Introduction To Hydrophane Welo Opal. I started buying small amounts of rough Welo in 2008 and increased to multiple kilos by now. I've cut a couple of thousand stones from Welo and worked on developing procedures that worked for me during 2008 and sold my first Welo in 2009.
I'm using it -- as I have for years -- for one of the five steps using progressively finer diamond grits to polish Welo Ethiopian opal cabochons and carvings. Read more. One person found this helpful. Helpful. Comment Report abuse. Kindle Customer. 1.0 out of 5 stars Not 100,000 grit.
Tools for Opal Carving: The best flexshaft tools I've ever found for sanding and polishing stages are the Nova Miniature Points from Diamond Pacific (800-253-2954). Basically these points are like Cratex, but with diamond grit instead of silicon carbide. They are BLOODY expensive, about USD $7.25 each.
I would use 800 grit and 1200 grit wheels if you can get them. Dimond impregnated steel wheels are better because they feel much smoother and will cause less damage.Also the carborundum wheels can very quickly grind a nasty hole in your finger if you are not very careful. When cutting opal you need to keep the stone wet at all times for 2 reasons.
Opal cutting using flat lap machines has many advantages. For many years I had cut and polished opal using the conventional grinding wheels. I started on a two wheel carborundum grinder as that was all I could afford. By being very careful and ensuring I used the full width of the wheel this produced reasonable results.
Jul 28, 2014· I dust flat surfaces outside the grinding area before grinding and check the surfaces for dust build-up right after finishing my grinding and after about 1/2 hour to make sure no dust has leaked out. ... so you might have more luck going into a final polish. There are better sources of polishing grit than your local craft store, after all ...
We find Mexican Fire Opal can vary greatly in hardness and toughness. When you first start faceting the opal, get a general idea of how hard it is and pick an appropriate grit lap to shape the opal. We usually start pre-forming the opal with 360 to 400 grit laps, although the Hyper-Edge 250 grit is a good lap to start on a large opal.
Cutting And Polishing the Opal: Polishing wheels start at 120 grit diamond than rubber wheels 400 grit / 600 grit / 1400 grit before final polish. 1. Dop The Opal. First we need to get the stone onto a dop stick. When the stone is on the dop stick it is easier to manoeuvre and shape. Use the 220-grit wheel and flatten its reverse side tone.
Octobers Birthstones-Tourmaline & Opal ... On the left a large 10mm round Welo opal set in 9ct yellow gold -an incredible stone that flashes orange,yellow,green and red. ... Normally whilst I am doing the outside of the rings,Hubby Dean is grinding out the interiors.
The opal cutter then utilizes a series of diamond grinding wheels, in order to shape and perfect the stone. Importance is placed on removing imperfections in the stone, such as sand spots, and removing saw marks and rough spots from previous stages. The face of the stone is shaped into a cabochon, which is a dome shape, and the final shape is ...
diamond grinding wheel. Depending on the rough stones you have, opal cutting and polishing can either start with the diamond blade or with the grinding machine. Sometimes you have to use the grinder to clean up the stone a bit so that you can either expose the .
Australian lightning ridge opal. Shipped with USPS priority mail. I buy my opal direct from dealers/miner's in Australia and I grind/ create finished stones starting with 80 grit through 4000 grit .
on, but I believe it is one of the best way to cut opals, if your cutting them for yourself and not mass cutting. I also teach to just use a grinder from the hardware store for grinding nearly every stone, including opal, to shape before going to the sandpaper. YES, a water system must be used, I .
Opal Processing, polishing, and cutting. Learn opal processing and cutting to gain a skill that will stay with you for the rest of your life and could possibly give you a business as a bonus. Opals are the most fascinating of the various types of precious stones.
Jul 12, 2016· The lower grits were called gator-grit made in Finland, wet or dry that does not say what the grit is. Bought at Ace hdwr. Finer grits were Matador waterproof siliciumcarbid made in Germany.
Aug 11, 2008· Check out this video on how to grind and shape rough opals with a grinder. You can grind and shape rough opals using basic homemade equipment. You will require a Bench Grinder, a cut down plastic bucket, a length of pipe for the water feed, and a green grit wheel, for a low cost.
Grinding wheels usually will be between 24 and 100 grit. Honing stones and jointing stones and other polishing abrasives will be 150 grit and higher. Use a coarse grit for fast, aggressive stock removal and finer grits for less stock removal but better surface finish. Grinding wheel hardness
Precious opal and common opal can be shaped and polished in a rock tumbler. Be warned before you try it that this is a great way to waste a bunch of nice and often expensive opal if you don't know what you are doing or if you don't pay careful attention to what is happening in the barrel. Here are a few important things to keep in mind before you load the barrel...
Start with 180, 220, 240, or 260 mesh grit for quick removal and shaping into a preform. If you are going to use dops, prepare the dopping surface of the opal so that the dop will fit securely in place. Most preparation consists of developing an almost flat area and working it with 600 mesh grit.
Free-forming Opal By Hand by Carol Bova. ... When you change grit, you wash the stone in clean water, change the water and clean out the container you're using to keep the stone wet and last, put away the lower grit material, (separate paper bags are a good idea to keep from contaminating a higher level sheet -- and the paper lets the sheet dry ...
Jul 14, 2016· Before deciding how to cut your rough opal stone, first take the skin off the so you can get an idea of the location and quality of the colour bars. Once you have removed the skin, and inspect the ...
Picture: Opal cutting machine with bucket. So, let create a wet grinding setup. The first thing we need is grinding or polishing wheels, about 3-6 of them in different grits. Il leave the actual grit recommendations to others but let say something on the order of .
Aug 15, 2015· Learn how to cut and polish opals with buying expensive cutting machines, simply and easily. You won't believe the process is this easy and inexpensive
Sep 08, 2016· Final Polish on Opals. Jewelry Discussion. Jed_Allsop. September 8, 2016, 2:49am #1. I recently started to work opal. My main focus has been Mexican fire opals. I cab the stones with a Diamond Pacific Genie. ... of grinding from the standard 100 grit wheel to 220 grit belts to 600 grit belts to 1200 diamond to polish. I now go from a 100 grit