On my way to faceting

[shivan]

I picked up a faceting machine a little while ago from the lapidary club. It was a bit beat up and did not come with any dops or laps but it ran and i got it cheap.
Found out that it takes 7.9 mm dops which are not sold anywhere, so i have started machining a few with the help of my old man. Still need lots of bits and pieces, but i am getting there.
Made myself a drip tank today and had a bit of a muck around with the cutting discs i have and a bit of garnet.

[nuggethill]

What a great effort Ian good luck with the cutting
also I'm in the same position with my lap
I need to set it up (motor and lap) also it needs a new drive belt
mine came with 5 laps and about 40 gemmaster dops.
regards Harry

[shivan]

Cheers Harry. Its rough but seems to do the basics.
My machine needed a belt as well, but i was given some poly chord as a belt for the saw. So i pinched a piece of that till i can get a bench to mount the saw.
I only have a few cutting discs at the moment, but figure i can do a little shaping and playing till i save enough for some polishing laps. The dop sticks are my headache at the moment, not sure i would know what to do with myself if i had a set of 40

Hope you manage to get it up and running.

[nuggethill]

Mate there are thirty two dops not forty

the last one on the left is one I brought from A.S.

these are the laps that came with the machine

cheers Harry

[jeffu]

Wow, way to go Ian.

Keep promising myself a faceting machine "oneday" trouble is "oneday never seems to get here.

Well done mate, can't wait to see the cut stones.

Jeff

[shivan]

Harry, looks like you have a decent set of dops, even if there are 32 rather than 40. Interesting that you have two different sizes of laps.

Jeff, i was very lucky to get this machine cheap from the club. I was just going to use it as a flat lap, as i was under the impression it was no good for faceting, but everything seems to work ok. Just a little more difficult to source the bits i need.

[Flying Scott]

I advertised my faceting machine here early last year, going for what I considder a bargain, full set of laps, many dipsticks of varying sizes diamond cutting compound,
dop transfer block, leaflets on how to cut various cuts, also chart for the angles of the gems, everything I regards to faceting including hundreds of gemstones that can be cut

[nuggethill]

Yes I'm still interested Scotty but will be another few week before I can head South mate
does it come with a table Scotty is it already set up
regards Harry

[shivan]

I remember you were talking about selling your machine Scott, but did not think you got any further.
Sounds like Harry is on the case though

[Flying Scott]

It's got everything you need even a table with a drawer to hold your bits and pieces. bucket full of stones to play with, some good cutters some for practice
when cutting gemstones, remember 2 words = meet point.
there was a guy in USA that wrote some handy pointers when cutting, he is probably dead now, his name, Robert Stricland.
I have my own method of cutting I start with the table then the crown, where others recommend starting with "pavilion"

[mushmouse]

Looks like you all setup for the winter months Shivan. Good to have a past time like that when its too cold to go out.
Love the drip tank.
" ..Honey.??..have you seen the drink...oh....never mind.... "

[shivan]

This was my third attempt at the drip tank. The milk and cordial bottles were too thin and flimsy, but the juice jug was just right...
Its just a good thing we don't get juice to often

[Flying Scott]

Another bit of useless information.
Many of the earlier faceting machines came with an index gear of 64,which in my opinion is pretty useless. If that's what you have try and get yourself a 96 index.
You can cut more designs with a 96.
Quartz has a pavilion index of 45 which is an easy and in expensive stone to experiment with.
If you ever want advice I'll be here for a while yet
Flying Scott

[nuggethill]

Scotty I left you a few massages
as I need to know your address
if you still want to sell your lap

[shivan]

Cheers for the info Scott. The only index gear that came with it was a 96 so i must have got lucky. I have a few bits of quartz, but mostly little specimens that are not really any good to facet. I do have a large chunk of amethyst that i may be able to get a couple of cuttable bits from.

I only have four dops at the moment and only one 4 mm flat. So i can only muck about with smaller stones for now.
I had a play with 3 dark included garnets, just to get a feel for the accuracy of the machine, which was a good thing as it has been a bit of a learning curve. My protractor is out so i have got myself a cheap digital magnetic one for now. I also found out it is really important to keep all the nuts that make the mast go up and down tight or there is a couple of degree difference that goes for the slide too
So i managed to cut one of the three into a round brilliant shape, but none of the facets lined up and the table was wonky

After i figured i had ironed out most of the angle issues i started a small square, it was basic but with a few cuts that were 0.2 degree difference. I figured i would get an idea of how accurate i could get. I managed to cut the facets, but they were more parallel than they should have been, although not too bad. Just have it in the transfer jig to try and do the table and the crown, so will see how it comes up.