neural
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2019
Posts: 114
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Post by neural on Apr 13, 2021 17:40:11 GMT -5
I finally am able to get back to working with stone. I decided to start with a larger piece, as it's easier on the fingers and my eyes (still need to buy some different lenses for my optivisor). Started as rough cut slab, and went up through 3000, but due to some problems with my old polishing pads it only came out to around 800 or so, but it's ready for a bezel and bale! Ok...humor aside... This is a marble counter slab I picked up for $20 back in 2010. The front side is a bit dinged up from use and has a pit in it from a problem on one of our cross country moves. The back was rough cut marble that probably had been smoothed to a bare minimum, so I decided to break out my ancient velcro marble/granite sanding pads and attack it by hand. Roughly 24 x 36 in size.... yeah.. my arms are going to hurt tomorrow. My 800, 1200, and 3000 grit pads turned the entire surface and water green, so the end polish isn't that great as the green pretty much means the pads are exhausted of their use, or just so old that they are falling apart. Overall I think it's got somewhere between 400 and 800 grit which is plenty useful for what I need. going to use the existing holes, plus drill a couple more, then try and chamfer them. then it gets bolted to my work bench as the main work surface upon which I will have all my soldering boards (ceramic one, solderite, etc.) It's good to be working with stone again. I still have to fuss with wood a bit to build the rest of my lapidary and soldering station, but for however brief this moment in time is for me, I am going to try and enjoy it. So happy to be back at it.
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Post by jasoninsd on Apr 13, 2021 17:50:11 GMT -5
I think there's a ton of us on here who would kill to have something like that as our workbench surface!! I can't wait to see the wire wrap you put on that thing!
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neural
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2019
Posts: 114
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Post by neural on Apr 13, 2021 18:41:32 GMT -5
I think there's a ton of us on here who would kill to have something like that as our workbench surface!! I can't wait to see the wire wrap you put on that thing! Polished 1/2" rebar for sure.
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hummingbirdstones2
fully equipped rock polisher
Vince A., 1958-2023
Member since August 2018
Posts: 1,461
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Post by hummingbirdstones2 on Apr 14, 2021 18:23:00 GMT -5
Good to see you getting limbered up. We know you'll be working on smaller rocks pretty soon... .
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on Apr 15, 2021 18:47:16 GMT -5
Nice! I love marble and have a large chunk of blue (not really blue, but more of a shaded gray) marble I collected in Rutland Vermont years ago. Hmm never thought to cut it up and cab it.
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