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Sneaky Gems.

Prospecting Australia

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Really enjoying this new cut. Its so easy to do and has a great effect. Bit hard to photograph but this is the best I can do. Have to do it under low artificial light as outdoors the brilliance is to high to capture the image.

1500256558_img_4099_640x458.jpg
 
Thanks guys. I currently have big quantities of excellent quality, sorted topaz rough that will be going up for sale in a few days. Best suited for those who are looking for excellent material for affordable jewellery or for those who are looking for affordable facet material to practice on and test new designs. I will post an add in the buy and sell section and link it here once I have worked out the logistics.
 
Soooo..... Finally run into my first major problem with facetron gear.

I am cutting a glorious spartan shield design for a client. I orientated the stone in accordance with the diagram and hooked in. Just finished the pavilion which is spot on accurate with a 10x loupe. Probably one of the most accurate stones I have ever cut. I took it out of the quill and place it in the transfer block to quickly check the alignment and ...... well *****!!!! Bloody keyed dops!!!!

1502007663_img_4131.jpg


Anyway after about 2 seconds of heart palpitations I realised all I have to do is rotate the dop 90 degrees to the second position the transfer block can take and use GemCad to rotate the index gears to suit. No sweat!

So thats what I did and........ (insert numerous expletives in multiple languages)

1502008079_img_4130.jpg


Why the bloody hell!?!?!?!! This is ether a serious flaw in the transfer blocks or designed this way on purpose. When I check the alignment with the correct dop position the pavilion runs dead centre of the vee dop flanges but when rotated 90 degrees its way off. I hope Javis makes a vee dop with a different orientation otherwise its off to the engineers to get a custom dop.
 
My VJ has keyed dops and I cant say I've ever had a problem nor ever seen anything like this before.

SC, do you have a slightly farther back photo of the transfer jig set up? It doesn't look remotely like mine.
 
The the dops and jig are perfectly fine. I've cut 15 stones in the past 2 weeks with flawless transfers using the same equipment. I also checked it again with a new vee dop straight out of the packet. Same issue. I think it might actually be manufactured like this to stop people from using an incorrect dop position by mistake. Which is really annoying when you actually want to use a different dop position.

Checked around on the net and it looks like they don't manufacture a dop with a vertically aligned vee. Looks like its a trip to the engineers.

Lefty pic of the jig is below.
1502062305_img_4136.jpg
 
Wow, that is really unhappy making! I'll ask my friend who has a Facetron if she's ever encountered anything like this and if she knows of a solution.

Sorry to ask such a silly question, but I've encountered bent dops before.

Debbie
 
No question is ever a silly question Debbie.

I encountered a bent dop recently. When I was first learning the machine I made a mistake on an index gear and introduced a sharp edge to a spinning BATT Lap. The stone bit in hard and took a huge gouge out of the lap before shattering. The dop I was using at the time was an odd size so I didn't use it again until a few weeks ago. Couldn't work out why I was getting stair stepping girdles before a transfer. After hours of finely calibrating the protractor and sighting in the cheater to a ridiculously fine tune it dawned on me that the dop was the same one from my little accident. I pulled it out and measured it. Sure enough it was only ever so slightly bent but enough to cause major headaches.

On the bright side the next 8 stones I cut where exceptionally accurate due to the extremely fine tuning in the machine. I have since changed the index gear and haven't bothered to spend the time calibrating to that extreme again. Just to time consuming. A calibration over a 1.5" flat edge is sufficient for day to day use. Perfect calibration over 3" is over kill and tricky to get right.
 
Yep, the dop can be bent so slightly you can't easily see it by eye but still be well and truly enough to cause headaches. When I was first learning, I decided it was time to step up to something different to a round brilliant. I tried to get the trillion to work but I stuffed it up again and again - finally in a fit fit of frustrated rage, I took the dop out of the quill and hurled it against the tiled floor of the bathroom, breaking the stone :8 . I should have just thrown the dop itself but I kept it. Sometime later after conquering the issues with different shapes, I suddenly started having problems with stair-stepping - it took me a while to realize that it was the same dop I had thrown against the hard tiles.
 
I have been trying out a heap of different display cases. Came across one called a trueview case. Really cool concept.

The stones are placed on the lid of the case table down. The lid is coated in a gel of some sort that creates an instant suction onto the stones (much like a rubber cup on glass). When the bottom is clipped on the stones are effectively "suspended" in mid air allowing best penetration of light. The bottoms are a good neutral white so any coloured stones will show the truest colour. The suction is really strong too and it requires a bit of effort to release the stone once its bonded.

1502156532_img_4141.jpg
 
Now that's a neat idea! I always pull the foam cushion out of the little individual display cases and replace it with loosely-packed cottonwool - pressing the pavilion tightly against something like foam robs some of the light that should be returned and and a person who is not in the know about lapidary (such as a potential customer) doesn't realise that the stone may actually look significantly brighter and better once in a setting or just without having something squished hard up against the pavilion. I usually show people a faceted stone held in the grabbers, it's much closer to what it looks like in a setting. The cottonwool is better than the foam but this invention looks better again.

The other thing with transparent-lidded cases is that the lids inevitably end up scratched, giving the veiwer the impression that the stone is scratched when it isn't.
 
That's true cases always end up scratched. These ones are pretty good as they clip together to form a stack and from what I can tell they don't contact the case below so scratches are minimised in storage. Probably will still be scratched with repeated handling though. I have another version of these with clear top and bottoms that I am hoping to play around with this arvo. Perfect for a "trueview" of the stone inside from both sides.
 
SneakyCuttlefish said:
I have been trying out a heap of different display cases. Came across one called a trueview case. Really cool concept.

The stones are placed on the lid of the case table down. The lid is coated in a gel of some sort that creates an instant suction onto the stones (much like a rubber cup on glass). When the bottom is clipped on the stones are effectively "suspended" in mid air allowing best penetration of light. The bottoms are a good neutral white so any coloured stones will show the truest colour. The suction is really strong too and it requires a bit of effort to release the stone once its bonded.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3340/1502156532_img_4141.jpg
Click to expand...

Your set is looking good Sneaky. Should look excellent when the set is finished.

Cheers

Doug and Carol
 

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