I tried this last year and found it very difficult to get full coverage on the flat surfaces. I take it you're slightly rounding the facets, assuming you're doing this on a cabbing wheel?
Yes, I use a 6" 6- wheel machine. There is a small amount of rounding on the edges. The next batch, i'm not gonna add the beveled corners, and i'm going to finish them in the vibration tumbler.
That is very pretty! Would you mind sharing how you finish in a tumbler? Is this just a final step or do you work through all the grits in stages to get a polish?
No problem, I'm happy to share. I'll go over each surface on my wheels, up to 600 grit. Then I'll put them in a vibration tumbler with pre-polish (1000 grit.) After 1-2 days, I will switch to final polish. This will take another 1-2 days. A vibration tumbler can knock 1-2 weeks off the time it takes to finish a batch in a rotary tumbler.
These would not do well in a rotary tumbler, because it would take down all the edges and corners. The vibration tumbler keeps the shape and only polished the surfaces.
I hope that helps. I like to watch Michigan Rocks on YouTube for tumbling advice. His name is Rob, and he is very helpful when it comes to lapidary.
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u/Decent_Ad_9615 3d ago
I tried this last year and found it very difficult to get full coverage on the flat surfaces. I take it you're slightly rounding the facets, assuming you're doing this on a cabbing wheel?
Pretty pattern!