Little confused

[MakkyBrown]

[JBK]

Incredible MB, thank you for the effort and time creating these. Cheers mate - i'll have a go now

[MakkyBrown]

You will probably need to cut over you other facets. I think it is P3 that needs to go. Notice I changed the girdle sequence.
This design perform really nicely better than the first one. I think at the L/W 1.18 you should get that out of your material.
I spy a typo in the instruction 25 instead of 24. You'll figure it out as I haven't proofed the instructions.

[JBK]

Thanks Mb- I think I got defeated by CZ🙃 didn't quite know how to align the gridle and then i overcut. Ah it was a great lesson.

[JBK]

I have tried 5 stones at once tonight, (still at the rough stage) Yellow CZ turned into round as well - it was a great experience MB and I've learned heaps about the machine and the stone, what to do and what not to do. Appreciate the mentoring mate.

[Faceting Frank]

That’s a lot of stones on the go already. Good idea in keeping them simple to start with, till you get used to your machine. So I take it the big clear one is quartz and the white lap you have in the photo is a brand new lucite lap with the covering still on it.

[JBK]

Hi Frank, yes I think I jump too fast (walking before crawling) not knowing yet how to operate the machine properly. But with more practice I will have another go at that design from MB😊. For now just getting use to simple angles and reading the dials. I attempted another round last night which I’ve stuffed up🙃.(more angles) so recutting it again to the simple design. As for the stones (quartz the big one yes, the others I have no idea, I’ve collected a few stones over the years - just picking through them to see what fits on the dop.

[Bucket]

JBK, it steep learning curve without tuition, have you thought about joining your closest lapidary club, if you can, they may have someone there that can help you grasp at least the basics and help you out.

[JBK]

Cheers Bucket, yes they are open backup on the 29th of Jan ( Goulburn Lapidary Club) planning on joining and learning the ropes from beginning - faceting course . I just couldn’t wait after getting the machine. Turns out there is so much to learn even before turning the machine on.


If they don’t have Halls machine, Ted mentioned there is one in Canberra Lapidary Club so May have to join that on e and do some courses after work.

[MakkyBrown]

Keep on trying JBH, maybe try and polish the next one. That last design I post has excellent performance in the CZ. Maybe dop back up the piece you haven't ground away  Best way to learn is have a go.

[JBK]

Lol, the part I didn’t grind off -🙃,, I kept that design and as soon as I feel a bit more comfortable I will definitely give it another shot. 👍


In the meantime I’m practising roundabouts.

[Rusted]

Don't worry too much what sort of machine Goulburn club has, you are learning how to do it, not necessarily how to do it using a particular machine. The skills you learn are easily transferred, you will strike a few peculiarities between different machines that will baffle you for the good part of half a minute.

[Bucket]

What Rusted said! Learning the basics on any machine will help you immensely with your Halls anyway. I learnt on a butchered Gemmaster at the club, but now own a Facetron, the theory is the same on both. The only one that would differ and I'd love to have a go at is an Imahashi which operates quite differently as it doesn't have a protractor, or even a VJ, which again, operates a little differently in the the protractor is not fixed to the quill. The basics still remain the same for all of them in relation to meet points, angles, indexes and the general process.

[JBK]

Supper, thanks gents, of to learning when the club opens😊