faceting machine question

just like to know if anyone in here has built a faceting machine yet . if so how did it go ?is it use full was it from a set of plans ?
because i would love to have a crack at doing some gem cutting but the cost of machines plus the rest of the gear is scary , just about as bad as setting up a small machine shop by the looks of it . although with a mill and a lathe purchase that is just the start cos its all the tooling that costs as much or more than the machines did.
there is no real close lapidary club to me , i think the closest would be inverell about bit over an hour and half away .
johno

Hello John,

Um the basics to build a faceting machine isnt that dificult. Its what you see, thats all. The difficulties from a ''to build'' machine is more the accuracy. With a bit of machinery you can build a machine cheap but it depends on your accuracy of your lathe and mill. Its quiet fun to build one yourself :- ) i have fun from it building one! But uhm im doing it full digitally.

Hehehehe the close lapidary club at this place is about 300km away here. lol

Tip! Get a good flat base for your machine!!! And measure everything with your micrometer what you will make.

Greets,

Christian

Yes, they can be a bit on the expensive side to buy, especially new. But you might score a reasonably-priced second-hand on on Gumtree or somewhere.

But for whatever it's worth, my advice to both texta and also to Christian would be to learn how to use something before attempting to build one. I can appreciate that seems difficult in both of your situations by the sounds.

I am almost completely self-taught and have no background in engineering or machinist trades. Yet I have successfully taken to applying the art - you guys are both machinists so I think you would pick up the knack relatively quickly. After all, it's basically just machining little tiny rocks

Also (talking to Christian here) - are you interested in faceting at all? Faceting is a craft and art form with roots dating back centuries. It's a form of human expression, as are all the lapidary arts and skill sets. If your goal is to build a machine to remove the human being from the human expression form, then it doesn't sound like you have any real interest in the art at all - would it matter to you if your robot produced cut gems, or spark plugs or microprocessors any other kind of widget as long as it could be sold?

So I'm not sure if you can facet Christian - your post above plus the fact that I've never seen you post anything about it (as in, done by humans) in all the time you've been here makes it seem not, though I could be mistaken. Why don't you do what I did - get yourself a faceting machine and teach yourself the art. If a donkey like me can successfully do it then surely someone like yourself who is clever with machining and clever with their hands will learn it even more quickly.

I don't mean to sound offensive - I just think it's a good idea to involve yourself in an old art form, learn it and make a contribution to it, rather than trying to replace it through automation. You could have taught yourself to facet ten times over by now.

Go on - it really isn't that hard

Cheers

Hi Lefty,

Shure, it has been a while that i have cutted a tourmaline, if learned cutting at my 14th with my dad, it wasnt that hard ? The first stones warent that greath but by trying and trying and trying i managed to make some nice facetted stones. The thing with the machine im building is more to combine all my hobby's together, electronics, chemistry, microscopy, programming and robotics to get back to one hobby and that is cutting shiny little facetted stones. Even i have a an simple faceting machine. Also a home made one, my dad made that one when i was young. The last past 20 years i search for stones in Germany and serounding areas. But in the meanwhile i got married and have a dougther and had nothing special to do so i started to build a litle machine lol.

But i also will make a secondary machine, a smaller one like my dad has done but with some tools i also use in the robotics. There still are some small things i need to learn and test but that will also work on the one from my dad.

Im just currioua if i can manage to cut a stone automaticly and if it can be done as a diy

Dont worry im also a fast lerner! And im not going to quit so easely! I know ill get some difficulties but i dont care. We shall see if it all is heart breaking or not we shall see if i can program my skills into an automatic cnc faceting machine or that i could do it better with hand i realise that the eye and with feeling the cutting is going better but this is for me just a experiment and also a hobby

Christian

Your proposition is entirely feasible, essentially you just need to enable movement in 3 directions. The key to success is to have them all tuned to the plane of the lap. Most machines on the market rely on the baseplate being true to the lap during the manufacturing process and they also rely on the mast being true to the baseplate. Across the lap trueness is tunable on some machines.

I have seen a few different types of machines and ease of adjustability and ability to cut to precise depth at a fixed angle are the differentiators along with motor power/speed/noise. Dop stick transfer and centering is another important factor.

If time is money, a cost/benefit analysis would point to a second hand machine.

If your time is free or you love to create - go for it.