HELP! Polishing stones already set?

Hi all,

Massive cock-up!!... Just finished setting 3 small smooth cabs into a ring and managed to run a 3M disc across all three small stones and consequently gave them a matte dull finish on one side.... :(

So, HELP! Can I polish the stones in place, somehow? Diamond paste on a felt or something like that? I have never polished stones before so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't really want to have to start the ring from scratch...

Any sources for polish pastes would be fab too, if you know any!

Carin

You can always pop down and use my new gadget Carin, though I appreciate it's a long way to come.

It did actually cross my mind, Carole! :) Bit of a long way to go though, as you said. What does your JoolTool use to polish stones? Are they 3M brushes or something else?

I am also dying to know more about how you get on with it, perhaps you could post an update to that other post when you get a chance? :)

Carin

I usually use Polygold2000 as a first try for dulled stones. They are small impregnated felt wheels, which you mount on a mandrel with a screw. The sellers are mostly German, but there is a good choice of suppliers..

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Po...=polygold+2000

Dennis.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by camalidesign

It did actually cross my mind, Carole! :) Bit of a long way to go though, as you said. What does your JoolTool use to polish stones? Are they 3M brushes or something else?

I am also dying to know more about how you get on with it, perhaps you could post an update to that other post when you get a chance? :)

Carin

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I haven't got it screwed down yet Carin, so I haven't been able to try it out properly for polishing. I'm not really sure what attachments are needed to polish stones. I'll have another look at the video. I will say though that for cleaning off sprues and grinding down the edges of things like rings and bangles, it's excellent and I use it all the time. I love that I can see my piece while I grind it.

Steve and I have both had the lurgy and we haven't done the polishing worktop yet. Hopefully this weekend we can get it all sorted.

I've done a very small amount of stone carving using wooden & hard felt wheels with diamond pastes (bought on the cheap from EBay). If Hans chips in on this he'll be able to contribute more.

I use diamond pastes from Manchester minerals on my stone carvings to finish them, with those I go, 60, 30, 16, 3, 1 on felt bobs but not sure what you would use to start, probably depends how deep the scratching is.

Thanks all for tips!

I think I will try diamond paste and felt bobs and see how it goes. It will be useful for other times as well, it is easy to scuff stones white setting, at least if you are clumsy like me! :) I use a lot of Labradorite and it's quite soft, so could do with a quick polish once set...

Carin

Depends on the stones.
Soft stones like opal, turquoise or lapis polish up easily just using wet or dry sandpaper with water.
And a final polish on the buff with something like Unipol.
Harder stones like garnet, saphire tourmaline and the like require a small felt buff and diamond polish.
Depending on the scratches, one might have to go from 1200 grit and then to 50,000.
Light scratches normally can be corrected by using 50K compound and a felt buff.
Also, depending on the hassle factor and cost of diamond paste, it might just be better to replace them
it they are not too expensive cabs.
A picture would help, but first I would take 1200 wet or dry, wet it, and run the wet paper over the surface with an inside ring mandrel.
You should see a marked improvement.
Then run the 1200 wet or dry over the stone without water.
That, in most cases, brings the polish up to an acceptable level.

Thanks Hans,

The stones I need to polish up are small smooth cabs of peridot, pink amethyst and rainbow moonstone. I have now bought diamond paste in 6, 3, 1 and 0.25 micron (not sure what the equivalent is in grit?) and some felt buffs. They should arrive today or tomorrow so I will let you know how it goes! Diamond paste is pretty expensive stuff though! But it will come in handy and I have been meaning to get some, this has just made me get it earlier.

Carin