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pearlescence
06-05-2016, 09:18 AM
Is there a way I can half drill or full drill 8913lumps of rough ruby and amethyst so they can take a post for setting, rather than having to construct some sort of collet or other setting? These are lumps about the size of fingernails which are destined for earrings with (of course) pearl drops underneath.
I had a bit of a rush of blood and bought them last march in Hong Kong - sorting through washing up bowls of small rough lumps to the amusement of the stand staff who said 'we usually sell by kilo weight, not selection' as I ended up with two piece of ruby.
The plan is hook ear wire + ruby + big drop pearl

BarryM
06-05-2016, 01:46 PM
You can use a diamond drill in a pendant drill. Lubricate and cool with water - drill for a few seconds, stop, syringe water, drill for a few seconds, etc etc. Do not force the drill, be gentle and only drill for a few seconds each time - otherwise drill may overheat and crack the stone.


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pearlescence
06-05-2016, 01:48 PM
Sounds similar to how I drilled glass when I had an attack of tumbled 'sea' glass a few years ago..yes?
Thanks Barry

china
06-05-2016, 02:16 PM
If you have drill press you can clamp the item in a suitable vice and place in a container of water and drill under water using a diamond drill, common method of drilling Opal

pearlescence
07-05-2016, 06:07 AM
Nothing so sophisticated. Pearls don't need that sort of drill

Patstone
08-05-2016, 04:47 AM
I had a go at drilling sea glass, didnt work very well so decided to keep it in a jamjar on the kitchen window cill. I have wire wrapped a couple of bits but would prefer to have a hole in it.

pearlescence
08-05-2016, 09:18 AM
I got a bit of a production line going - put a piece of wood into the bottom of a chinese food container and put water in just to cover the wood, then drilled the glass through and into the wood. Used a pendant drill with a circuit breaker because of the water and it went pretty well.
Did you use real sea glass or tumbled (I had lots of coloured bits from making lampshades and stuff) I walked for miles along the beach here where I lived and found zilch. Suspect a lot of the sea glass is actually just tumbled.

Patstone
08-05-2016, 02:00 PM
I found it on Exmouth beach where we walk the dogs. When the tide is right it's a lovely walk, and two of our three love swimming, the other one likes running and playing in the shallows.

pearlescence
08-05-2016, 05:23 PM
The real thing! There is so much 'sea glass' around that some at least must be suspect. I knew someone who did glass art who claimed to find it on the beach to customers but I know it was tumbled scrap shards

Patstone
08-05-2016, 06:58 PM
We don't find much, just the odd bit. Most of it is green, but I have found a light blue and a dark blue bit. You can only wire wrap it really and make a pendant.

ajda
09-05-2016, 06:42 AM
On one of our local beaches you can sit down in any spot and collect half a pound of sea glass from within arm's reach - most of it green, brown and white/clear, some blues and occasional reds/oranges, sometimes marbles or decanter/scent bottle tops, lots of crockery shards too. The village there, across the water from Milford Haven, had 17 pubs in Nelson's time, though now only one - Milford was a hugely important port in those days - so I suspect some of it is pretty old. Parish records show big spikes in births and marriages following major sea battles, as the fleet would come into the haven for refitting and the sailors would go wandering... My partner can never resist sea glass, so we have bucketloads of the stuff. She makes mobiles using it, along with driftwood, shells and beads (recycled from charity shops, plus her own handmade glass beads). We drill the sea glass with a Dremel on a drill stand and cheap diamond tipped bits from China, using a shallow plastic water tray with a lump of blutac to support the pieces of glass and catch any splinters/flakes. High speed, light pressure works best. The glass varies a lot in hardness and the drill bits vary in quality - sometimes they wear out almost immediately, sometimes you can do 30 or 40 with a single bit.
Alan

Dennis
09-05-2016, 11:06 AM
No excuse for faking it then.

BTW I was an evacuee on a farm in S.Wales during WW2 and the saddest thing I ever saw was Milford Haven in flames after an air raid. Dennis.

ajda
09-05-2016, 02:35 PM
Ah, we like faking it too... though we've always sold this sort of bead honestly as "sea glass effect":

8925 8926

With genuine sea glass, drilling the shortest distance through the middle is the only viable way, but making them on a mandrel allows other options, as well as all kinds of sizes, shapes and colours - and different finishes, according to whether you use a chemical etchant or tumble with finer/coarser grades of grit.

If they bombed Milford now, I reckon we'd be engulfed - there's a vast gas storage facility just up the road where they bring in liquid natural gas from Qatar, the largest LNG terminal in Europe... doesn't bear thinking about.

Alan