My Lapidary

It has bee relatively slow the past few days. I too advantage of that to fire up the facet machine. I was just finished with the pavilion when the drive belt on the machine started making noises. I shut everything down and turned the machine over to discover the drive belt had five spots where it was nearly broken. The belt is a quarter inch poly cord with a circumference of 25 inches. I located some poly cord online so purchased enough to keep me going for a while. In the mean time I cut each of the breaks one at a time and remolded them together. This worked rather well but when I receive the new cord I will create a new belt with only one fusion spot.

Once the machine was in good running order I began cutting the crown. That went pretty well but as I was doing the table I noticed some scratches. To go any deeper on the table I knew I would loose some of the other crown faceting so I readjusted the machine so I could take a very slight amount of stone. That worked out well. The one thing I need more practice on is the crown so I will be doing a lot more as I go.

The amethyst I completed today seems to have worked out.

I feel comfortable with the outcome but realize I need a lot more practice. The silver work is tricky and I learn something new each time a go for an attempt.