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 Post subject: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:49 pm 
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I did not want to get the oither thread off on a tangent, so I am starting a new one.


Gearloose wrote:
I have been giving away and cutting pieces of this rod for years. It's almost gone now.

http://www.redoptronics.com/Ti-Sapphire-crystal.html

The most interesting thing about the material is it is singe oriented crystal. If you look at the backlit rod and rotate it. the color changes from a light magenta to a peach/pink color. Some stones cut from this often show both colors. This one does. A simpler cut would probably show the effect more strongly.




Gearloose, you gave me a piece of your material a few years ago. I have been holding onto until I get better at faceting. I have been looking for a good design to start practing on, in the hope of cutting it some day.

When you say a simpler cut would show off the effect more strongly, can you give an example of a design that you would recommend?


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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:16 pm 
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Usually the simpler designs do not mix the two axis colors as much. One color is magenta and the other is a sightly peachy red. A trillion type mixes them:
Image

Image But the two colors show a little better in this.

A lot depends on what axis you choose for the table, of course.

Hold the rough up to a light source and rotate it. You will see the color changes as it rotaes. In the C axis there is none.

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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:02 pm 
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this seems to be a good design for it ;)

Image


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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:13 pm 
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Wow! Great choice and work! I am finally running out of the material after handing it out all these years, but I'm glad to see someone make it talk!

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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:58 pm 
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micra wrote:
this seems to be a good design for it ;)

Image



what design is this?


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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 7:58 pm 
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Norman Steele 5.051 Pendeloque from Vol3 Facet Design Heart & Pear.


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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:40 pm 
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Someone sent me laser ruby to cut. My question is how is this produced. Obviously not flame fusion becasue it’s not split. I looked online but hadn’t been able to find out. Anyone know?

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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:13 pm 
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Pulled single oriented crystal.

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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:20 pm 
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justinkprim wrote:
Someone sent me laser ruby to cut. My question is how is this produced. Obviously not flame fusion becasue it’s not split. I looked online but hadn’t been able to find out. Anyone know?

It would probably be made using the Czochralski process wouldn't it? The other single-crystal pulling methods seem to be used for thin fibers or substrate material.
Hard to tell the exact method unless you have an offcut rather than a drilled rod.


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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:32 am 
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Thanks!

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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:47 am 
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't a fair amount of the Czochralski ruby used for faceting sourced from military surplus boules? I think I read that here. I have an end cut from a boule that is fairly neat.

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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:09 am 
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Yup, a massive amount of it is military-surplus Czochralski pulled ruby, from laser experiments in the 80s or from other sources. There are a bunch of modern growers doing it for jewellery purposes too. You can also find some material grown via the Kyropoulos method - both are single-crystal pull methods.

Oddly enough you can also find growers using floating zone methods or horizontal directed growth methods.


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 Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 6:01 am 
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I looked at the surplus rods.

I saw some that were YAG rods.

Not sure if this is the same material that Gearloose commented on a few times.

One day I hope to get some....

I actually got back to faceting the other day. I only got 4 facets cut, but it was a start.


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