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 Post subject: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:26 am 
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My (almost) 9 years old son is expressing an interest in joining me on the cab machine; and participating in cutting a few stones for their 'show and tell' at school.

Which is great! - but there is a problem...

After reading the article here: http://www.gemologyonline.com/Forum/php ... 14&t=19492 and compiling a list of my own of stuff he should not be nowhere near during cutting, I came up with pretty much everything common there is to cut.

Of course, dust mask, gloves, ear&eye protection are there and my shop is very, very clean, but still I am a bit concerned with even micro-granular quartzes like jaspers and the such.

I just wonder, am I going a bit paranoid; or there should be a material that is safe to cut? - can anyone point me to such a material?

I am of course not asking for a recommendation, only pointers....

-o.


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:49 am 
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With appropriate PPE most of these things aren't a big deal. Of course with younger people it's good to be doubly or triply careful with things like heavy metals, but if you're wearing an appropriate respirator something like jasper shouldn't be too big a deal.

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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:39 pm 
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Cabbing is relatively safe when water is used to grind the stone. Dry cutting on certain materials would lead to hazardous dust in the air but when using water, the dust is brought to nothing. You can wear a dust mask to be extra safe. Or just cut some Amethyst, it's just silicon and oxygen with a little iron. That sounds pretty non-toxic to me!

Very cool you're getting your son into it though. Best of luck to you both!


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:47 pm 
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To be extra safe, do not cab Malachite.

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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:13 pm 
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For a child I would wear gloves and a light mask like the kind they give you at the hospital when you have a cold.


IT would keep any mist which may contain small particales from his lungs.

The gloves can be the thin ones, you only want to keep the sludge off of him.

I recently came across some at the car parts store that were between the thin disposable ones that rip a lot and the ones you get at the grocery store for cleaning. They held up very well when I was doing some epoxy work.


A few tips:

if it is a green rock it probably has copper compounds which need gloves and masks.

Get a box of the masks and put them on a shelf at his level OUTSIDE the door to the shop. The rule is, any time he is in the shop, he has a mask on, even without a machine running. The mist and any dust from it hangs in the air for hours.


I would also have a box of gloves by the machine, so they are easy to get to.

Good luck and let us know what you decide


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:06 pm 
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There are plenty of "green rocks" that are not toxic to cut, like green Beryl, green Jadeite and green Nephrite.
Malachite is toxic:
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Che ... Id=PC38053
Green is not an indicator of toxicity.

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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:29 am 
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Thank you everyone for the advice!

Happy to say what I read here is pretty much in line with what I was thinking....

The cabbing machine is water cooled and the shop is well ventilated; and I have pretty much everything with Cu in it on the 'No' list.

I have decided to dop a translucent piece of blue beryl (some would call it Aquamarine :) ), a piece of 'fancy' Jasper and a nicely patterned piece of Sodalite.

... it is going to be an interesting weekend!

-o.


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 7:47 am 
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maybe for a kid it might be fun to cut stones from the garden. Here around Hamburg we have plenty of flint with interesting paterns and all sorts of stones brought during Ice age from Nordic countries. Good opportunity to show to fellow kids into what these garden stones can be transformed to.


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 5:41 am 
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Heh, not a bad idea! - too bad, though, there is nothing interesting in the middle of London's Docklands. Only mud and clay..... There are some quartzite pebbles here and there, but they are quite dull.

-o.


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:08 pm 
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The first stones I ever cabbed were opals.


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 Post subject: Re: Kids and cabbing - safe materials?
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:48 pm 
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NO GLOVES!

Gloves and high RPM machinery do not mix. Similarly, avoid long hair, long cuffs, necklaces, rings, scarves, it's all a catch hazard.

I'd be more worried about him jamming a finger, reaching for a lost stone under the wheels, or getting a Mach II stray cab in the eye than exactly what he's cutting.

Most of the stuff we cut is utterly harmless, the potentially poisonous elements are chemically bound and insoluble, the fears are all hype.

Lots of water, eye and ear protection, let him cut away...


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