 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your CCD (Crappy Cabbing Day). I think we've all been there, done that. Because I've had that happen to me way too many times, I will smack a slab on the table to see if it will break before I even start trying to lay out a preform on it. If it's a really nice piece of something and I can see a fracture that may or may not be healed, I'll stabilize the fracture with some Hxtal first.
Hang in there, Bill! Tomorrow will be a BCD (Better Cabbing Day). Since Miss Ali has me thinking “bees”, CCD is also (hive) colony collapse disorder.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,681
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Post by Fossilman on Jun 2, 2020 10:29:51 GMT -5
Been there done that! Jaspers are the worst, so many hairline fractures...
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Post by drocknut on Jun 2, 2020 11:07:56 GMT -5
Look not at what was lost or broken but at what was actually accomplished. Those cab might not be what you planned but they look great and you got those done.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 5, 2020 10:36:27 GMT -5
Oh, I feel ya. I think we've all been there. But, like someone always points out- better to break now then when it's in a piece of jewelry. I know it doesn't make you feel any better, but it seems like it's a tradition to say it.
There will be better days. Thanks for sharing and reminding me of my losses. OK, maybe not thanks... exactly. What's interesting to me is something you wrote a long time ago once. When faced with a broken cab. You almost worded it the same. Better to have it break now, than to have it break after you sold it. And every time I have something unfortunate like this happen, those words pop in to my head. And I try to feel better about it somehow. I wish I could be optimistic all the time. But I am mostly a glass-half-empty person. Still, when something breaks this is always what pops in to my mind. Maybe some day it will sink in. Maybe more so if I am selling cabs or pendants. Thanks.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 5, 2020 10:37:51 GMT -5
I know that feeling. Tomorrow is another day that you can have rocks blow apart on you for no apparent reason Yep. And there will be other rocks too. I try to always say that to myself. That are always other rocks out there that I'll get some day.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 5, 2020 10:53:15 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your CCD (Crappy Cabbing Day). I think we've all been there, done that. Because I've had that happen to me way too many times, I will smack a slab on the table to see if it will break before I even start trying to lay out a preform on it. If it's a really nice piece of something and I can see a fracture that may or may not be healed, I'll stabilize the fracture with some Hxtal first.
Hang in there, Bill! Tomorrow will be a BCD (Better Cabbing Day). Ah.. CCD. Its comforting to know that others have been there too. Thank you for sympathizing. You know something. Your idea of dropping a slab to see if it fractures or not is something that I did yesterday. I had 2 so so small slabs and dropped them both from a couple inches on the granite to see what they'd do. They both fractured in to smaller pieces. Oh well. I don't have enough experience to know if 99% of them would fracture or not. But I will probably do this with questionable pieces.
And Hxtal? That could be the best advice yet. I've finished cabs which had a small pit on them before, and decided no more material could afford to come off of it. So, I've dropped super glue on the spot, let it dry, and then finished the cab. But it doesn't dry clear. It's opaque. And kind of makes it worse actually so I don't use super glue any more. I will buy some Hxtal now. And maybe it will be like that automobile window repair stuff, which drys clear. Thank you!
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 5, 2020 10:57:00 GMT -5
I feel your pain. I've had some days a cab just goes together as planned and other days where I'll break 2 or 3 in a row after working on them for hours. And sometimes I curse. Loudly. But other times I'm grateful and do a little dance when things go well. It's all part of the game, my friend. Oh, and p.s.- Sorry to hear about the carnival experience. Even though it wasn't you... It's good to know that there are actually CCD's. And that others have them too. I guess I was just set up for a day like this, after having really good days much of the other time. Thanks for letting me know that I'm not alone on this one!
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 5, 2020 11:08:33 GMT -5
Been there done that! Jaspers are the worst, so many hairline fractures... Interesting you say that. The whole lot of my Holt Canyon Jasper is suspect. Some of the large pieces I cut on the saw, fractured when the slice hit the metal pan. I didn't see any obvious cracks. But a large number of my biggest and best Holt Canyon is heavily fractured to the point that I stopped slabbing it, and just threw it in to the yard. I can kind of tell by the weight of the chunk, or how it itself is fractured. I guess I'm learning.
My biggest fracture problems come from Agates though. I don't find a whole lot of Agate really. When I do, it is usually not too pretty; mostly grey. The pretty stuff, is some of the most fracture and crack prone stuff ever. So for me, I always think that Agate is brittle. I just don't find enough to know better I guess.
I have a large patch of a garden on one side of the house where I toss Agate pieces. I just gave up on the whole lot. Once in a while I'll walk by, and one of the semi-colorful pieces will stand out. I'll pick him up and give him a try, and usually end up with nothing but frustration.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Jun 5, 2020 11:11:51 GMT -5
Look not at what was lost or broken but at what was actually accomplished. Those cab might not be what you planned but they look great and you got those done. Thank you. I was hoping that someone would say something nice like that. Which is why I posted the lot. I hope I can use one of them some day too.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jun 5, 2020 19:35:09 GMT -5
Ah.. CCD. Its comforting to know that others have been there too. Thank you for sympathizing. You know something. Your idea of dropping a slab to see if it fractures or not is something that I did yesterday. I had 2 so so small slabs and dropped them both from a couple inches on the granite to see what they'd do. They both fractured in to smaller pieces. Oh well. I don't have enough experience to know if 99% of them would fracture or not. But I will probably do this with questionable pieces.
And Hxtal? That could be the best advice yet. I've finished cabs which had a small pit on them before, and decided no more material could afford to come off of it. So, I've dropped super glue on the spot, let it dry, and then finished the cab. But it doesn't dry clear. It's opaque. And kind of makes it worse actually so I don't use super glue any more. I will buy some Hxtal now. And maybe it will be like that automobile window repair stuff, which drys clear. Thank you!
Hxtal is museum grade and dries crystal clear. I will not yellow (at least for a hundred years or so and we'll all be worm food by then). It does take a while to dry, but you can put it under a light bulb to help cure it faster.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jun 5, 2020 19:51:32 GMT -5
Oh, I feel ya. I think we've all been there. But, like someone always points out- better to break now then when it's in a piece of jewelry. I know it doesn't make you feel any better, but it seems like it's a tradition to say it.
There will be better days. Thanks for sharing and reminding me of my losses. OK, maybe not thanks... exactly. What's interesting to me is something you wrote a long time ago once. When faced with a broken cab. You almost worded it the same. Better to have it break now, than to have it break after you sold it. And every time I have something unfortunate like this happen, those words pop in to my head. And I try to feel better about it somehow. I wish I could be optimistic all the time. But I am mostly a glass-half-empty person. Still, when something breaks this is always what pops in to my mind. Maybe some day it will sink in. Maybe more so if I am selling cabs or pendants. Thanks. I feel ya. The first time it happened to me, I heard the same advice and I wasn't quite sure it made me feel any better.
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Post by knave on Jun 5, 2020 19:54:16 GMT -5
Grind it into a colloidal tea and drink it, that would show that rock who is boss. JUST KIDDING don’t harm yourself.
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Post by drocknut on Jun 8, 2020 8:53:24 GMT -5
Look not at what was lost or broken but at what was actually accomplished. Those cab might not be what you planned but they look great and you got those done. Thank you. I was hoping that someone would say something nice like that. Which is why I posted the lot. I hope I can use one of them some day too. You're welcome. I know you'll be able to use them. You could even put glue on bails on them and they make great little pendants especially for kids.
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