Looks great @Bluegreen! The excellent results speak for themselves. When I was cutting in my home studio, I didn’t have tap in the room for a water supply and used a submersible recirculation pump in a bucket full of water to supply a continuous stream of water to my lapidary and sanding wheels. Frees one up to move the equipment anywhere it is most convenient.
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I love it @Bluegreen . So old school. Improvise, adapt, overcome.
Just a thought. A cabmate sans motor is fairly light and I imagine you might be on 220v over there so you might not want a 120v motor anyway.
Here is my home made flat lap and watering device (the watering unit was Dan Lopacki’s idea):
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Many thanks for that link @mmrogers , i have been thinking a lot about something like that, in order to be able to work on the roof in summer. Was thinking about a bucket and tube type of thing, but this is a sublime solution. Also big thanks for the compliment on the cabs!
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Thanks @StevesTrail , and you’re totally right, had totally forgotten about the voltage differences.
Your setup looks really great! Like a cabbing laboratory hehe
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Finished the ones that were ready to go over the weekend. Below are some favorites of the bunch:
Same batches as before, ± half came identified (a.o. Persian, Sleeping Beauty, Royston, Kingman, Pilot Mt.).
My favorite is the first stone in the 3rd row. The colors are much nicer in reality, with bright blue gradations. It’s 60s or 70s US mined and stabilized. So far my guess is Turquoise Mountain but i am very interested to hear suggestions.
Got another small batch to finish and after that i need to focus on other things. But i must say that i find it highly addictive to cut turquoise.
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Really nice cabs, @Bluegreen. Very nice professional quality work. Should be very commercially viable should you choose to offer them for sale.
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Thank you so much @mmrogers ! To be honest by now it has become a goal to be able to work with turquoise on a daily basis, and to earn a (additional) living from it would be a dream come through.
I initially had no such plans at all, but got carried away a little after i bought some rough and made myself some bead necklaces. I’ll have to look into a couple of things and figure a bunch of stuff out first though. Your kind feedback means a lot in all of this, i truly appreciate it!
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Last week i had a bunch of extra free time so i decided to use it to cut more turquoise. Having had my confidence boosted by everybody’s previous kind comments i chose some bigger and better grade stones this time. Same mines as before plus additionally what was said to be Blue Diamond, Morenci and even some Bisbee (which i initially had planned to keep aside). Have to share these one more time, hope you’ll enjoy!
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Amazing results. Love them a lot.
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Thank you, happy to hear that @gt75
Great looking cabs. Really some beautiful stones in there! Finish is extremely professional.
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Beautiful! Isn’t turquoise amazing!
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Thanks @mmrogers ! A comment like this, coming from a master silversmith like you, is actually hugely motivating. I appreciate it a lot!
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Thank you @Ziacat , it absolutely is! I can’t get enough :))
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What glorious cabs, just an enormous pleasure to look at!
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Thank you so much @chamekke ! Very happy to read that (: