Tips for new facetors

[Wally69]

Well done on the diagnosis Badge.hope you have the 3 springs.

With your iPhone use the 2x zoom only to take a photo as the pixel count is reduced for anything else. Use the edit tool to zoom in on your stones after that to enlarge the them in the photo. Sometimes getting the right focal point is difficult and an inanimate object nest to the stone to focus on will help.

 

[Badge]

Thanks for the photography tips Wally69. I'm getting there steadily.
3 springs you say? :awful: No, there are just 2 (soon to be 3) ball bearings inside the 3 grub screws.
The Gemmasta came off Noah's Ark so maybe no springs in these ones, I hope so anyway.

This is one of the grub screws I'm referring to.

I'd really like to get a different type of handpiece but I'm not sure if the other model handpieces will fit a GFE3.
I saw one that was like a chuck so it automatically centred the dop. That would be ideal.
I'll have to call GemCuts etc and ask for some info.

Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Dihusky]

Get hold of Horst Ricker in Rubyvale, he's forgotten more than most know about faceting machines. He makes quill upgrades for machines, have one on my 2000 and it's brilliant, also uses a collet type clamp so no chance of misalignment.

PM me and I'll give you his phone number.

 

[geowork]

Based on a FB post this morning by VJ Faceting Machines, it appears Horst may be retiring. The good news is that Matt from VJ is taking over manufacture of these quills.

 

[Mike678]

On FB market place , there is a Robilt machine for sale . In Sydney , $500 .

 

[Badge]

I rang Horst Ricker this morning. He is well and sounded as sharp as a tack.
And, he is retired as mentioned. On my quill problem he said the GF4 quill will just slip straight on (they're all 3/8th), job done so Gemcuts has one in the mail for me.
What a wealth of knowledge he is. Thanks to Dihusky for his details. :Y:
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Badge]

Yeah Nah. The GF4 handpiece does not fit by any stretch.
So back to the drawing board.

Now is the time to close this page because I'm about to have a major winge.

Well done on the diagnosis Badge.hope you have the 3 springs.

With your iPhone use the 2x zoom only to take a photo as the pixel count is reduced for anything else. Use the edit tool to zoom in on your stones after that to enlarge the them in the photo. Sometimes getting the right focal point is difficult and an inanimate object nest to the stone to focus on will help.

Well I thought you were joking about the springs but when I finally removed the third ball bearing to put in a new one a squashed up little spring came with it. I should have known you would be right. I put in 3 new ball bearings but without the spring that was all squashed up and mangled the handpiece wouldn't lock into place.
So the other two were running without a spring, as was the squashed one. I tried putting 2 ball bearings in to see if that would help but without the springs to reduce tension the handpiece is useless.
As it is the handpiece has a slop and it and only slops when approaching index 64. But it had that already.
Hoping the pics turn out.

Index 32.

Index 64.

Everyone I call says in should just take this part or that part but I'm beginning to think the Gemmasta Sign on the machine doesn't include the handpiece and accompanying parts. Has anyone seen these before and have any ideas?

And stripped down further.

I'm walking in circles here so any ideas would be appreciated.
Maybe I can replace everything from the protractor through to the handpiece, but the way things are going those parts won't fit either.
Is it even a Gemmasta?

Anyway, I've had my cry. Keep on looking I guess.
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Pat Hogen]

The information given about Matt Young at VJ faceting machines in Childers taking over Horst's work may bear fruit. It would not hurt to talk to him. 0409760867 - Matt

 

[Badge]

Hi Pat Hogen, Childers you say? I hope Childers Qld because it's only 45 minutes away.
I took that post from geowork to mean in the Gemfields. But I will contact him first thing tomorrow for sure now.
Thanks for the heads up. Light at the end of the tunnel?
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Badge]

The information given about Matt Young at VJ faceting machines in Childers taking over Horst's work may bear fruit. It would not hurt to talk to him. 0409760867 - Matt

Your a gem mate. I just dropped off everything from the protractor through to the handpiece to Matt at VJs and he will make a new spindle so the GF4 handpiece fits. He has never seen one before so could be pre Noahs Arc and maybe not a Gemmasta. He has some great machinery and he showed me through the various evolution of the VJ faceting machines.
Coupla weeks and Im in action.
Matts an easy going guy and passed on some advice as well.
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Mackka]

Glad its all coming together for you and await your creations.
Cheers
Mackka

 

[Pat Hogen]

Good stuff Badge, I am glad that you will be pain free and on the road to cutting happily and getting absorbed in your desires to turn stones onto gems. The path is a good one. :Y: :gemstone:

 

[Dughug]

Sounds like you need to get your quill serviced and have one or more bearings replaced. Contact Brian Boyle from Gemcuts in Ballina NSW they are the new owners of GEMMASTA products and they should be able to help.
Alternatively you could but a replacement quill from them

https://www.gemcuts.com.au/gemmasta-gf4-handpiece-quill.

 

[Badge]

Hi Dughug, I've spoken to Brian at GemCuts and they sent me the GF4 handpiece. I rang him today and he was stumped completely.
GemCuts are great to deal with.
VJ Faceting Machines is only 45 minutes drive from here so Matt Young will be getting plenty more business from me including a complete service for the GF??? when we go bush in winter.
Pat Hogen, thanks for the phone number. :Y:
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Badge]

I've got to give Matt Young from VJ Faceting Machines another push on the forum.
I dropped my machine parts of on thursday afternoon and he had it all ready for me by 9am friday morning. And in fantastic condition.
I've been busy with visitors but will be trying it out asap ( depending on the visitors and the wife).
I can't recommend Matt's work enough.
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Pat Hogen]

Good stuff Badge.

 

[Wally69]

:rainbow: :gemstone: arty: Great to hear - have fun

 

[Badge]

I purchased some of that blue manufactured Corundum on Ebay and had a crack at cutting it. I only have a dremel to cut to size but it gets the job done eventually.
I'll attempt to upload a video of the end result. I still haven't got that brilliant sparkle expected from sapphire on this one and the table still isn't polished quite right but I don't think this particular piece of rough is top quality either.

Cheers.
Badge.

Nope, it doesn't matter what I do I can't get the video or gif small enough to upload. And it's only a 6 second video I cut it to and converted to a gif. So I've put it on Youtube instead.

 

[Pat Hogen]

Go here Badge and choose a SRB diagram that has 43 degrees for its pavilion main - https://facetdiagrams.org/database/ ,oh, and stay away from oval designs until you read a lot about oval designs, they can be a heartbreaker design unless they are cut in a barion format.

 

[Pat Hogen]

By the way, synthetic stone is very good to learn on, particularly syn sapphire/corundum, just don't use a 1200 prepolish lap at any time for corundum, go to 3k, 8k the polish. There is a good pic from Jeff Graham that says if your stone is not at this stage, almost mirror finish, no scratches, then it is pointless trying to get a good finish polish out of your stone. It was the best learning advice for me.