A color palette of rocks for intarsia practice: calcites in top row. On bottom: pyrite, rose quartz, obsidian, brown and clear calcite
With my ultimate goal being to create inlay and intarsia with silver and minerals, I had always been on the lookout for an inexpensive diamond bandsaw.
I was working on the RezLathe about two weeks ago when my shipment came in: a used, early model, Gryphon C series diamond bandsaw. I found it on Craigslist for about $60, not including shipping. The user had advertised it as being it excellent condition, barely used, but with the ripoffs going on in that group I was a bit skeptical with willing to risk $60 for something worth more than $350 new.
Turned out that I actually got my money’s worth (sarcasm) because while the base and motor were still sound, all of the replaceable parts except for the blades themselves were unusable. The band was missing on the lower wheel, the platform was very much scarred, and both guides needed to be replaced.
I contacted some very nice customer support over at Gryphon for suggesions, and wound up spending about $75 on a pair of new wheels (so that I didn’t have to bother installing the bands on them), a new platform, and new guides.
After a couple hours effort last Friday afternoon in replacing these parts and cleaning out the chassis, I tested the bandsaw on a 1 inch piece of galena crystal I had been saving for a crystal radio… the wet diamond blade cut through the crystal in less than a minute, with about 1/8th of an inch of waste.
So my final results are a completely refurbished rock bandsaw for $155, for approximately half of the cost of new. Not a bad use for my money!
So the next day my daughter and I went on a rock hunt, driving to a nearby town that had an extensive rock shop.
My daughter blew most of her money on petrified wood plus a few souveneirs intended for gifts. In between moments where my daughter had my full attention (“Look at THIS Daddy!, isn’t this rock COOL!) I managed to pick up a selection of inexpensive minerals for my palette for a total of $50.
I mostly picked calcites of various colors: clear (for white), yellow, red, brown, green, orange, and blue. I also picked some obsidian (for black), rose quartz (for pink) and some iron pyrite (for gold).
I can practice my cutting, grinding, and polishing with these materials until I feel my skills are ready to upgrade to semiprecious stone.
Wish me luck!
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I have not done intarsia, but have had quite a bit of input from articles and hanging over the shoulders of folks doing intarsia at the San Francisco club in years past. I would suggest that you use stones of similar hardness together. In other words, things like fluorite and calcites, marble, turquoise and such together: quartz, jaspers, and agates together. That way they will polish more evenly when you are giving the finished flat its final polish.
I remember that they did not use opal, precious or common, much because it was so easy to chip when shaping your pieces. The same may be true of obsidian. (I have had trouble with lapidary work with some Botswana agate because the pretty pink centers are actually an opal and chip more easily.) Have fun. Rose Alene