Gemmasta rebuild

[Wally69]

Had an epic day today in the Rough2cut workshop.

Barney and I spent the day with Anthony machining and tuning our brand-new 30 year old gemmasta machines back into fine examples of modern day faceting equipment.

Anthony, once again, imparted his years of knowledge and engineering skills on us and our machines. The process has been captured on video and may hit the YouTube halls of fame in the near future.

I learnt a great deal and am now confident that I have a finely tuned machine that has been milled to run true and overhauled to take out the years of loose movement in the moving parts. Ill need to find another excuse for shoddy facets now. :8

I would recommend contacting Rough2cut to anyone that has an old gemasta and is looking at getting it humming like new again.

Thanks Anthony, I had a great day.

 

[Heatho]

That's great Wally, the stones you've been cutting were already looking great, should make everything much nicer to use now.

 

[Wally69]

That's great Wally, the stones you've been cutting were already looking great, should make everything much nicer to use now.

It should help a lot Heath, the fine tuning of the index/quill mechanism alone should have a big impact on getting a perfectly flat facet with sharp meet points.

Machining the base plates on the machine and stands should reduce spiral and ensure opposite faces are cut more consistantly. Both Barney's and my machines were out by a tenth of a millimetre over the length of the machine, when combined with the mast plate's minor angle the combined improvement should do wonders.

Both machines had a bit of casting warp and some aluminium oxidisation, mine also had a few dings and gouges in the machined surfaces that impacted on balance and squareness.

I plan on giving the machine a good run and then looking at upgrading to a bigger drive motor and speed controller as the factory motors tend to slow down under just a bit of finger pressure. The noise difference in the upgrade Anthony did last week on one of his student machines is remarkable. Maybe I should buy the Mrs the upgrade for Mother's Day. :lol:

 

[Heatho]

Perfect Mothers Day pressie mate, I'm sure the missus will get the benefit of having plenty of beautiful gems precision and personally cut for her. How could she complain about that.

 

[Wally69]

This one should do the trick, love my new 30yo pre-former :lol:

 

[silver]

Capture the rainbow Wally, capture the rainbow !

 

[Heatho]

This one should do the trick, love my new 30yo pre-former :lol:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1916/1461539309_image.jpg

Mate, that preformer does a fantastic job, would save plenty of time and the inaccuracies of preforming by hand, if I was faceting I wouldn't do it any other way. Will probably have to buy a faceting machine sooner or later and learn this black art.

 

[Mr Magoo]

This one should do the trick, love my new 30yo pre-former :lol:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1916/1461539309_image.jpg

What have you got there? Padparadscha?

It looks exactly the colour I'm working with.

 

[Wally69]

This one should do the trick, love my new 30yo pre-former :lol:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1916/1461539309_image.jpg

What have you got there? Padparadscha?

It looks exactly the colour I'm working with.

I wish it was Padparascha, I am hopeful I have one decent stone I found that fits that category.

I am not confident enough to tackle top end rocks yet, not sure what the marketing name for this stone is but i believe it is a heat treated amethyst, great colour though, I understand it is a much brighter in colour than the usual result.

Saw one Barney transformed and just had to have a go.

 

[Wally69]

 

[Heatho]

I reckon you'd cut a nice Sapphire now mate, gotta try one sooner or later.

 

[Mr Magoo]

This one should do the trick, love my new 30yo pre-former :lol:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1916/1461539309_image.jpg

What have you got there? Padparadscha?

It looks exactly the colour I'm working with.

I wish it was Padparascha, I am hopeful I have one decent stone I found that fits that category.

I am not confident enough to tackle top end rocks yet, not sure what the marketing name for this stone is but i believe it is a heat treated amethyst, great colour though, I understand it is a much brighter in colour than the usual result.

Saw one Barney transformed and just had to have a go.

Same here, not quite there to 'real' expensive stones myself either, although I'm looking at some champagne garnet as a step up (about $17ct) . The one I have is just synthetic. The colour very close to your heat treated amethyst.

 

[Wally69]

The end result :lol:

 

[Mr Magoo]

I hoped to hit the 'like' button Wally69. But apparently 'Prospecting Australia' considers that a 'nonce error'????

I like.

edit: It's a nonce no longer. Life is great again