I don't always have the best transfers, but I hit upon a simple method that has significantly cut down on how bad they can get. Note that this is wax specific and possibly Ultratec (or similar) specific. I haven't heard anyone mention a similar method yet, so I thought I'd put it out here for review.
After dopping the pavilion and before releasing the crown, I place the crown-side dop in the quill, lock the quill upright so the stone is facing the ceiling, set the index to freewheel, and spin it. If my transfer isn't centered, then I can see the culet wobble or flutter. If that is the case, I put both dops back in the transfer jig, tighten both sides, and heat the pavilion-side wax until it just starts to flow (with a wet paper towel protecting the crown). Sometimes I repeat that after a few quarter-turns.
In all, the operation takes me maybe 2-10 minutes, and saves me a lot of headache.
Post subject: Re: Tip for checking transfer centering
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 6:47 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am Posts: 1322 Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
I like the concept.
when I used wax, I sometines found that I was making 2 mistakes that caused problems:
1) I was not keeping the frist joint cold enough 2) I was not letting the frst dop get hot enough, and as I was putting pressure on the dop I would shift the stone.
I would probably add in a step after the release to check that it is still centered.
I have also used my DAD to check on girdle facets that are opposite each other. If they get the same angle, I am centered. (I usually check at least 3 sets)
I am thinking out loud here, but if you cleaned the glue off of the flat that held the dop, you could put the stone at 90 with some majic marker, and rotate it against the alignment jig. If you could get everything rigid enough, yoh might see of the marker comes off evenly.
Even of he angle is not exact, if the stone is not tilted, you would get and even line cleaned off when you spin it.
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Then you could spin it against the alignmenht jig, and see if you
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