Cutting open thundereggs

Does anyone have advice to give on how I should go about doing this? I have about 50 or so with about 7 being baseball size, the rest smaller of course. They came from Mt. Tamborine but their cost for cutting them was simply too high. I remember in the past I had a few done with just an angle grinder but I imagine that's probably not very wise in terms of safety so I was thinking maybe visiting my local lapidary club? Bit sketched out about that though because I wouldn't know what to say/ask :lol: . Any responses are appreciated

Don't be scared to visit your local club and ask the worst they can say is no (or try to get you to join the club ), but most of the people i have meet from clubs are very friendly and approachable. At our club the cutting cost is about 20c per square inch from memory, but it will be different from club to club i guess.

If you are anywhere near Nowra i would be happy to cut a few open for you.

Thanks for the response Shivan. Nowra isn't particularly close to me (about two hours away) but I have been wanting to visit kangaroo valley so I won't completely rule it out . Though visiting the local club does sound a lot more appealing now, I'll probably give it a geeze after minerama

Hi you can buy a tile cutter saw and cut them yourself about $200
mond

I was looking at a few tile cutters but the cheaper ones seemed to not accomodate the size I require. I could be wrong about that though as it was just a quick glance that I had :lol:

Hey Riley,

Took the kids to The Crystal Caves in Atherton NQ a few years ago and we cracked a few geodes there.

Have a look at www.crystalcaves.com.au and open up the header "The Crystal Caves Museum Atherton"
, "The Shop", then "Crack a Geode". You will see a photo of a couple of kids on the pipe clamp devise that they use to crack open the geodes. They have it adjusted so it only exerts enough pressure on them to crack the geode without shattering it completely. You will also see a couple of videos of tjis in action.

Not sure if this method would be suitable for thunder eggs though.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Doug

Thundereggs can have hollows and crystal pockets, but more often than not are solid all the way through, so trying to crack them may not have the desired effect and could ruin a good specimen.

Tile saws are great for cutting small stones and slabs, but are not much good when you start getting bigger that 2-3 inches in my opinion. You can get away with doing a few larger stones, but don't expect the blade or machine to cope with too much. I killed my first tile saw after about 8-9 cuts trying to cut open rocks too big.
A tile saw may be fine for your smaller eggs, but the larger ones may give it a bit of a workout.

The local lapidary club should be able to happily help.

If the thunder egg is still too big you may have to tap the edge with a screwdriver and hammer.

Below is a big egg from Mt Hay.

Thundereggs for me has always been like fossicking twice... you get the thrill of the find and then you get to open them up definitely will be visiting the local club after minerama, wouldn't mind getting into lapidary work either

Just take care cutting the Thunder Eggs. If you use a saw that is not cooled you may fracture the centre. Also a dry saw will tend to over heat the surface of the cut resulting in thousands of tiny surface fractures that will be nearly impossible to get out if you should decide to polish them on a flat lap.
Lapidary clubs are the best and safest option. The geode is best held in a secure rock vice, free handing with an angle grinder is fraught with danger.

Hope this helps