Recent Posts

I started out on SC wheels 50 years ago this year. Back in those days diamond wheels were very expensive. Especially the coarser grit diamond wheels.

Used SC wheels from 1971 - 1977. Then bought my first diamond wheels from Roy Greene at Gem Crafters. Found diamond wheels to be much faster, cleaner and safer. Also much less chance of contamination. With using SC you really have to make sure to wash the cabochons off well between grits to prevent contaminating the finer grit wheels, belts and pads.

There is nothing wrong with using SC wheels as a less expensive alternative when getting started. And if you like cabbing while using SC wheels then you'll love cabbing when you move on to diamond wheels. And if you find that you don't really enjoy cabbing then you've saved yourself some cash in learning so.

I've bought many lapidary machines (usually faceting machines)over the years from people, or the estates of people, who thought they would enjoy lapidary and went out and bought some of the best and most expensive equipment available at the time only to find that after a few uses for one reason or another they didn't want to do it anymore and let the equipment sit in their basement or garage unused for years - often decades. I loved finding old machines in barely used condition but can't help but feel for the expensive lesson these folks had to live with.

Sorry for the ramble, but anyhow, when using SC it's really important to remember to let the grinding wheels spin dry after each use before turning the machine off. Otherwise they will dry from the top down and if the machine is turned back on while the wheels are wetter at the bottom then the wheel will be out of balance. And using it this way will get it out of round which usually results in them being permanently out of balance.

For cabbing high silica content stones like quartz, agate, jasper, opal, etc., I use cerium oxide slurry on damped hard felt. For cabbing most of the softer stones like turquoise, chrysocolla, malachite, howlite, tigeriron, etc., I use *aluminum oxide slurry on slightly dampened suede leather.

Linde "A", Linde "B", Raybrite, and Sapphire Powder are all forms of aluminum oxide.

I think that Thunderbird Supply still buys scrap silver. I haven't purchased any precious metals for a few years now but when I did I preferred doing business with Thunderbird over Rio for purchasing sheet and casting silver.

Larry C.

I purchased two Covington 20" saws some years back and both had the same problem. I tried soaking with Kroil for several days with no luck. I eventually had to heat the threaded flange nuts on both saws that holds the blade on to make it expand enough to let loose of the saw blade.

If you try this, to reduce the risk of a fire hazard just make sure to REMOVE ALL OIL and CLEAN ALL OIL RESIDUE OUT OF THE SAW before using a torch to break the flange nut loose. And even after doing that I still draped water dampened towels down the inside sides of the saw's oil reservoirs and underneath the blades in the bottom of the reservoirs just to play it safe. Old oil can eventually dry to a hard substance in a saw that has sat unused for a long time, but it can still be flammable. So if possible it would be best to do this outdoors.

Good Luck!


Larry C.

If I were primarily only going to do tumbling then I would get a Rock Rascal Model "T" combo unit and put a 60 or 80gt diamond wheel on the right side to use for preforming.

And with this unit if you ever get the urge to try cabbing you can get additional grits of grinding and sanding wheels to swap out through the grinding and sanding stages of cabbing - plus a spin-on aluminum disc with a hard felt or suede leather pad for polishing.

It takes more time and effort cabbing when you have to change wheels at every grit stage than it does with a multi wheel arbor but that is what has always been done with all of the flat lap cabbing units. The time loss of having to change wheels can be offset by doing larger batches of cabs at each stage.

Used Rock Rascal model "T" units turn up on eBay from time to time. And Johnson Bros Lapidary sells them new. If buying new I would buy it without the motor. IMO they have the motor mounted too close to the machine plus you can save a few bucks finding your own 1/3hp 1725rpm motor (which is a very common size motor and fairly easy to find a used one cheap).

Update:
All auctions have now ended and the buyers have been invoiced.
Thank you everyone!

Larry C.

Once the fluid oil/sludge is drained, a layer of kitty litter (the plain kind - not the dyed and scented stuff) can be poured into the saw reservoir and mixed with the remaining sludge. This makes cleaning it out much easier. You can then scoop most of the sludge/kitty litter mixture out with a wide putty knife. Then a spritzer bottle with WD-40, a stiff nylon bristle brush, and terrycloth rags makes pretty quick work of the final cleaning.

Larry C.

Update: All auctions have now ended and the buyers have been invoiced. Thank you everyone!






Tonight (Tuesday) I listed thirty-five lots of slabs and cabochon pre-forms including several types of picture jasper; Chicken Track, Gunnery Point, Starry Night, Rocky Butte, Cripple Creek, scenic Polychrome, Succor Creek, and more.

Also lots of other types of Jasper; Ocean Jasper, Morgan Hill Poppy, Guadalupe Poppy, red Owyhee Dendritic, and more.

And Agates too; Burro Creek, Agua Nueva, Dryhead, KY Agate, Red Laguna Lace, plus a few other varieties of Mexican lace agates.

Plus Dino Bone, Victoria Stone, Rhodochrosite and more.

All of these listings are now on eBay as 3-Day auctions, so all bidding will end this Friday evening. All lots have a starting bid of $9.99 and with no reserves. If interested you may view these listings at the following link:

tinyurl.com/y8yclau6

Or if for some reason this link doesn't work for you then you can find my listings by doing an eBay advanced search for seller QuailRiver. Thanks for looking!

Larry C.

I had a message this morning about this arbor that made me realize I probably need to add more information. So Below are two photos of an identical Poly Arbor with the dimensions imposed on them.

As equipped, this model Poly Arbor is ideal to use for making a flat lap cabbing machine or dedicated cabochon polishing machine. Or an 8" or smaller diameter bladed saw. But for anything with larger than 8" diameter discs/wheels/blades you'll need larger flange washers.

And while many of the older model faceting machines had smaller diameter platens (this Poly Arbor has a 1-3/4" diameter platen/flange washer). When faceting, a larger platen like what is used on modern faceting machines will help reduce lap wobble and lap run-out. And will improve the repeatability of your machine.





Larry C.