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...And can't for the life of me find a supplier in the UK within my budget....granted my budget is very small as it is my first piece of lapidary equipment I would ideally prefer to buy something second hand or an entry level machine.
I have been looking at the All-U-Need which seems to have great reviews, is long lasting and fits my budget.
Can anyone recommend anything I can get from the UK around the £300-£500 mark?
In a word - nope. To the best of my knowledge there are no flat laps made in the UK, anything you see has invariably been done for the US market. Manchester Minerals sell a cabbing setup that uses wheels rather than laps; I managed to pick a s/h Ameritech 6" lap on Ebay (although it's 110V only). Depending on resources you could build your own, although the wheel setup is probably easier.
Inland do a cheap flat lap in 220V; I had one before getting the Ameritech. It's OK, but not spectacular - the motors tend to be a bit of an issue from reading around.
I'm assuming the All-U-Need means it can't take the heavy wheels used in faceting as opposed to the much skinnier (and cheaper) diamond discs generally available.
If you are technically minded you could do what i did which is suitable for making cabochons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vev9z-hWkJk
I just use a wet / dry bench grinder; in fact I only use the wet, but it can be slow; sometimes this is a bonus as coarser grits would vibrate the rock to pieces.Quote:
Originally Posted by callirrhoejewellery
I do ok on it.