First go at Cabochons

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Colin&Lee

Colin&Lee
Joined
Feb 28, 2013
Messages
657
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Location
Canberra, ACT
Thought I'd stick up some pics of my first go at Cabbing :D

First couple are petrified wood and the other is some black opal potch with a bit of colour in it when viewed from the side

Cheers

Col

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Very nice Col, is that at the act lap club? I need to give you some stones next time I see you. :)
 
joe said:
Very nice Col, is that at the act lap club? I need to give you some stones next time I see you. :)

Sure is Joe, just finished their cabbing course. We will have to tee something up, looking for different materials to try out ;) . Also thinking of doing the faceting course they offer. Great bunch of folks very friendly and extremely helpfully can't speak highly enough of them.

Get into it Heatho mate, like most facets (pun intended) of our hobby totally addictive.

Might have to start a show and tell thread ;)

Cheers

Col
 
Colin&Lee said:
joe said:
Very nice Col, is that at the act lap club? I need to give you some stones next time I see you. :)

Sure is Joe, just finished their cabbing course. We will have to tee something up, looking for different materials to try out ;) . Also thinking of doing the faceting course they offer. Great bunch of folks very friendly and extremely helpfully can't speak highly enough of them.

Get into it Heatho mate, like most facets (pun intended) of out hobby totally addictive.

Might have to start a show and tell thread ;)

Cheers

Col

Yes nice bunch :) is Ted and Chris(muddy) still there?
 
I love that last piece of opal! Looks almost like a scene from Star Trek or something. Are you going to set it?

I'm working on a piece of tiger eye at the moment. I made the cab fairly high as I was told that chantoyancy is often displayed best with a higher curve. No polish yet, I just wet it for the photo. I'm still on the 220 paper, there are still one or two very small flat spots in it. The gold/copper coloured move beautifully across the surface when turned. Unfortunately, there are a couple of fairly large cracks that weren't visible at the surface when I started. Not sure how much it really detracts from the stone but it would have been nice if it were perfect.

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Living out of town, I'm going to have to get myself some cabbing equipment so I can practice daily - too far to go to go into the club more than about one night a week. I looked at bench grinders in Bunnings and a decent one with a 3 year warranty was pretty affordable. But I was told that being made to grind metal, they spin too fast for working stone. Lapidary wheels might not fit the spindle anyway. I looked on Aussie Sapphire's catalogue but even the most basic one is a grand, well over four times the price of something that seems to be the exact same thing but without "Lortone" or "Gemmaster" stamped on it. I think I'll have to try and chase up a second-hand one.
 
Greglz86 said:

Cheers Greg - I would love that, though I have to make a decision as to which one to try to scratch the money together to get. I want to learn faceting and it makes sense since I have 2 sapphire claims and you don't cab sapphire unless it is a star. At the same time, I'm enjoying learning cabbing and have no shortage of material available for that.

What to do.......... :/
 

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