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« Last post by Lanzeyrion on September 18, 2024, 05:31:38 PM »
Hello, Great find  ! The agate master is a superb machine, very robust. I'm also interested in plans if anyone has, or even just photos of how the protractor works, if anyone needs to disassemble the mechanical case to grease it... Have a nice day, Etienne
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« Last post by Bucket on September 15, 2024, 12:23:11 PM »
It figures with the zircons, they would probably be the softest of the three you mentioned. Sounds like Armfest have you covered, good luck with the current lot!
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« Last post by Johba on September 14, 2024, 04:09:16 PM »
Bucket, we
Lost a little from the sapphires these were mixed also with Spinel, zircons. The sapphires we have were green, light green blue, light blue with clear and red
Zircons. The Zircons have worn most of all. I contacted Carol from Armfest to ask as she put me onto the tumbling process, she advised that they need at
Least 3 weeks for each grit size.
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« Last post by Bucket on September 13, 2024, 09:16:05 PM »
Just out of curiosity, did you loose much size on the first lot you did? At the club with assorted gemstones, we usually do around a week per grit, with good results, but some stones (obviously the softer ones) end up quite a bit smaller. With the hardness of the sapphire, I'm wondering how much size you lost during the extra time you had them on.
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« Last post by Johba on September 13, 2024, 12:23:21 PM »
Thanks Mate, I am currently on the second week of the #8000 grit the sapphires and spinel are well rounded with a dull shine will take your advise and run through the spectrum of grits that I have, it does look like that I need to run 3 weeks per grit then 24hr rinse between.
What diamond grit I have - #600, #3000, #8000 and #100,000
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« Last post by Bucket on September 12, 2024, 04:05:08 PM »
I'm really not sure, 100,000 grit should be fine enough to polish sapphire so the only thing I can think of is that maybe you need something between. It's a fairly big jump from 600 to 100K I'd look closely at your results from the current lot you have on and see if that makes a difference. I know with faceting that jumping that much between grits wouldn't give me the desired results. How long do you have left on the ones you have in? I assume that the stones are waterworn when you start, if they are I would look closely at 600, 1200, 3000, and then 100k. You should inspect the stones and wash them thoroughly between grits, any transference will contaminate the next step and your results will be poor. The stones after the 3000 (maybe even the 1200) should display at least a dull shine. As I said, I've not tumbled sapphire before myself, I'm basing these comments on my experience with general tumbling. I know with agate (hardness around 7 ish) after 1200 it shows a semi shine. Sapphire is a lot harder (9) and should also be displaying a semi or dull shine around that girt.
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« Last post by Johba on September 11, 2024, 06:52:22 PM »
Hey Bucket we have a series of diamond grit through the tumbler with what sapphire’s we have for 6 weeks in total time through the following grits. #600 for 3 weeks, then 2 weeks on #100,000. The sapphires have come out nice and rounded but have dulled. Should I run these through some intermediate grit? I have another lot tumbling now and have been through 2 weeks on the #3000 grit then we will try #8000 grit for 2/3 weeks then the final 2/3 weeks on the 100,000 grit.
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« Last post by Alaskan on September 09, 2024, 02:47:28 AM »
Corian laps for my final polish of 3 - 8 - 14 then 50k with Yamaha saxophone oil - on smaller facets start with 3000/oil on 8" Corian. Using a tried and true 600 then 1200 or 1500 for final preforms.
Thanks, Frank.
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The "flutter" on the dial gauge is from the laps. My reply 137 on this thread goes into some detail on how I minimize it. The finest of your diamond cutting laps is the most important one, it will be the lap you are getting all your meet points finished.
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« Last post by Alaskan on September 07, 2024, 10:41:09 AM »
FFrank, is this 'flutter' you and we are all experiencing - (me on the dial indicator) - coming from the machine or the lap?
My current cutting is going slow - new spectacles were ground wrong or the material is faulty - segmented and blurry.
Went to the competition who arrive every other week for a 2nd opinion - new prescription on order and this guy dialed me in - awesome.
Just finished the Pavilion on AB's Supernova in yellow zircon - epoxy cured by now - saw and separate tomorrow for crown after 48 hours.
The green sapphire that finished at .85 cwt was encouraging ~ 25% nice clue as to expected loss.
Where did that go?
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