Recent content by Greybeard

Self employed software developer. Started as a games developer then moved to business databases. Been doing them for over 20 years now.

Hi All Just started a piece of Cristinite in an Emerald cut. But it didn't go well. I have the angles, indexes etc but no instructions so did what I thought seemed logical. Pavillion end facets points just don't meet. Can anyone point me to some good instructions on cutting rectangular stones...

The running in may be the problem. It seems to have eased off a bit now, but I am confused as the CZ I cut previously I didn't have the problem. It's on the smokey quartz I am cutting that the problem arose.

I am using a 1200 diamond lap for the final cut prior to a 3000 pre polish on copper. The 1200 seemed to be leaving scratches but I wasn't sure if these were left over from the 600 diamond lap. Anyway, I made sure and noticed that new scratches are definitely appearing with the 1200 lap. I am...

Thanks everyone for the comments. I went ahead and cleaned the lap down well and used Singer machine oil. Seems to be fine now. Maybe the olive oil was the problem. However, I do find I have to clean it off regularly as it builds up a dark gung. So I add a single drop of oil and use toilet...

Hey guys. I charged a copper prepolish lap with 3000 using olive oil and used in to do my first stone. It worked fine. When doing the second stone it didn't seem to be working as well and I seemed to get some fine scratches. How often should I recharge a prepolish lap? How do I tell? Should I...

Thanks Lefty. Great advice. I will keep all this in mind.

Thanks AtomRat, but this isn't the index but the facet angle to the girdle, if I am explaining it right. My old machine has a 90 degree protractor so no fine adjustment.

Looking for 64 index designs I am finding a lot of designs with fractional angles. For example, a standard brilliant with angles like 42.3 or 19.8 for the crown. On my old manual machine which has simple manual marked angles it would be impossible to set the angle to fractional amounts...

Very timely as I was prepolishing a new stone last night with 3000 on copper and thought just how well the prepolish actually polishes. Doesn't need a lot to finish. I have a Batt lap with 60000 and that worked beautifully with the first stone.

Thanks for that explanation. I can continue now without doubt. On the 3000 prepolish I have used olive oil and it seems to work well.

I have watched a couple of videos and read a few articles and am a bit confused with copper laps. So far I am using diamond laps but they seem a bit harsh so thought I would try copper. Anyway, I am confused about using water or not using water. I noticed that when charging a copper lap with...

Thanks guys. Will try again with the heat and see how it goes.

Thanks Lefty. While most meetpoints worked, a few are not good. This one will sit somewhere handy and remind me of what not to do.

As I am in Toowoomba it would be great to find a few close fossicking spots. Mainly for faceting materials. Anybody know of any?