Things Members are working on

The piece is done and was much more difficult and time consuming than anticipated. I plan on doing similar projects in the future but have learned quite bit that will hopefully make it easier.

To clarify, the green is crushed chrysocolla and epoxy to fill voids in the stone.

I think if I understood the start, the green might be chrysocolla used for repairs.

unusual to see the green in the onyx

I finally finished polishing the stone which more difficult that i had thought. I have included a pic and one of a piece of wood for the project. I will post one final image when the project is finished.

I love these pics and I hope others keep posting things like this. I wouldn't have known what the stone was if Greg hadn't given all that info. There is SO much to learn. I tried my first wire wrap a few days ago but I might redo it. I'll try to post a project when I decide for sure what to try next!

Amazing! Learning new stuff all the time. I always thought onyx had to be black, but this slab is so full of color! Love it!

Also very cool, that will look good with the inlaid stone!

One of my latest projects is this large slab of Arizona Onyx (about 5"-6") and a used flat lap machine. The first image (no green) shows the slab after all the stages of running it thru the flat lap. Close inspection of the slab shows pitting in the center of the slab, cavities in the lower portion of the image, and finally the slab itself was bowed when viewing from the profile. This is my first attempt at using a flatlap, so now i had to figure out to improve on final product. The pitting in the center i'm pretty sure was caused by impurities in the pan when polishing and possibly too much weight on the slab during the process. The cavities are just imperfections in the stone. I decided to grind them out with small diamond bit in a flex shaft and then filled the larger voids with a mix of 330 Epoxy and crushed chrysocolla (the image with green). The bowing was caused by a pan that was so worn it was no longer completely level on the bottom. I should have checked that, but hey, live and learn. Luckily the 2nd pan for polishing was perfect, so back to the polishing. I will post an update when the slab is done and give a bit more information on the project (no spoilers).

Update: I had to repair a few parts on the vibrating flatlap (springs and balls). Polishing is going well and hope to have it finished this week. I have multiple projects ongoing and will do write up's on them.