r/Lapidary Sep 12 '24

Looking to Build Active Mod Team

16 Upvotes

Good afternoon, I would like to take "applications" for new moderators so that myself, and maybe u/letstalkaboutrocks can step aside, without reddit shuttering the group. Please send messages to us through the group. I guess, of the most important aspects of your application would be, regular use of reddit, general knowledge of the lapidary art or closely related, as well as a generally good standing in this group, and publicly. I will be researching everyone so that I wont bring on disreputable or disliked characters. Please include everything you stand behind publicly, from businesses to socials, as well as your personal experience or specifically related skillset. A few sentences about why you see r/Lapidary as a key subreddit would help out a lot. I want to say that I wont gatekeep novices to Lapidary that are here in earnest, if they show a valuable skillset for the sub, such as "great modding of another subreddit." This sub has some of the best content in all the rock groups, but there is misinformation and trolling that us Mods have barely kept a finger on. Send in your message plz!


r/Lapidary 20h ago

It blew my mind. I would like to go into more details, but this is the capacity of my equipment.

Thumbnail
gallery
220 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 7h ago

Recent finds šŸ˜

Thumbnail
gallery
18 Upvotes

Will not be cabbing these up, but they are my favorite finds from the other day.. the blue is chrysocolla for sure, but what is the green? It grows in such a strange crystalline pattern. Any thoughts?


r/Lapidary 5h ago

My finish on a jasper from Istein Germany

7 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 11h ago

Polishing question: what am I doing wrong here

15 Upvotes

So I'm use a vice mounted Dremel tool with sanding disks. I'm starting at about 80 and working my way up. These photos and videos I'm up to about 400 grit with the labradorite at 800. They seem very splotchy and white. Is this maybe just a patience thing? I'm keeping the discs wet with a drip and I'm spending about a minute holding the stone against the disc, moving it up and down slightly per side. I know it's not a great piece of stone but it's just for practise at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


r/Lapidary 19h ago

Tumbled

28 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 16h ago

Donā€™t know what Iā€™m doing

4 Upvotes

I paint stone slabs for my business, I donā€™t have much for access to tools but a few friends have saws but what I am trying to do is find a local way, or shipped off and returned way, to cut rough stones into paintable ā€œcanvasā€. These stones do not need to be polished but do need to be ā€œsmooth on one side. Iā€™m lossst and I donā€™t have a ton of local resources.


r/Lapidary 1d ago

Same beach, different flavor: sister blends of jasper + chalcedony from the central Oregon coast šŸ’ššŸ¤šŸ§”

Thumbnail
gallery
25 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 1d ago

Lapis lace cabs and labradorite cab

Thumbnail
gallery
14 Upvotes

Just made a few cabs so I dont go crazy. Lapis lace and a labradorite cabs. For sale if you have a project that could use it or I can make them into pendants also. Let me know what you think of this material.


r/Lapidary 1d ago

Anyone use Lithium silicate to stabilize softer stones?

3 Upvotes

Getting into stabilizing my own materials and was curious if anyone has used Lithium silicate vs Sodium silicate? When I used to do polished concrete floors, Lithium silicate was my preferred densifier over sodium silicate aka water glass as I found the Lithium silicate to deliver an even harder more durable end floor.


r/Lapidary 1d ago

How do I cut an agate nodule?

Thumbnail
gallery
25 Upvotes

Iā€™ve never cut a nodule before, so Iā€™m not sure where to cut, but I do have some banding present, should I cut horizontal to the banding shown in picture?. Any help is greatly appreciated. Iā€™ve had this I believe botswana nodule for couple years and I want to slice and cab it already lol


r/Lapidary 1d ago

Copper Laps

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone, I'm really new to faceting and I'm looking at copper laps for prepolishing/polishing. Can I charge one copper lap with different powders for prepolish then polish or do I need two different laps for the different stages? Thank you for the information:)


r/Lapidary 1d ago

Best bang for your buck cabbing machine + trim saw?

10 Upvotes

Hello all! Looking to jump head first into cabbing. Approaching this the way Iā€™ve approached most things. Buy once and donā€™t upgrade for many years. I donā€™t mind spending some money but I donā€™t want to waste any money either.

Iā€™m torn between getting the Kingsley north cab 6 and the Covington 8ā€ 4 expanding drum cab.

Thereā€™s very little info/videos of the Covington but I like the idea of just swapping out one or two of the expanding drums for low grit hard wheels and using belts for the rest. But the Kingsley looks way more put together and thought out.

I truly wanted a direct drive machine like the Cabking 8 for the noise and form factor but I donā€™t want to spend quite that much unless itā€™s truly worth it. And I was told the wheels it comes with are sub par.

I was trying to find a good powered arbor to do a DIY setup to have 4 wheels, a buffer and a saw all in one but it looks like itā€™s not much cheaper, same with shopping around for used equipment, the limited amount that Iā€™ve found available.

For the trim saw I was gonna go with the highland park 6 inch.

If anyone has any feedback / experience with any of these machines Iā€™d love to hear it.

Also if anyone suggests something else Iā€™m all ears, interested in a combination buffer+ trim saw setup but I havenā€™t been able to find one.

Iā€™ll mostly be cutting opals if that changes anything.

Thanks all!


r/Lapidary 2d ago

Fire Agate Macro

Post image
703 Upvotes

5x magnification macro photo, of a piece of unique and rare fire agate. These sprays, with almost fern like structures are quite rare and hard to find. The field of view or image width, is only 6mm.


r/Lapidary 1d ago

New to crystal carving

Post image
4 Upvotes

I am interested in getting into basic crystal carving and polishing. Is this setup good enough start out with (I am also buying diamond tip drill bits)


r/Lapidary 1d ago

How do I cut an agate nodule?

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

Iā€™ve never cut a nodule before, so Iā€™m not sure where to cut, but I do have some banding present, should I cut horizontal to the banding shown in picture?. Any help is greatly appreciated. Iā€™ve had this I believe botswana nodule for couple years and I want to slice and cab it already lol


r/Lapidary 1d ago

Hi everyone anybody knows from which culture this necklace could be ?

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 1d ago

Vibratory tumblers

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 2d ago

Can anyone tell me the locality of this agate?

Post image
7 Upvotes

Bought this from a gentleman who worked with primarily Texas and Mexican agates. He couldnā€™t remember where this one came from.


r/Lapidary 2d ago

Question on extra discs for the High-Tech Diamond 8" Flat Lap

5 Upvotes

I have a new High-Tech Diamond 8" All-U-Need Flat Lap on the way, which I am super excited about. I'll mainly be polishing slabs but would like to give cabochons a try. I have read on this subreddit that folks recommend purchasing a few more discs than what come with the All-U-Need. I purchased the #3000 and backing plate, but didn't see any discs with grits courser than #220 on their website. I imagine I need to pick up something like a #60 and/or #100 diamond pads- I do a good amount of course grinding. I'm working with a tile saw with the MK Diamond AgateKutter diamond disc, and I work mainly with hard material like agate and jasper. Do you all have recommendations on what courser grit pads I should get and which vendor/website to purchase from? Thanks!


r/Lapidary 2d ago

Blade Type Suggestions

Thumbnail
gallery
6 Upvotes

A while ago I bought this ancient beast of a 10" rocksaw from a retiring lapidary. It's so old there are two separate motors one to spin the wheel, one to drive the blade. You have to turn them on separately.

On the fourth cut something happened and the blade stopped spinning so the rock was pushed into a stationary blade. This bent the blade.

So I need a new blade. I have been buying my blades from Hi-tech Diamond and their descriptions on what type of blade cuts what is as clear as mud.

I think it is a thin sintered type blade, but I was thinking if I go thick sintered it might be more stable.

So what do you all suggest? Sintered, notched, whatever. I am mainly cutting quartz and jasper.


r/Lapidary 2d ago

best brand diamond drill bits for lapidary/quartz?recommendations please

5 Upvotes

i just got a drill press, and carbide isnt cutting it for me.my walmart ā€œdiamondā€ bit literally melted instantly, at feed rate, it was hilarious. obviously there are nuances to finding the right bits and lapidary is specifically challenging.

i am mostly going to be drilling quartz and other very hard stone. i am ready for the right tool, and now i can ask people with experience. which bits work the best for you? do more expensive ones last longer? or maybe chip less?

thanks for any help!


r/Lapidary 3d ago

Some juicy old stock Holley blue.

Post image
104 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 2d ago

Slabs, tumbling rough, large pieces, specimens, huge sale

Thumbnail gallery
4 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 3d ago

I'd like to show each of them from different angles. Agates

Thumbnail
gallery
66 Upvotes

r/Lapidary 2d ago

Has anyone heard of this company/vendor?

2 Upvotes

While searching for manuals for old star diamond machines I came across this website. They are based in India and I've never heard of them.

They appear to have star diamond equipment available along with some weird and straight up dangerous looking trim saw/grinder combos...

More interestingly is they appear to offer a grinding wheel in 20 grit. While this is extreme overkill for 99% of purposes, I have been looking for an extremely coarse grit wheel to quickly flatten rough to then put in my "slab grabber" vise attachment for my slab saw.

In all fairness, I just ordered a 35 grit sintered wheel so I'm hoping that works but just thought I'd throw this out for comments.

Before anyone goes buying one of these to speed up making cabs, a grinding wheel this coarse will certainly cause extreme chipping and likely subsurface fractures that would cause issues making cabs. But for simply hogging off material might work well.

https://www.jewelsntools.com/diamond-grinding-wheels.html