Bangles

[michael B]

I cut these for my wife & daughter, I find these quite easy to cut & shape, but they are a fun project, these are a mixture of rhodonite, pyroxmangite and a gem called namansilite, it contains jadeite the purple areas.

[Dan]

wondering how do you cut those? is it possible to turn them on a lathe or is that method too fast?

[michael B]

Dan, I used 2 different methods to cut the internals, I core drilled one with a 65 mm diamond core drill, the other I cut with my gryphon ring saw, I cut the outer circles on my diamond band saw, smoothed the internals on a center laythe using a silicon carbide wheel, then ground and rounded the outer sections by hand on my cabbing machine. if I was to do more I would order a diamond wheel with a concave section for the outer surface.

[Dan]

thanks for the addition photos really helps me see what your talking about.

 

perhaps you can help me figure something out I do a lot of stone chip inlay in the surface of boxes, turnings ect. the problem is I go through a lot of sandpaper. do you have any suggestions on a tool or attachment that I can use to grind down the stone to be flush with the wood surface. something durable enough to grind down any stone but wont wear out.

 

also where do you get your pieces of stone?

[michael B]

Dan, you should try course grit diamond pads- paper, 3m do make these, I also use cheap expanding drum diamond belts to sand by hand or sand in my lathe manually, another option is course silicon carbide sticks or blocks used like a file by hand or in your lathe, I cut up old 100 grit sic lapidary wheels to whatever shape I need, but both wear out eventually, much better than paper, I cut the carbide on my lapidary saw.

I live in a area that has jade and rhodonite deposits, I self collect quite a bit, I also have a good friend that owns a very good rhodonite mine.

[Dan]

maybe we can trade wood for stone maybe since I do a lot of nlay we could trade for your small chips and cut off junk. stuff I could break up and and use for inlaying. friend of mine has a lumber mill and I have tons of wood floating around. if you not interested there is always ebay ill look into getting those different pads and drums.