FACETING MACHINE
FACETING MACHINE
There are many brands of faceting machines, I use a graves, mainly because I got a buy
on a used one for $700.00
Note the brass dop sticks in front. They are machined to fit the head on the faceting
machine and have a small hole in the side to align the dop in relation to the head.
The aluminum arc with the brass stop is your main angle settings This is set at 90 degrees
to do girdle facets in the picture.
The black index ring is your settings for all the facets at one angle.
The aluminum dial at the bottom of the index ring is the cheater.
And finally the aluminum vertical dial at the back is for the up and down movement of the
stone as you grind away the rough and make a facet, It is also used for top and bottom,
alignment in polishing.
This shows the brass 100 grit lap for fast removal of waste and getting the stone to
the initial shape. I usually just cut a cone for round brilliants, then shift to 600 grit.
There is a place on the head to stick a small brass rod, so the index will spin, for
cutting the cone.
This is my setup for dopping stones on the brass dopsticks for faceting.
note the clamp and bracket for transfering from the flat faced dop (used for doing the
Pavilion) to the inverted cone rod used for cutting the crown facets.
For faceting I use an alcohol lamp (torch) combination, its also used for wax work in casting.
The flat plate dopstick on the clamp is to check centering, also used for aligning the main
support for the head, and making sure it is parallel to the shaft of the lap,
adjust with the 3 black screws at the base of the support, (top picture).
before you start. Also make sure the machine is clean.
FACETS
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