Recent content by johnful

Very nice work there Sneaky. I mainly facet and haven't done the metalwork/casting yet. I do have some topaz. The most interesting one was a gravel find. Found in in a batch of gravel used for landscaping the back yard. 43ct. It's greenish/yellow. Traced the gravel back to a quarry in Alabama...

Hi Debbie, I couldn't figure out where to put the switch. There's not much room. I'll try and find a smaller one. Here's the sunstone. Excuse the bad iPhone picture. Turns out it had quite a bit of Schiller deeper in. The chiller runs in bands right across the crown It has almost a tiger eye...

Hi Debbie, This is a meh Sunstone I was testing with. Weak color and only a tiny bit of Schiller. It's just a 16 sided brilliant so I can test the accuracy of the adjustments to my machine. 600 mesh to rough it out, but you can see the cuts are dead on. I'll try and finish the pavilion today...

Hi Debbie, Given that the screw turns when adjusting, you might be missing the lock washer. You should be able to find one at Lowes or Home Depot for a few cents. It'll stop the screw from turning as you adjust the knob on the other side. The rubber washer under the knob keeps it from vibrating...

Hi Debbie, More pictures of the hard stop. Looks like a little lock washer on the bottom where the screw goes in and a rubber washer right below the coarse adjustment knob. Does yours look like this? J

I think it's I'll need to mount the switch above the speed control. I need to check clearance before I drill a hole

Hi Debbie, Got tired of waiting for the switch at Grainger to come in. I found a suitable one at Home Depot. It cost about $6. I'll try wiring it up this afternoon and post some instructions. J

Hi Debbie, Before you fabricate a new brake, there's a screw on the bottom side that goes into the course adjustment knob which is on the top. Try putting a little thin washer in there and see if it helps. If it does, you can take the screw out, grind it down slightly so its a little shorter...

Hi Debbie, The local Grainger had to order the switch. Hope to have it this coming week. You have to look close at the Sunstone to see the schiller. The darker the color, the more they seem to have. I've cut a few; I'll have to find the pictures. They come out fairly nice. Oddly, when you cut...

Hi Wally, I also have a lot of old material collected when I was a kid growing up on the west coast of the US. I "inherited" a lot of it when my dad passed away. One summer, when I was 12 I think, we went to Plush Oregon and collected sunstones. I have a few quart jars of them. Here's some of...

Hi Wally, You find any good sapphires? I have some sapphires and some rubies from North Carolina. Mostly on the small side. Many are display quality crystals and a few are facet grade. J

Hi Wally and Whisp, I tinker a lot. So much so that my wife won't call a handyman but insists I do it. It eats a lot of my time that is not otherwise consumed by my silli-con valley tech company day job. What little time I have left, I focus on hobbies like rock hunting and faceting. I also...

Hi Debbie, I have not been to William Holland yet. I have a hard time finding the time due to work. That said, I belong to the Augusta Gem and Mineral Society, which gives out two "scholarships" a year to William Holland. Many of the club members have been there. J

Hi Debbie, This is the one I found at Grainger. I still have to go pick it up. It's snowing (in the deep south) now, so it'll probably be tomorrow or Friday before I go get it.

Hi Debbie, The material from Graves Mountain is very dark. I usually cut a flat back and just cut a crown on it. Very metallic looking. When you cut it, the swarf is red. J