[Jewelry making - Article 00677] - Re: [Orchid] Drill bit needed to drill holes in stones

[John AT mlce.net]

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    Do a search for lapidary equipment on the net.  Kinsington has items
    that you need but many places do.  Look in the yellow pages under
    lapidary equipment/rock shops, etc. 

    A diamond drill will work but if you are doing 100's or 1000's of
    stones you might look into ultra sonic drills.  Some years ago we
    could have bought one for about $300/400.  Fast and you don't burn
    up diamond drills. 

    Also, again if you are going to drill a number of stones, see if you
    can get a very small core drill verses a diamond burr.  The core
    drill will last much longer but they are more $. 

    What do you mean by a "sliver of turquoise"?  What color, pattern,
    size, polish.........?  Cut stones and Turquoise with a diamond saw.
    You can get blades that are basically paper thin (so you don't loose
    so much stone via the saw blade kerf).  Usually these need water and
    spin pretty fast.  We bought machine at a rock show (the show demo)
    for $300 with 2 blades.  Variable speed, water feed, etc.  Easy to
    move, great fun to use.  If you need the cuts polished, then you
    will have to get some sort of lap (more $$).  An alternative to
    getting all of this equipment is to see if there is a lapidary group
    near you.  Or check schools, colleges, recreation departments,
    senior citizen centers or see if you can locate a local rock nut. 

    Hope this helps. 

John Dach 

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