Hey Gemology readers, I just bought a MDR masters faceting machine for use in my lampworking/glassblowing hobby. Before this machine I had two homemade pieces of equipment which included many laps, oxides, powders and doping equipment. I have read about different grades of laps for cutting and polishing but all of my equipment is unlabeled and were purchased from estates.
Any help identifying laps or helping me cut glass facets on my marbles and pendants would be greatly appreciated. which laps are diamond powder used on ? Which laps use silicon carbide? And which would use tin oxide?
I have been rough cutting the 2" borosilicate marble seen in the picture and its going very slow. The lap says Crystalite 260 on it. Does this type of lap need charging? what would you folks recommend for faceting boro glass before polishing?
I am also considering selling my two used pieces of equipment so ideas on pricing would be appreciated.
These are the two laps that came with my MRD machine (the small one marked 260 crystalite and the big one has no markings) http://imgur.com/BHvU4Wg
These are the laps that came with my homemade machines. I am a bit concerned about the copper because it appears to have some dents in it. http://imgur.com/Bn3zAYL
Post subject: Re: Recently purchased faceting machines. What do I have? 8
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:45 pm
Valued Contributor
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:50 pm Posts: 299 Location: Virginia, USA
The MDR machine is fine for faceting glass and other materials. The Crystalite lap is a bonded diamond on steel lap, for roughing only. Use with water only. It should cut very rapidly, unless worn out. It is not rechargeable. You will also need a 600 or 1200 grit diamond lap for fine grinding, a pre-polish lap, and a polishing lap. Don't other with SiC grit- too messy and slow.
Pictures of laps don't help with ID of grit size. Trial and error may help you figure out how to use them for your marbles. All are metallic, not too useful for final polish of glass and such. Tin oxide works on tin alloy laps. Diamond works on copper laps. (You will probably get more responses to your questions in the lapidary section.) Good luck. RD
Post subject: Re: Recently purchased faceting machines. What do I have? 8
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:02 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am Posts: 1322 Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
I have a few thoughts for you:
- skip the marble polishing glass can be very finicky. - get some garnet and you will end up with something that will surprise you. but read the book below)
1) buy Amateur Gemstone Faceing Volume 1 by Tom Herbst The first volume of the fines books available on gem faceting . It can be picked up in the book shop to the left. It will give you a good head start and answer a lot of your questions.
2) Look for a rock club in your area and see if they have anyone that does faceting. They may be able to guide you.
3) if you do a search for what lap or which lap you will find several threads that may help.
Personally I like dual banded laps for prepolish and polish. It saves a lot of problems, and lets you go back to pre polish if you find scratched suring polish (and you will)
Depending n your budget I would look at - a DIA-Z+ (zinc prepolish with a diamatrix center for polish) very good choice. There is a thread from when it was developed and tested.
- DOMINATRIX DUAL LAP this has a batt prepolish and a diamatrix center. The Batt is one of the best laps out there. It has an advantage that the reverse side is all Batt nd you can flip it over and use it as a batt lap. You just need to put a coffee filter down (fold it like a pie shpe and tear a small hole) this will protect the surface from getting contimated) This gives you two laps in one.
- one of the other banded laps from the gearloose site.
For cutting you can use a zinc lap and diamond as a low entry point, but I would recommend you look at a Sintered Lap from ADAMAS FACET.
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 20 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum