@@RoysRocks they do make aluminum stencils for lapidaries they are kinda thick I'll order one to see if it's worth it but at 37$ for a stencil I need to go undercover. Wife's not gonna eat that. "37$ for a stencil!? They have some 1$ ones at the dollar store" ...
@@LaurentiusTriarius I reckon I could make my own metal stencils. Someone at work suggested that I do for some high precision and long lasting templates.
Omg the neighbours theme tune in ‘instrumental lounge style’ totally distracted me from watching your cutting (your background music).... great vid as usual.....thanks for sharing your opal adventures!
Wow i'm very surprised at the viewer votes! My guess was 2! I'll be waiting a little while for that video to come out hahah. Turned out pretty good! I need to get some stencils hahaha.
@@RoysRocks I made a comment on a channel that is focused on opals. Got a comment on just buy one, as they had hundreds, if not thousands, for sale. A. I couldn't afford one. B. I would rather learn more about the gem. C. I want to go back to Coober Pedy. D. I want to polish just one for my own satisfaction. Then I want to do wire wrapping. Get the gear first and try from the ground up. With arthritis and age. I am so "annoyed" by this person. I bet his wallet is way bigger than his opal love. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
one of my favourite of your vids.. my first attempt at cutting was with Black Seam opal!! (Sand and crystal everywhere!!) still have some of the casualties for when i feel bored to go at again! Nice work
Looks good! Two questions, did I see you say you sell the sintered burs? And you've bought from the Blacklighters auctions before, how did you contact them for payment, I've sent a facebook messenger query to them but haven't heard back yet and don't know if that was what I was meant to do. Sorry to ask but you're the only one I know who has bought from them. Looking forward to seeing this piece being polished but as I voted for 4 even more interested in that one.😉👍
Hi Jeni, Yeah I am just getting into the selling of the sintered burrs because I wasn't happy with the prices companies were selling them for. I only get small batches in at a time but as soon as one batch sells I automatically buy another so constantly getting them in. For the blacklighters because of the volume of sales they are doing they do get behind on the invoices but I always do similar to you. Just pm them with your paypal details and hopefully they get on to it soon. Rock #4 will be straight after this one.
Great looking pieces amazing I still got to get me a set of those amazing sintered diamond bits from you they make these bits that I'm using rubbish LOL just seems like they work a lot better can't wait to get my hands on a set.👍👍👍
They are great. I was surprised at how much better than the electroplated sets these turned out to be. The price just always scared me away and now I sell them for less than I could buy my own set for!!! LOL 🤣
Hey Justin... Good news!!! Another batch of sintered diamond burrs have arrived and are ready for sale. Your name is high enough on the list to get a chance at the current batch. Please let me know if you are still interested or not. (email: roys.rocks@yahoo.com)
Hi! I’m super new (as in I’ve not done a rub yet). I am learning so much from your videos and I have a bazillion questions but I will keep it to 2. 1. Where do you get the stencils? 2. Where do you find your rough stones and do you ever have junk ones you’d be willing to donate for practicing purposes? Lol
Hi and welcome. 1/ Amazon has heaps of cheap stencils (people buy them for school). Can also go a school supplies store or jewelry tools store. 2/ I buy my materials from a wise range of miners and suppliers across the country. Mostly dealing online but a few in person. If you buy some beginner grade material most sellers would be happy to throw in some practice rocks that have no colour (potch).
I'm curious about what would happen if you soaked some boulder opal matrix in CLR cleaning fluid for a while. I am also wondering about how that would affect the stone on some of the chips I bought, it looks like limestone to me. I don't know if it is limestone but I live on the Bruce peninsula and it's all limestone and sand and the rock on my chips looks like it to me. I'm imagining the rock and ironstone dissolving and leaving all the opal behind. Wouldn't that be cool to see?
Would be cool but dissolving ironstone isn't easy. There are some fields that can have a bit of calcium but it is never the entire host material. I can dissolve a lot of host material but it would also dissolve the opal (hydrated silica).
I think people could do better with you showcasing alil more stencil work to be honest. Enjoyed the extra long video too. More Roy content the better as far as I'm concerned. Only reason you were cursed is because I never voted for a winner until now!!!! * Jokes and laughs *
Yeah it is not very long. Rubbing for a small stone like this can be 10-20 mins. All the polishing stages another 30 mins. It gets much much longer when the shape becomes more uneven and complex.
I get them manufactured in China and sell them within Aus now. Based on where you are located in the world I can try to point you in the right direction for a good supplier.
Currently I run with sintered diamond burrs from 80 to 600 ANSI grit average. Then diamond pacific Nova resin points. Then finish it off with cerium oxide on felt.
When it comes to opal videos..then Roy is the best and Pulitzer..sorry Justin:/you just to unsympathetic towards opal the way treat it,cause all u care about is the money. This channel is the Best for all types of Opal
A year late, but question about your bur placement in the dremel.... do you seat it fully as far in as possible? Did you do so in this video? Shank looks long.
Nah my old chuck neeed me to pull the burr out a fair bit or it would seat strangely and caused a lot of vibration if all the way in. I think it was the collet which got worn so that I had to pull it out for stability. With the new chuck (which is now needing to be replaced) the burrs do go pretty much all the way in. Sometime on big stones you need to pull them out a bit if you think the nut will contact the stone.
I'm telling you it's not good to use a dremel with hand moments truly you might think it works and it does. If you put that dremel in a heavy duty metal bench vise that weighs 8 or more pounds usually 10 to 15 in weight. And then use that git and bring the opal to your dtemel attachment and cut that way it's effective and gives a somewhat lapidary machine feels. You might think your grinding off in a straight line or at a degree you want but believe me with the variable of moving your dremel with you hand your not. Your not a machine and make moments that aren't efficient. Put that dremel in metal vice and bring the opal to a steady working point and watch your cutting and this winners curse you speak of disappeare and watch your skills and opals get better and better this is a super real advice you need to follow and any others who use a dremel they are great and don't take a whole lot off as a lapidary machine but believe me using both of your hands to do so is no good. Both of your hands should be on your opal and making moments when cutting. In the beginning of the video that color bar wasn't the biggest but was bigger than the couple pieces of color that are on the opal towards the end. I've done both ways of cutting and recently spent the money for a lapidary machine and am now getting used to it and see why and how it's the preferred way to cut and deal with opal. I truly urge you to like I said put that dremel in a metal vice and bring the opal to your cutting source not bringing the cutting source to your opal its just not smart. They say work smarter not harder please can't say it enough keep your dremel in place somehow with something and brings the opal to your grinding attachment I can show you opals I've cut with a dremel or I could make a video about it and show you it's a better way. Hope you see this and try can't emphasize enough PSA
There is a reason gem carvers and jewellery makers don't vice their flex shafts. It ruins the dexterity of the tool. I have tried a vice and it makes it a terrible experience. A cabbing wheel is a cabbing wheel, a flex shaft is a flex shaft. Clamping a flex shaft does not make it a cabbing wheel.
Oh I touch them all the time. You'll see it in videos where I press my finger against them to clean them off. Unless you pressed really hard it doesn't do much more than exfoliate the top surface.
@@RoysRocks okay thanks for reply! I've got a dremel 3000 and just bought some diamond bur tips and rooting around for an opal on ebay so i can try it out! keep up doing the videos. Thanks!
Hi Roy, i found cutting a good dome using the dremmel is really difficult to achieve. I bought an ozito bench sander ($50) from bunnings, it works realy well. Just had to glue some wet/dry sandpaper to the sanding disks supplied with the sander.
It definitely takes a lot of practice and knowledge of how far to go with each grit before switching it up. Hopefully I can help people get the hang of it through these videos. Though it would require me to cut more conventional cabs 🤣