Home Made Slant Cabber

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Hey Xcvator,
Ive only just started using a machine and until now most of what I did was using diamond plates and sandpaper by hand. I figured out pretty quickly that sandpaper isnt that durable when cabbing unless you use it gently and with stones of appropriate hardness.
If youre using a corundum or silicon carbide sandpaper it should cut stones with a Moh scale hardness up to 9 (sapphire) but this will be a struggle. Im not sure where youre at with understanding where different materials sit in the Moh scale but Im thinking that for your setup you probably want to look at material less than 8 (eg <topaz). Quartz (7.5) you may even find hard on your disks. Labradorite and opal are nice to work with (about 6.5) and should shape and polish successfully.
You should be able to research which stones sit within this range or ask at the crystal shop. It might just be the difference between getting some pleasing early results or damaging your new toy.
Good luck.
 
Well an interesting day to say the least. Went to Crystal World, great range but boy, couldn't it get to be expensive, $3-00 for a bit of rose quartz 3/4 the size of a 20c piece and 4mm thick

Got the speed low enough to stop 80% of the spray :Y: but the motor tended to slow down when I pressed hard enough to see any cutting effect with 80 grit paper, slow going.
A couple of weeks ago I lashed out and bought 1 cheap 8" diamond disk, 150 grit, so I dropped that on top of the acrylic disk and gave that a run, what a difference :eek: :eek: Cut like a hot knife through butter, much lighter touch and the motor DIDN'T SLOW DOWN. Probably helped by a bit extra weight to keep it spinning as well :Y:
Looks like I might have to buy a few more diamond discs 8.(
I think an 80 for preforming and a 600, then save the paper discs for polishing.

Thoughts ?
 
Polishing is an art form :( Different material will require different compounds, for example: Opal I go from 3k diamond on a soft wheel to Cerium, Agate I go up to 50K diamond on a soft wheel to Cerium, Sapphire cabs I finish on 50k diamond using a 8k diamond prepolish, both off soft wheels. Welcome to "The learning" :)
 
The I think finished product, speed controller is at the back out of site

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Dihusky said:
Polishing is an art form :( Different material will require different compounds, for example: Opal I go from 3k diamond on a soft wheel to Cerium, Agate I go up to 50K diamond on a soft wheel to Cerium, Sapphire cabs I finish on 50k diamond using a 8k diamond prepolish, both off soft wheels. Welcome to "The learning" :)

Opals, Saphires, I'm a pensioner :( :lol:
 
You wont regret it. If you plan on doing a bit of cabbing you would eat that money up in sandpaper pretty quickly. These should last longer and work better.
 
Well, good luck in your cabbing. Be careful of using 80 grit on most of you stones, agate may handle it better than any of the crystalline group. 80 grit tends to rip rather than rub. Start of with your 320 and see hoe that performs. One thing, don't be in a hurry and don't 'push' your stones to get into shape. A little time taken will have greater results.
 
Pat Hogen said:
Well, good luck in your cabbing. Be careful of using 80 grit on most of you stones, agate may handle it better than any of the crystalline group. 80 grit tends to rip rather than rub. Start of with your 320 and see hoe that performs. One thing, don't be in a hurry and don't 'push' your stones to get into shape. A little time taken will have greater results.

Yeah, I've got to be pretty carefull Pat, the motor isn't very powerfull and if I put too much pressure on it, it stops :D I'm going to have to be patient and take my time :beer:
 
There was an interesting article in Facet Talk a few months ago discussing the depth of damage to a stone based on grit size. It was based on Quartz so the figures will vary according to the hardness and brittleness of the material your cutting.

80 grit, damage 2.6mm deep, 180 grit - 0.86mm deep, 220 grit - 0.6mm, 325 grit - 0.3mm, 600 grit - 0.16mm, 1200 grit - 0.07mm, 3000 grit - 0.03mm.

What this means it if you cut with 80 grit then go to 180 grit to remove the 80 grit scratches, you will be cutting to a minimum depth of 3.46mm ( 2.6 + 0.86). This is why you have to select the laps carefully as you have to remove all the damage/pitting & scratches from the previous lap before going finer otherwise you'll be hard pushed to get a really good polish.

You'll enjoy watching the development of your first stone, make sure you have a good magnifier.
 
Dihusky said:
There was an interesting article in Facet Talk a few months ago discussing the depth of damage to a stone based on grit size. It was based on Quartz so the figures will vary according to the hardness and brittleness of the material your cutting.

80 grit, damage 2.6mm deep, 180 grit - 0.86mm deep, 220 grit - 0.6mm, 325 grit - 0.3mm, 600 grit - 0.16mm, 1200 grit - 0.07mm, 3000 grit - 0.03mm.

What this means it if you cut with 80 grit then go to 180 grit to remove the 80 grit scratches, you will be cutting to a minimum depth of 3.46mm ( 2.6 + 0.86). This is why you have to select the laps carefully as you have to remove all the damage/pitting & scratches from the previous lap before going finer otherwise you'll be hard pushed to get a really good polish.

You'll enjoy watching the development of your first stone, make sure you have a good magnifier.

That actually made sense to me, thanks Dihusky :Y:
 
I think a waterproof apron will not go astray - or a hood over the blade, trying to think of what would do for a blade cover, maybe a bit of bent garden hose that has been heated and bent to shape and suspended from a rod over the cutting area :cool:
 
LoneWolf said:
A piece of 40mm PVC pipe cut in half Horizontally will work... ;)

I haven't forgotten you xcavator.... ;) Working on some rocks for you...

LW..

I'll work on postage costs for you too plus a bit :Y:

There is a cover over the blade, but never having used 1 of these things before I filled the water tank up , stood in front of it ,and turned it on O:) just got a tad wet when water was thrown every where :D Then I remembered a youtube tip about working back to front. Stand at the back of the saw and bring the stone towards you, result, very little water splashing over you, yay :perfect:
 
Almost finished and some playing around has been done, I can now use the slant cabber inside where it's nice and warm in winter :perfect:
I made up a "spray skirt " from this stuff https://www.clarkrubber.com.au/products/31698-weather-strip-l-channel-30mm-x-30mm , bloody hard to cut in a reasonably neat fashion, 3mm thick, had to use tin snips :/ so it's a bit ragged in spots but it does stop 90% of the spray dispersion.
Sometimes things are just meant to be, I was looking in the shed for something to store the cabber in when I spotted a kids toy box, tried it, and you would think I'd measured it to fit every thing into it :Y: Tip it upside down and I can sit the water bucket on top

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Hard to see in the picture, but the skirt is about 25mm above the lap disc and 15mm outside the disc.
 
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