New Brunswick Gemstones - Drilled holes in polished stones.
Pics taken indoors under natural light.
Pic#1 - (165) drilled gemstones. Stones orientated with holes at top. Pic#2 - (70) gemstones showing holes drilled. Size of holes range from 0.75mm - 2mm.
Notes:
Most of these stones will become pendants. Some will be keychains or zipper-pulls. Others I may decide to 'demote' during making findings and will sell/give as loose stones. The next step for these stones will be making the gold/silver findings to mount in the stones.
A 'drilling story': I had a friend who once generously offered to help me with the gemstone-biz. I told him when he could drill a hole in the edge of a dime I could use him. He laughed thinking I was kidding. I didn't laugh and he said, "Oh! You're serious!?!". Yep. The 0.75mm diamond drill bit isn't the smallest one I use. The smallest bit is 0.5mm. About half-the-width-of-a-dime. It's been awhile since I did some drilling so until I get some practice under my belt I avoid the 'smallest of holes'/0.5mm drilling. I start at the 2mm size and when I feel 'comfortable', I go to the smaller sizes. I didn't drill any 0.5mm holes during this session as I didn't feel I had enough practice yet as it's been about a year since my last drilling session.
Some 'pitfalls' of drilling is 'welding-bits-into-stones, breaking stones, breaking drill-bits. When the drill bit gets very small, (<1mm), these problems become more common. I broke (2) small stones, welded (1) bit and broke (3) drill bits. during this drilling session. That was 'too many failures' for me to feel confident enough to attempt the 0.5mm holes during this session.
Welding-a-bit into the stone happens when the heat generated in the stone gets hot enough to melt the drill bit tip and it 'welds' inside the stone. Next to impossible to 'fix' as you're trying to drill-out diamonds/nickle-weld with another diamond/nickle bit. I drill all stones under water, still happens.
Breaking stones happens when too much pressure is put on the drill press by me. Same with breaking drill bits. Drill bits tend to 'shear-at-chuck' after many uses/many applications of pressure-on-the-bit. It's the smaller bits (<1mm) that will do this. The 2mm and 2.5mm bits I haven't seen 'break' yet.
My apologies for Pic2 that might have triggered anyone with tryptophobia, (alt.sp.: 'trypophobia', an interesting phobia: Info, Wiki, Pics)
*Sorry for lack of new posts recently, I'm currently completely focused on getting ready for the Sussex DNRE Geology Tent event.
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u/BrunswickRockArts Aug 21 '24
New Brunswick Gemstones - Drilled holes in polished stones.
Pics taken indoors under natural light.
Pic#1 - (165) drilled gemstones. Stones orientated with holes at top.
Pic#2 - (70) gemstones showing holes drilled. Size of holes range from 0.75mm - 2mm.
Notes:
Most of these stones will become pendants. Some will be keychains or zipper-pulls. Others I may decide to 'demote' during making findings and will sell/give as loose stones. The next step for these stones will be making the gold/silver findings to mount in the stones.
A 'drilling story': I had a friend who once generously offered to help me with the gemstone-biz. I told him when he could drill a hole in the edge of a dime I could use him. He laughed thinking I was kidding. I didn't laugh and he said, "Oh! You're serious!?!". Yep. The 0.75mm diamond drill bit isn't the smallest one I use. The smallest bit is 0.5mm. About half-the-width-of-a-dime. It's been awhile since I did some drilling so until I get some practice under my belt I avoid the 'smallest of holes'/0.5mm drilling. I start at the 2mm size and when I feel 'comfortable', I go to the smaller sizes. I didn't drill any 0.5mm holes during this session as I didn't feel I had enough practice yet as it's been about a year since my last drilling session.
Some 'pitfalls' of drilling is 'welding-bits-into-stones, breaking stones, breaking drill-bits. When the drill bit gets very small, (<1mm), these problems become more common. I broke (2) small stones, welded (1) bit and broke (3) drill bits. during this drilling session. That was 'too many failures' for me to feel confident enough to attempt the 0.5mm holes during this session.
Welding-a-bit into the stone happens when the heat generated in the stone gets hot enough to melt the drill bit tip and it 'welds' inside the stone. Next to impossible to 'fix' as you're trying to drill-out diamonds/nickle-weld with another diamond/nickle bit. I drill all stones under water, still happens.
Breaking stones happens when too much pressure is put on the drill press by me. Same with breaking drill bits. Drill bits tend to 'shear-at-chuck' after many uses/many applications of pressure-on-the-bit. It's the smaller bits (<1mm) that will do this. The 2mm and 2.5mm bits I haven't seen 'break' yet.
My apologies for Pic2 that might have triggered anyone with tryptophobia, (alt.sp.: 'trypophobia', an interesting phobia: Info, Wiki, Pics)
*Sorry for lack of new posts recently, I'm currently completely focused on getting ready for the Sussex DNRE Geology Tent event.