Faceting Machine

[goody2shoes]

Tassie gets bad fire's every year..

To much dead wood in the mountains and the bush...

Have seen two many people have lost there house and animals,

Goody :|

 

[Firepanther]

Tassie gets bad fire's every year..

To much dead wood in the mountains and the bush...

Have seen two many people have lost there house and animals,

Goody :|

Yeah there was area on fire which had been burnt off the 2 years before. Because of the grasses that grow there in just gets pushed across from winds then gets into were the burn offs stop. Government needs to put in better lines around towns and burn off every year around towns to keep the fuel low. Better management could prevent alot of unnecessary fires. Lucky we have many dedicated people down here fighting the fires

 

[goody2shoes]

When I use to live there I seen many fire's...

And flood's....

I agree they should have a better fire plan in place..

Goody

 

[Wally69]

Does the Apple Isle have Gumtree?? Think you might have to cross the Straight to open out your options.

If you spot something of interest in SEQ, happy to help out and take a look.

Yeah we have gumtree
Didn't find anything on there. Im going to meet one of my dads friends who does faceting that i never knew of so hopefully he can give me some pointers. Im not rushing into buying one though

Have seen a handful from tassie posted over the last couple of years. I have purchased a couple from interstate and had them freighted to me for under $100 freight cost by some wonderful gumtree sellers. If you find the right seller, I wouldnt be put off by having to trust a freight company.

 

[Firepanther]

So how do guys rate the hall machines?
My dad and i are still looking but looks like a good setup

 

[Pat Hogen]

A Hall will cut a near perfect stone, it is up to the cutter and the cutter's equipment and polish regime. As for cutting perfect stones, even the competition cutters in the inter-country challenges only manage high ninety cutting.
An important aspect of precision is the transfer aligning tool and the process of aligning. This process and the precision by which it is done will determine the need to use the cheater, or not.

 

[Dihusky]

I'm real happy with my Hall 2000, rugged heavy commercial machine, the only tragedy is Unamit who are now supposed to be the manufacturer of Hall machines don't appear to support them. I've been waiting to have an email answered for 6 months, have heard that to buy new, pay your money and wait...and wait....and wait, think there was someone on this forum who gave up and got something else.

There are a couple of folks around who can help service them, Horst Ricker in Rubyvale and I think Clarie Trevena on the Gold Coast might help out, they're pretty straight forward to look after anyway.

Have you found one Firepanther?

 

[Firepanther]

Not yet. So busy with fires here in tassie atm. Working 5 day 12hr shifts then a rest day and back into it.
Thanks for all the advice so far guys

 

[Lefty]

I've been very happy with my VJ, they are excellent machines. However, they are quite pricey.

Both Hall and Gemmasta are supposed to be very good as well. I cut my first ever stone one one or the other, can't remember which.

Unfortunately, good faceting machines of any kind are rarely cheap.

 

[igat614]

Hello

I start again faceting...
would yo so kind suggest good brand for 6/8 inch of diamond cutting wheel ?

thanks

Stewe

 

[Dihusky]

Going to depend on your budget. I've used Gemmasta 3 & 4, both terrific machines and still being manufactured in Ballina, Imahashi is also great but very different as are their copy, Sterling. I had a Thompson VJ for a while, Thompson was the original manufacturer, great machine but very different ergonomics from a mast machine, so can present love/hate feelings, definitely one you need to try before you buy. I found mine sensitive to lap weight differences, moving from a copper topped prepolish to something like Tin or Typemetal for finishing caused a fractional droop which threw out the facet alignment, that said it was a 20 yr old machine.

The machine I use now is a Hall 2000 extended, :inlove: old but commercial grade and incredibly accurate, also rare and worth big money as those that know these machines will hunt them down. All the gold in China wouldn't but this machine off me ... then thinking about it.........

 

[Badge]

Bump.
I've been thinking about getting a faceting machine and I'm not keen on paying the big bucks for the good ones.
But I had a look at the cheap machines on Ebay.
"Gem Faceting Machine Rock Polisher 1800RPM Gem Cutting Machine Jewelry Polisher". $640 delivered.
Does anyone know if these cheapys actually have the capability to produce decent gems?
Being as cheap as they are (although there are some cheaper) the usual verdict would be they're either Chinese or just crap.
Any input would be appreciated.
Badge

 

[LONEWOLF]

You get what you pay for when it comes to Lapidary... Other words, save for something decent...

LW...

 

[Mackka]

I think that saying applies to most things these days LW.
Mackka

 

[Badge]

Yes I was expecting the obvious to be true.
Looks like I'll have to try and talk Mrs Badge into parting with some dollars. :argh:
Wish me luck, it could get nasty.
Cheers and thanks
Badge

 

[LONEWOLF]

Do you have a local Lapidary club near you?

Quite often they sell their older Machines to members for a fair price every now and then....

Or someone may have or Know of one for sale...

Good luck with the Minister of Finance..

LW...

 

[Dihusky]

I have known of some people buying the eBay Chinese machines and one commonality is they all regretted it. The machines are flimsy, inaccurate and will destroy the dream of faceting a good gem.

As LW said, find a local Lapidary club or get in touch with your local Australian Facetors Guild member, https://facetorsguild.com.au/ and they should know of people in your area who might be able to assist your learning.

Keep an eye of Gumtree or FB Marketplace as machines do come up for sale, but before you shell out your hard earned cash, finding a club and discovering faceting first hand is probably a cheaper route to start. No point in buying if you find you don't enjoy it.

 

[Badge]

Thanks for the input guys. And yeah the Minister of Finance as Lone Wolf described her can be Uncle Scrooge like so I'll take my time and look around for a second hand one and contact some Lapidary Clubs for assistance.
Cheers.
Badge.

 

[Badge]

Well I actually found an old Gemmasta GFE3 for sale on Gumtree.
The seller was in Brisbane and was getting numerous calls from people in the gemfields who wanted it but he didn't want to fuss with the postage etc. So I rang my son who picked it up for me and is now insitu at Badge's house. Yeah OK temporary on the kitchen table until the better half decides it needs to be moved.
All up with dop sticks, transfer jig, and a heap of rocks for $850. The guy's father had passed away so he was cleaning out his stuff ASAP.
The 3 discs aren't in great order by the feel of them and I have a few on order, and there are two stones already started on dop sticks so the old discs will do for pre polish I guess.
It's an old machine but it'll be good to learn with. Finding parts for it might be hard though. It doesn't have a water supply so there's one job to do. I've looked around and the only part I found was a drive belt (which I jumped on). Spares part.
I'll try to put some pics on hoping someone with recognise the type of machine, but you'll be giving away your age if you do.
Cheers
Badge

 

[Mackka]

Sounds like a good deal from sad circumstances. Enjoy and ilook forward to seeing your creations.
Mackka