Summer Project Complete

 Every spring I set out with a goal to finish enough rough rock to allow me to replace the cabochons and guitar picks I have sold through the summer in the shop and on line and this year I set out with high expectations because I had beautiful agate and jasper to work with.

I set my Cab King up so that I can use the coarse wheels on the left and also access the trim saw to cut shapes etc..

This actually makes the first stage of rough shaping go much faster. The plan is to take all pieces (this year about 60) through this phase and then remove the trim saw attachment (great saw by the way) and put back the three finishing wheels and polishing pad. And the plan was going perfectly until my sciatic nerve started to really act up and I couldn't stand up long enough to use the machine. So here I was with 60+ unfinished cabs and cold weather approaching. I needed a plan "B".

My wife Vickie (A.K.A. The Real Artist) knows how to use our Lot-O-Tumbler so we decided to finish them with it. The first problem was coming up with a big enough load and we did that by adding smaller, round, polished silicate stones. We sort of picked up where the wheels had left off by going with 600 grit and using more than usual to take into account the larger surface area of the smaller rocks. Normally I go one day on this grit but this time we went two. Vickie then moved on to 1000 grit silicone carbide pre polish and then to tin oxide polish. In both steps we added more grit and went two days. Finally, she did a burnishing cycle with Ivory Soap and again, we used more than normal.

The results were more than acceptable and there was virtually no breakage or damage. Here's how the total load looked.

And here's how it looked when all the round and small stones had been removed.

Now that I look at it, there were probably more than 60 pieces. But I ended up with some great cabochons,

and awesome guitar picks!

Would I go this route again in the future? Probably not simply because I love the process and I think the Cab King finishing wheels do a slightly better job. Also, you can't finish pieces that have crystal druzy pockets this way. But this process had it's advantages. First, it was faster and second it saved the wear on the finishing wheels but most importantly it gave us a way to finish the job with me out of commission!