New Lapidary Equipment

So after a lot of head scratching and "creative" engineering, the old Mercury arbor is ready to use.
When I got this, there were 4 grinding wheels on it and a gravity drip system to provide cooling.
Since I now have 60 and 100 grit wheels on the other machines, I removed the 100 grit wheel. Also, the 600 grit grinding wheel has been replaced by a 600 grit diamond belt on the new Lortone unit.

3 new diamond belts

Now there are 200 and 400 grit grinding wheels that have been cleaned and leveled using my diamond sintered truing tool.
So in the empty space on the arbor, I added 3 sanding drums (1200, 3000 and 8000 grit).
I also have a 14,000 grit flat lap on one end.

On the other end, there was an old style metal sanding drum which I am now using as a holder for a padded leather polishing pad.

leather polishing pad with felt underlay

The gravity wetting system has been replaced by a "spitter" which wets the wheel being used from below.

So now I can cut rocks up to 2 inches thick, grind it from 60 grit (really coarse) to 14,000 grit (really, REALLY fine)  and then polish it.

cover reinstalled- ready for action!

The weather is getting cooler each day so the timing is perfect since I have a lot of beautiful agate to work with.
If you are in the area, now or next summer, let me know and I'll be happy to show you how it works. We should have some beautiful specimens and agate jewelry next spring.