Been dragging lately. Temp has hopped around a great deal and is messing with me.

My daughter picked the group in the lower righthand corner for the fifth run.

100 grit grind --




All of these are quartzes. The little one has a few large clear areas.

All three larger stones developed cavities. But I think I can work around all of them except on the red one.

I found that disappointing as I liked the iron stained one with its deep red "veins". The yellow brown one's cavities along the bezel might cause some problems. I don't know.

Not sure why blogger is making these two pics as downloads when you click on them. I set up the links like the other pics. Strange.

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220 grit grind --

Need to finish this batch before the Christmas stones come in.



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In an effort to save time I went through the sanding and polishing without taking pictures.

I'll put the end pics up later tonight or in the morning.

Something new I tried - rounding the bezel. Going through terapeak I noticed that all the ruby and jade had rounded bezels and I thought I should learn how to do that.

Thought I'd try the rounding on the 360grit step. No no no. It will need to be done on the 220grit sanding step.

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Polished -

Running late and couldn't get a good pic of the large white quartz. The brown quartz had several cracks that reached the surface.

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My daughter picked the center group for the fourth run.

100 grit grind --

These stones were a royal pain for one reason or another. Hopefully going forward they will be better behaved.

I knew the black stone was of the same soft material as before but the red one surprised me in that it felt hard enough to grind. However, the red stone developed a deep fissure that couldn't be ground away.

Those black stones are interesting in that the first two had small squares that sparkled, the third had some clear quartz in the bezel and dome, and this one has very small flecks of sparkly stuff in it.



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220 grit grind --



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220 grit sanding --



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360 grit sanding --

Hmm, now that I'm putting pics up I'm noticing that the step by step pictures don't show that much difference. Especially between the sanding steps.

Tempted to leave it out, but, I think my photo skills are ramping up and the more I do the better off I'll be when I get to selling. Not sure.

Having said that, I think this and the last are my favorite pics. Not so much the subject... just how it looks.



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600 grit sanding --



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Tripoli polish --

Third group

My daughter picked the top middle group for the third run.

100 grit grind --

Large quartzy stone was a pain in the rear. Several cavities in the dome. As it is, there are a number of cracks that reach the surface. Not sure how it will come out.

Pics where taken in my photo box from about six feet away and zoomed in. That seems the only way to get all the stones to have decent focus.



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220 grit grind --



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220 grit sanding --

Had to get a little creative to get a decent pic. Went with a shot of three and one of two.



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360 grit sanding --

Moving slow... feeling under the weather.



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600 grit sanding --

I like the color better on the pics without flash. But I can't seem to get a good sharp focus.

Another annoying thing. The pic editing software introduces artifacts. Like the round below has green splotches. I plan on getting another lamp with a 3000K light bulb. So that might be cleared up at that time.

The stone to the left of the large quartz has those flecks that the tripoli eats into. So I'll have an example of that. Speaking of that stone, it is interesting in that it is a mix of white and clear quartz with greenish black flecks. The round is also interesting in that it has green and blue material inside and a field (the brownish specks in the pic) that sparkles in the light.



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Tripoli polishing --

You'll see in the closeup of the quartz with greenish, black flecks how the flecks have been chewed up. If I had persisted, it would only have gotten worse.

I wasn't able to get the sparkle of the round without some blurring. The light and dark areas of the round are reflections of the inside of my photo box.

Thoughts on photography

The picture of the finished stone in the last group is still bothering me.

I googled around for photography tips and found this link talking about inexpensive ways of capturing jewelry.

Seems the use of a flash and direct, glaring lights are the problem.

So, I need to get a deep, frosted white bin. I also like her suggestion of using inexpensive lamps with specialized bulbs.

Not sure how soon I'll get all that stuff. With Thanksgiving tomorrow and Black Friday after, I don't want to go near a store.

Update:

Oh, looky here. Another photo box.

Another update:
I made the box at the second link. Been trying it out with one lamp and a piece of printer paper folded first lengthwise so that it can stand on its own and then widthwise so that it can reflect the light in a couple directions.

Most of what I've read indicates that you shouldn't use a flash. That works for me sometimes. Other times it comes out blurred. That might be corrected with a tripod.

Also noticed that the camera doesn't deal well with multiple stones in the pic.

So, here is my favorite of group two in my photo box --



I think I can reduce flash glare by standing way back while zoomed in.

Second group

Came across a pic editor by the name of picasa. Pretty useful for someone that doesn't know much about photography, like me.

My daughter picked the bottom middle group for the second run.

100 grit grind --



The stone on the lower right is another one of those soft stones that I'll give to my girl as is. The stone on the lower left had a cavities show up on the dome and the bezel. I was able to grind through the dome cavity without much loss, but the bezel cavities forced me to make it a small freehand. Both of the top stones had original portions of the dome much lower than other sides. I didn't think this much of a problem when marking them up as the low sides were above the bezel. However, it created a great deal of work to make the dome even. Because the stones were small it was still workable. But in the cases of other stones (i.e. group in the upper left hand corner) there is too much material to remove. I will have to resize those stones.

Next up, the 220 grit grind...

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220 grit grind --

Had issues with the very white stone. The depth of its color made it difficult to find the bezel line as well as any major ridges. I've read of people inking their stones before grinding. But there was never a reason given. Well, after dealing with that white stone I understand.

The large stone gave me a couple issues. One is that the bottom is curved and won't lie flat on the table. Making a flat bottom is hard on a wheel and much harder when the stone is large (40mm length). The other issue was that there was a cavity at the peak of the dome. It ground away nicely but the stone is so large that making the dome symmetrical after the fact is real hard.



Next up, the 220 grit sanding...

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220 grit sanding --

Well, after experimenting around I've come to the conclusion that my wife's Olympus SP-350 is pretty nifty. I should hunt down the manual.

You'll see in the wet pic below how the extender fluid interferes with how the water flows over the stone. I think I'll start doing just the dry pics of the sanding steps.



Next up, the 360 grit sanding...

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360 grit sanding --

For some reason I had issues getting a good pic of 360 grit sanding. I ended up having to bring in an additional light. What makes that strange to me is that extra light was causing me problems in other photos.

Ehh.



Next up, the 600 grit sanding...

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600 grit sanding --

Big stone developed a small cavity during the 220 grit sanding. I've got it down to a speck and am too worried about opening a bigger cavity if I push it. Not sure if the tripoli will be able to smooth the last bit of the speck. Yet another reason to switch to all diamond sanding and polishing.



Lastly, tripoli polishing...

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Tripoli polishing --

Wish I knew how to capture the finish properly in a pic. I set up a light so that the reflection can been seen, but only the large stone picked it up.

Hmmm.

Looking at the blowup of this pic the large stone appears to have fissures all over it's surface but that is not the case. It has a mirror polish with the only blemish being the small cavity SW of the camera's flash. The stone is what I call aggregated quartz (lots of small quartz crystals melded together). I have no idea what its proper name is. I think the camera is picking up where the small crystals meet within the stone. That and there are odd sparks all over in that pic. Looking at the stone now, I do notice that the light catches the crystals if turned just so. I'm guessing the camera is picking up on that as well.

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First group

My daughter picked the group in the lower left hand corner for the first run.

I was right about the blackish stones, they are too soft. They are of the same material of one of the first stones I ground. They have some material that sparkles and flashes like pyrite. The thing is that material comes in square flakes that pull out on polishing. So what I was left with was a stone with a dull polish and all of its interesting sparkle gone. As you can see below, these stones still have their sparkle. On the smaller one the flakes are on edge and form a spiral to the center. The flakes are flat on the larger one and it gives flashes that I couldn't capture with the camera. The wet pic shows what they might look like if I had all the grits to polish soft stones.

I will do nothing further with the two soft stones as my daughter likes them as is. I asked her about the other four stones that I think are the same material and she'd like them ground to rough form. As she has me wrapped around her little finger, she'll get them as she wishes.

Main tasks on the 100 grit grinding step are -

• Grind near bezel to the top marks
• Grind from top marks to center dot
• Then with the use of the template, work the sides in so that it can tightly pass through the template

I was a bit lazy on the reddish stone in the middle. As I was sizing to template I found I was more than a bit off. This means I'll have more work to do on the 220 grit step to clean up the bezel.

The large quartz stone on the right has some major flaws that might cause problems with polishing. There are two major cleavage-like cracks that run across the width and length of the stone. There are also a number of flaws that reach the surface of the stone. This means that cavities can open up at each point where the surface is breached. In the wet picture you can tell that the flaws run deep and that there is no real chance to grind through them. Still, it is an interesting rock and I want to see how it turns out.

Next up, the 220 grit grind...

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220 grit grind --

Main tasks on the 220 grit grinding step are -

• Grind to bezel
• Get rid of any ridges/bumps near the bezel and any major ridges/bumps elsewhere on the stone
• Ensure that that the stone has been made as symmetrical as possible as it would be very hard to correct this in the sanding steps ahead
  
• Put a shallow 45 degree cut into the bottom edge to prevent chipping (just enough to remove the sharp edge)
• If the stone is very translucent or transparent, go over the bottom as well
  

My wife suggested that I go to a black background on the pics. I have to agree, the color does come out better.



Next I'll dop the stones and sand with 220 grit diamond....

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220 grit sanding --

The only task on the 220 grit sanding step is -

• Remove all ridges, bumps, and flat areas

The only ridges, bumps, or flat areas that you should leave for the 360 grit sanding step are those that the 220 grit will make worse.



Next I'll sand with 360 grit diamond....

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360 grit sanding --

Main tasks on the 360 grit sanding step are -

• Remove all ridges, bumps, and flat areas left from the 220 grit sanding
• Sand the whole stone to prepare for polishing
  

I was moving too quick to notice I got too close with the camera and blurred the pictures.

Irritating.

Next I'll sand with 600 grit diamond....

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600 grit sanding --

Main tasks on the 600 grit sanding step are -

• Remove all ridges, bumps, and flat areas left from the 360 grit sanding
• Sand the whole stone to prepare for polishing
  

Only the dry pic below as the extender fluid stops the water from shining the stone up.



On to the tripoli step....

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Polishing with tripoli --

Work towards the center as the pad dries. Continue to work as it starts to drag a bit. Be careful of letting it run too fast and hot or you'll get a weird flow effect.



Hmm, putting all this up tells me I need to work on my camera work considering I want to sell on ebay at some point.

Ground near template, marked, and grouped

Had two stones that I had to grind smaller as one had a hidden cavity and another broke along a cleavage line and around five more that due to its shape I had to make a short bezel line. I'll have to work the dome down more on those.

I think the blackish ones with a bit of sparkle as well as the small red stone might be too soft to take a polish with the tripoli and cerium oxide. Not too concerned with these. Nor am I interested in getting the grit to deal with soft stones at this time.

I found the marble looking stones as well as the flat quartz(?) stones to be interesting. First, they were much harder than what I was expecting. The quartz might be explained because of how large they are. They are the largest stones I've worked so far and are about as large as I can work on a 6" x 1" wheel. The marble-like ones are a mystery to me. Before cutting they looked white with pink zones and darker lines running throughout. But on cutting they showed varying shades of red. I'm curious as to what they'll look like polished.

At the time it seemed like a good idea to grind all of the stones to near template in one go and work smaller batches to completion. Now, with my back and chest (crouched at the grinder) complaining, I'm not so sure.

Trimmed to rough form

Dry and wet pictures of trimmed rough --



Next up is the 100 grit wheel. I'll be grinding down near to template and marking out the bezel line as well as the dome.