Thought about what I'd start with some more.
Ruby rough is kinda spendy and good jade rough is hard to find.
I thought again on the price range I should start with. I wanted to keep it low at first because my ebay feedback is low but good. When such is the case and I have no brick-and-mortar to back me I can not risk high price items on ebay. The item will sell much lower than it should because potential buyers will move on past because they don't trust me.
But I think I aimed too low. I picked $10-20 and I think I can safely look in the $10-40 range.
That opens the door for new materials.
So, using both ebay searches and terapeak research on what sells as a cab and what has decently priced rough, I've decided to look at pietersite, jasper (ocean and any with good "pictures"), rhodochrosite (shows up in ebay as rhodocrosite quite often), and boulder opal.
I've mentioned in the past that I was spooked by the amount of jasper and agate sold as fancy cabs. Well I'm not positive, but, I think I may have been wrong. The fancy cabs do well but so do the plain ovals and rounds if they have good pictures/patterns.
I'm also doing research into making silver chains as they go well in that price range.
Custom Search
Saturday, December 29, 2007
I'm seeing this more and more. Where the signals on the weekly chart are very good... after the fact.
As the price moves, signals are given that often reverse by mid-week. That is common with all signals but on a weekly chart there is much time lost. I'm also seeing where very good gains are being eaten up in the next entry.
What I've seen in this last batch is where the price reversed well under my limit. So if I reset my limits lower in the future I won't make the high returns that I'm after.
Hmmm.
EUR/USD - Moved stop on short 1.4612, stop 1.4600, limit 1.4105 and it limited out shortly thereafter. Profit diff 12.
GBP/USD - Watching.
AUD/USD - Watching.
USD/CAD - Stopped out on long 1.0021. Loss diff 255.
EUR/JPY - No change on long 164.42, stop 159.50.
GBP/JPY - No change on long 228.52, stop 222.80, limit 236.71.
=========================
Update:
Temps that go from 15 degrees to 70 hurt my head. Been near worthless.
EUR/JPY - Stopped out long 164.42 on 12/31. Profit diff 42
GBP/JPY - Stopped out long 228.52 on 12/31. Loss diff -572
As the price moves, signals are given that often reverse by mid-week. That is common with all signals but on a weekly chart there is much time lost. I'm also seeing where very good gains are being eaten up in the next entry.
What I've seen in this last batch is where the price reversed well under my limit. So if I reset my limits lower in the future I won't make the high returns that I'm after.
Hmmm.
EUR/USD - Moved stop on short 1.4612, stop 1.4600, limit 1.4105 and it limited out shortly thereafter. Profit diff 12.
GBP/USD - Watching.
AUD/USD - Watching.
USD/CAD - Stopped out on long 1.0021. Loss diff 255.
EUR/JPY - No change on long 164.42, stop 159.50.
GBP/JPY - No change on long 228.52, stop 222.80, limit 236.71.
=========================
Update:
Temps that go from 15 degrees to 70 hurt my head. Been near worthless.
EUR/JPY - Stopped out long 164.42 on 12/31. Profit diff 42
GBP/JPY - Stopped out long 228.52 on 12/31. Loss diff -572
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Learned a few things
Rounded bezel -
Trying to round it on the 220grit sanding step was not good enough. I'll try doing it on the 220grit grinding step in the same manner as rounding the peak of the dome in the 100grit grinding step.
Scratches -
In the cab books I saw mention of scratches and getting rid of the previous step's scratches before moving on. I had thought that I had not seen that until this batch. But that isn't the case. On a few of my found rocks I saw scratches show up at polishing that I thought came from me being sloppy and hitting the arbor nut.
After the scratches came up on the obsidian I decided that I'd use my loupe on the stone before moving on. I was surprised at how often they showed up. In most of the materials I was able to go back and work it out. But on a few (petrified wood mainly), further work made more scratches. In those cases I'd try to minimize the scratch and then work it out on the next grit.
1200 diamond grit -
It arrived just in time.
I found that it cut much slower than the tripoli but I had no undercutting. It also runs hotter. I needed to swap out the stones that I was working in order to keep them cool enough to stay on the dop.
On some rocks I was beginning to think that it didn't give as good of a polish as the tripoli, but I'm not sure. It shined the clear areas on the crazy lace agates to a high gloss. So in this case, I'm thinking it was the material that didn't give a high gloss with 1200grit. Based on that assumption I was tempted to break out the cerium oxide. However, I was worried that it would chew the material up like the tripoli.
I had bought 14K diamond grit along with the 1200, but forgot to buy the second uncharged disk.
=\
Regardless, I'm left thinking that not only should I get 50K grit in case I run across more stones with very soft parts but maybe a grit somewhere around 800-1000 because the 1200 is pretty slow.
Update:
I had another thought regarding the 1200 diamond grit.
I've been buying the cheapest paste (5gr for ~$5 (cheaper diamond paste has less diamond)) and it has worked well because I try to do all the primary work on the wheels. By that I mean I don't want it to cut fast. But I wonder if I higher density diamond paste would take care of the slowness I'm seeing.
Trying to round it on the 220grit sanding step was not good enough. I'll try doing it on the 220grit grinding step in the same manner as rounding the peak of the dome in the 100grit grinding step.
Scratches -
In the cab books I saw mention of scratches and getting rid of the previous step's scratches before moving on. I had thought that I had not seen that until this batch. But that isn't the case. On a few of my found rocks I saw scratches show up at polishing that I thought came from me being sloppy and hitting the arbor nut.
After the scratches came up on the obsidian I decided that I'd use my loupe on the stone before moving on. I was surprised at how often they showed up. In most of the materials I was able to go back and work it out. But on a few (petrified wood mainly), further work made more scratches. In those cases I'd try to minimize the scratch and then work it out on the next grit.
1200 diamond grit -
It arrived just in time.
I found that it cut much slower than the tripoli but I had no undercutting. It also runs hotter. I needed to swap out the stones that I was working in order to keep them cool enough to stay on the dop.
On some rocks I was beginning to think that it didn't give as good of a polish as the tripoli, but I'm not sure. It shined the clear areas on the crazy lace agates to a high gloss. So in this case, I'm thinking it was the material that didn't give a high gloss with 1200grit. Based on that assumption I was tempted to break out the cerium oxide. However, I was worried that it would chew the material up like the tripoli.
I had bought 14K diamond grit along with the 1200, but forgot to buy the second uncharged disk.
=\
Regardless, I'm left thinking that not only should I get 50K grit in case I run across more stones with very soft parts but maybe a grit somewhere around 800-1000 because the 1200 is pretty slow.
Update:
I had another thought regarding the 1200 diamond grit.
I've been buying the cheapest paste (5gr for ~$5 (cheaper diamond paste has less diamond)) and it has worked well because I try to do all the primary work on the wheels. By that I mean I don't want it to cut fast. But I wonder if I higher density diamond paste would take care of the slowness I'm seeing.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Opalized Petrified Wood from Arizona
Some chipping on the larger stone. I didn't resize and will just free-form it.
================================
Like the WY stone, 100grit wheel tore through it.
================================
220grit grind went smoothly
And the large one backlit... just because
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings went smoothly.
================================
1200grit Polish --
================================
Like the WY stone, 100grit wheel tore through it.
================================
220grit grind went smoothly
And the large one backlit... just because
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings went smoothly.
================================
1200grit Polish --
Opalized Petrified Wood from Wyoming
Some chipping but nothing large.
================================
100grit wheel was fast on this stone. Also left a number of scratches.
Cabbing very large stones is a pain. The large one here is 52x38mm.
================================
220grit grind went smoothly
And the large one backlit... just because
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings had several scratches develop. I got rid of most of them but a few more showed up when I tried to get rid of all of them.
================================
1200grit Polish --
================================
100grit wheel was fast on this stone. Also left a number of scratches.
Cabbing very large stones is a pain. The large one here is 52x38mm.
================================
220grit grind went smoothly
And the large one backlit... just because
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings had several scratches develop. I got rid of most of them but a few more showed up when I tried to get rid of all of them.
================================
1200grit Polish --
Rodeo Lace Agate
Had some additional chipping on some of the stones. The one with two bezel lines was a hard choice - use the bottom as top and have a less interesting pattern or keep the same top and take the stone inside of the template.
I chose the better pattern.
================================
I worked this stone right after the Crazy Lace. In comparison it felt as soft as compressed clay. The 100grit wheel was very fast on this material.
The round came apart in an unclean break. Can't use the glue to fix it.
================================
220grit grind -
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings went smoothly.
================================
1200grit Polish --
I chose the better pattern.
================================
I worked this stone right after the Crazy Lace. In comparison it felt as soft as compressed clay. The 100grit wheel was very fast on this material.
The round came apart in an unclean break. Can't use the glue to fix it.
================================
220grit grind -
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings went smoothly.
================================
1200grit Polish --
Mexican Crazy Lace Agate
More issues with this stone. The larger stone with the white spike had some of the edge fall away. I thought of resizing it but the pattern is just too nice. I took the sides in to get rid of the hole and to attempt to get it symmetrical.
================================
Worked these after the wonderstone and petrified wood.
Very strange material. Some of its components felt like they worked as hard as the corundum I've found. But it also had this very soft blood colored material throughout.
Unfortunately, my dragon's head was distorted by the curve of the cab. Also, one of the larger stones had a large cavity open up. But this isn't a cavity like I've dealt with on my found rocks. No, it is like a mini geode with little crystals in it. What I'm trying to figure out now is if I should leave it as is or try to fill it with crazy-glue or some kind of resin.
Ehh.
================================
220grit grind -
Backlit -
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings went smoothly.
================================
1200grit Polish --
================================
Worked these after the wonderstone and petrified wood.
Very strange material. Some of its components felt like they worked as hard as the corundum I've found. But it also had this very soft blood colored material throughout.
Unfortunately, my dragon's head was distorted by the curve of the cab. Also, one of the larger stones had a large cavity open up. But this isn't a cavity like I've dealt with on my found rocks. No, it is like a mini geode with little crystals in it. What I'm trying to figure out now is if I should leave it as is or try to fill it with crazy-glue or some kind of resin.
Ehh.
================================
220grit grind -
Backlit -
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings went smoothly.
================================
1200grit Polish --
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wonderstone Rhyolite
Again had some chipping on grinding down to template. Also have some fissures on the sides of a couple. Not sure if I can fix those.
==================================
These were about the same hardness as what I'm used to with my found rocks.
My "feather" rock came apart cleanly on a seam. Made a quick check on a site that I found on GeekPress. Nothing was said about gluing stone to stone, but it said super-glue was good for ceramic to ceramic.
I glued the two pieces together and continued on.
================================
220grit grind -
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings had a few scratches develop but were removed in later sandings.
================================
1200grit Polish --
==================================
These were about the same hardness as what I'm used to with my found rocks.
My "feather" rock came apart cleanly on a seam. Made a quick check on a site that I found on GeekPress. Nothing was said about gluing stone to stone, but it said super-glue was good for ceramic to ceramic.
I glued the two pieces together and continued on.
================================
220grit grind -
================================
600grit sanding -
220 and 360grit sandings had a few scratches develop but were removed in later sandings.
================================
1200grit Polish --
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Zebra Jasper
I'll be happy when I'm done with this stinky stone.
100grit grind --
Well, the stench has gone from musk, mold, and rot to all of that plus rotten eggs.
A nice winged horse in the center of the larger stone though.
======================
220grit grind --
Only stinky when I smoothed the bottom. A very strange stone.
In the interest of saving time I'm not going to take pics of the 220 and 600 grit sandings.
======================
360grit sanding --
======================
These will have to wait until the 1200 diamond grit comes as the tripoli chewed into the one I tried. Not as bad as the speckled one I posted a while back but annoying nonetheless.
======================
1200grit Polish --
100grit grind --
Well, the stench has gone from musk, mold, and rot to all of that plus rotten eggs.
A nice winged horse in the center of the larger stone though.
======================
220grit grind --
Only stinky when I smoothed the bottom. A very strange stone.
In the interest of saving time I'm not going to take pics of the 220 and 600 grit sandings.
======================
360grit sanding --
======================
These will have to wait until the 1200 diamond grit comes as the tripoli chewed into the one I tried. Not as bad as the speckled one I posted a while back but annoying nonetheless.
======================
1200grit Polish --
Gold Sheen Obsidian
The amount of chipping the 100grit wheel caused on this stone has me thinking I'll do as little work as possible on that wheel. I think I'll work sort of close to the bezel and just to the outer top marks.
100grit grind -
When going down to the bezel and the outer top lines I had no chipping. So I decided to finish the rough forming.
What I was unable to capture in a pic is how the banding can be seen at different levels in the stone and how it stands out when the light catches the sheen.
======================
220grit grind -
In showing these to my wife just now she said "I thought you drew those lines on". I said "no". And then she goes "ooooohhhhh!".
Women bring color to an otherwise gray world.
In the interest of saving time I'm not going to take pics of the 220 and 600 grit sandings.
======================
360grit sanding --
I wish I could capture the 3D shimmering bands. Very nice.
======================
Tripoli shined them up nicely. However, a number of bunched scratches showed up after polishing. I've seen these before on other rocks and I'm not sure if they were missed on the sanding steps or I polished too fast and too dry and caused some "flow".
Regardless, I'm going to polish them with cerium oxide now in an attempt to take care of those scratches.
======================
Well, that didn't get rid of the groups of scratches. My wife tells me she can only see them if I point them out and she looks real hard. But they stand out to me. Like a huge neon sign is pointing them out.
So I took them back to the 600grit sanding and hunted the things down. Based on how hard they were to get out, I suspect they showed up much earlier. Possibly around the 220grit sanding. But what stands out on polishing is *very* hard to see earlier on.
On polishing with tripoli for the second time there were cloudy areas (not full mirror shine). Not sure the cause of that, but I'll try another go with the cerium oxide.
======================
They're a bit better. One still has some faint scratches and some dull area. But the other one is OK.
Tempted to put up this pair with the contrast bumped up in order to give an idea what the gold sheen looks like.
100grit grind -
When going down to the bezel and the outer top lines I had no chipping. So I decided to finish the rough forming.
What I was unable to capture in a pic is how the banding can be seen at different levels in the stone and how it stands out when the light catches the sheen.
======================
220grit grind -
In showing these to my wife just now she said "I thought you drew those lines on". I said "no". And then she goes "ooooohhhhh!".
Women bring color to an otherwise gray world.
In the interest of saving time I'm not going to take pics of the 220 and 600 grit sandings.
======================
360grit sanding --
I wish I could capture the 3D shimmering bands. Very nice.
======================
Tripoli shined them up nicely. However, a number of bunched scratches showed up after polishing. I've seen these before on other rocks and I'm not sure if they were missed on the sanding steps or I polished too fast and too dry and caused some "flow".
Regardless, I'm going to polish them with cerium oxide now in an attempt to take care of those scratches.
======================
Well, that didn't get rid of the groups of scratches. My wife tells me she can only see them if I point them out and she looks real hard. But they stand out to me. Like a huge neon sign is pointing them out.
So I took them back to the 600grit sanding and hunted the things down. Based on how hard they were to get out, I suspect they showed up much earlier. Possibly around the 220grit sanding. But what stands out on polishing is *very* hard to see earlier on.
On polishing with tripoli for the second time there were cloudy areas (not full mirror shine). Not sure the cause of that, but I'll try another go with the cerium oxide.
======================
They're a bit better. One still has some faint scratches and some dull area. But the other one is OK.
Tempted to put up this pair with the contrast bumped up in order to give an idea what the gold sheen looks like.
Pic below was taken dry after preforming on the 100grit wheel. The small one on the right shows how small I would have had to resize if I didn't decide to make the other side the top.
100grit grind -
======================
220grit grind -
In the interest of saving time I'm not going to take pics of the 220 and 600 grit sandings.
======================
360grit sanding --
Interesting colors are starting to show up in the stone.
======================
These will have to wait until the 1200 diamond grit comes as the tripoli chewed into the one I tried. Not as bad as the speckled one I posted a while back but annoying nonetheless.
======================
1200grit Polish --
100grit grind -
======================
220grit grind -
In the interest of saving time I'm not going to take pics of the 220 and 600 grit sandings.
======================
360grit sanding --
Interesting colors are starting to show up in the stone.
======================
These will have to wait until the 1200 diamond grit comes as the tripoli chewed into the one I tried. Not as bad as the speckled one I posted a while back but annoying nonetheless.
======================
1200grit Polish --
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Christmas Rocks
The slabs have arrived.
I was expecting them this past Thursday but no. Not the fault of the ebay seller, just USPS was running slow.
I'll have to move faster than I had hoped but... ehhh.
I've also gotten around to ordering 1200 and 14K diamond grits which should show up next week. What lit a fire under my rear on this is if any of my Christmas rocks have soft areas that the tripoli might chew up.
Let's have a look-see. These photos are done outside of my box so that I can get a more vertical view. Granted, as I wet them I could not get a 90 degree shot on them without major glare. I probably should have used the photo box.
Wonderstone Rhyolite --
I like the patterns on this but there are many cracks that meet the surface. As the cracks follow the outsides of the major patterns I should be able to work around them.
Here it is marked. My wife found the "feather" in the top round and the "sunrise" to the left of that. I found the "gas flame" on the right.
This stone might be trouble. The cracks appear to be cleavage and I've had a small piece pop off in moving it around.
This stone had some chipping and sloughing but nothing to effect the cabs.
Leopardskin Jasper --
I like this one. Should make two nice stones.
Not so great pics of the mark-up. One with too much flash and the other without enough light. Because of the patterns I'm going to have to cut the top of each of the two cabs from different sides of the slab.
This stone was a pain to trim and I had some sloughing that forced me to resize one of the cabs (on the left). I will probably use the flip side so that I can save some of the material and have a bit of a pattern.
Mexican Crazy Lace Agate --
I very much like this one. There are some cracks that meet the surface and a couple of cavities. But it looks very workable.
Oh this is a lovely stone!
Dragon's head.
Sorry about the focus on this one.
My beautiful stone had a major issue. I began to trim in between the two larger cabs and the stone came apart. A small chunk was taken out of one of the larger cabs and a large piece fell away from the other large cab (forcing a resize). And the material under the chin of the dragon's head fell away as well. But all might not be lost on that. How it fell away I may be able to save the head but it won't be symmetrical.
Gold Sheen Obsidian --
I like this one as well. There is a nice sheen when it is held at a slight angle. If the material was thicker I'd try to orient it to flash when viewed directly, but still I nice stone all around.
Very well behaved stone on trimming. It did have some chipping but nothing major.
Rodeo Lace Agate --
Not as keen on this one. Too busy looking. But the womenfolk in my house like it.
Sorry about the focus on these.
Another well behaved stone. Did have a good deal of material slough off around the thin stone. But that was expected as it was near some fissures.
Zebra Jasper --
Not too hot on this one either. I only like black and white things when they have very interesting patterns. I'll try for that when I mark out the templates. Seems there was some leftover oil on the stone from when it was slabbed. But I think it's OK in that the wet view can be seen.
When marking this one up I noticed that the white areas have white reflective chips throughout (about 1mm x 3mm).
This stone smelled of the swamp when taken to the trim saw. Very odd.
Opalized Petrified Wood from Wyoming --
I tend to prefer play of color in my opalized items but the womenfolk insisted.
A good bit of material sloughed away from the smaller cab and I had to resize.
Opalized Petrified Wood from Arizona (free gift from seller (thanks natures-gifts2000!)) --
I may be able to get two stones out of this one.
I did have enough material to cut another cab.
======================================
Think I'll do things a bit different this time around.
From here I'll open a post for each type of material to cover the steps to polishing. As time is an issue, I may not take pics of every step.
I was expecting them this past Thursday but no. Not the fault of the ebay seller, just USPS was running slow.
I'll have to move faster than I had hoped but... ehhh.
I've also gotten around to ordering 1200 and 14K diamond grits which should show up next week. What lit a fire under my rear on this is if any of my Christmas rocks have soft areas that the tripoli might chew up.
Let's have a look-see. These photos are done outside of my box so that I can get a more vertical view. Granted, as I wet them I could not get a 90 degree shot on them without major glare. I probably should have used the photo box.
Wonderstone Rhyolite --
I like the patterns on this but there are many cracks that meet the surface. As the cracks follow the outsides of the major patterns I should be able to work around them.
Here it is marked. My wife found the "feather" in the top round and the "sunrise" to the left of that. I found the "gas flame" on the right.
This stone might be trouble. The cracks appear to be cleavage and I've had a small piece pop off in moving it around.
This stone had some chipping and sloughing but nothing to effect the cabs.
Leopardskin Jasper --
I like this one. Should make two nice stones.
Not so great pics of the mark-up. One with too much flash and the other without enough light. Because of the patterns I'm going to have to cut the top of each of the two cabs from different sides of the slab.
This stone was a pain to trim and I had some sloughing that forced me to resize one of the cabs (on the left). I will probably use the flip side so that I can save some of the material and have a bit of a pattern.
Mexican Crazy Lace Agate --
I very much like this one. There are some cracks that meet the surface and a couple of cavities. But it looks very workable.
Oh this is a lovely stone!
Dragon's head.
Sorry about the focus on this one.
My beautiful stone had a major issue. I began to trim in between the two larger cabs and the stone came apart. A small chunk was taken out of one of the larger cabs and a large piece fell away from the other large cab (forcing a resize). And the material under the chin of the dragon's head fell away as well. But all might not be lost on that. How it fell away I may be able to save the head but it won't be symmetrical.
Gold Sheen Obsidian --
I like this one as well. There is a nice sheen when it is held at a slight angle. If the material was thicker I'd try to orient it to flash when viewed directly, but still I nice stone all around.
Very well behaved stone on trimming. It did have some chipping but nothing major.
Rodeo Lace Agate --
Not as keen on this one. Too busy looking. But the womenfolk in my house like it.
Sorry about the focus on these.
Another well behaved stone. Did have a good deal of material slough off around the thin stone. But that was expected as it was near some fissures.
Zebra Jasper --
Not too hot on this one either. I only like black and white things when they have very interesting patterns. I'll try for that when I mark out the templates. Seems there was some leftover oil on the stone from when it was slabbed. But I think it's OK in that the wet view can be seen.
When marking this one up I noticed that the white areas have white reflective chips throughout (about 1mm x 3mm).
This stone smelled of the swamp when taken to the trim saw. Very odd.
Opalized Petrified Wood from Wyoming --
I tend to prefer play of color in my opalized items but the womenfolk insisted.
A good bit of material sloughed away from the smaller cab and I had to resize.
Opalized Petrified Wood from Arizona (free gift from seller (thanks natures-gifts2000!)) --
I may be able to get two stones out of this one.
I did have enough material to cut another cab.
======================================
Think I'll do things a bit different this time around.
From here I'll open a post for each type of material to cover the steps to polishing. As time is an issue, I may not take pics of every step.
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