How to Choose Lapidary Equipment

Lapidary is the art of taking any rock and turning it into something more refined and polished.  There are may ways to polish rocks. You can tumble them, grind and sand them, make spheres, facet gemstones, or just cut and polish them.

One of the most popular questions we get asked is "What do I need to cut and polish rocks?"

The answer depends on what you want when you are finished!!!

If you want to polish flat surfaces, like book ends and geodes, then you use a vibra-lap. If you want polished nuggets of tumbled stones, then you use a tumbler, if you want to cut and shape rocks for jewelry or polish an end of petrified wood, then you use a cabochon unit. The there are other more advanced methods of polishing, like making spheres, marbles, faceting gemstones, and carving.

Here is the differences explained:

Vibra-lapping: To polish a flat surface, like a book end or geode, you use a saw to cut your flat surface, then a grinder to remove any burrs left by the saw, and then a vibra-lap to polish.

A vibra-lap is a round pan that vibrates. You place grit and water in the flat pan and then place your rock in on the grit. It vibrates and grinds down the surface. When vibralapping, you complete the process in 3 stages--coarse, fine, and polish. Each stage takes 6-8 hours. You fill the pan 2/3rds full of rock, so if you are polishing geodes, usually you can do 3-4 sets at a time.

Tumblers:  Click Here for How Tumblers Work.

Cabochons & End Polishing: Cabochons are the domed-shaped polished rocks you use to make jewelry. You see them in bolo ties, belt buckles, and in fine jewelry like pendants and rings. To make a cabochon, you use a saw to cut a slice out of your rock. Then you dop your rock to a dop stick. A dop stick is a any type of stick (usually a wooden dowl about 4" long). Dop is a type of wax that holds your dop stick onto your rock. By doing this you have just created a handle by which to hold the rock. You will remove this stick later.

Now that you have the stone on a dop stick, you can use the stick to hold the rock to a grinding wheel, sander, and polisher. So you shape the rock you want into the shape you want it and polish it. After you have polished the stone, place it in a freezer. Let it set for 5 minutes and the stone will pop off the dop wax.

Now you have a stone ready for jewelry or just to look at.

If you want to polish the end of a piece of petrified wood, you use the same grinder/sander/polisher, but because the piece is large enough to hold, there is no need for dopping.

This is a very popular way to enjoy your rocks.  Most rocks will cut and polish with a little experience. The harder the rock, the better the polish.

The best way to buy a grinding unit is with a trim saw. This way you can trim up the pieces you want before you start grinding.

This is by far the most fun way to get started into the hobby. Once you have learned how to cut and polish a cab, you will be hooked for life. 

Lapidary is safe for kids. The equipment is not as dangerous as woodworking equipment, because the saw works on a grinding principal.  The blades are not sharp.  They are impregnated with diamond, and the diamond grinds the rock out of its way. Kids as young as 6 or 7 can easily learn to cut and polish.  Please use caution and adult supervision with kids and ANY type of equipment.

Sphere making. This is taking a rock and making a sphere (three dimensional ball) out of it.

You start by taking your rock and cutting out a perfect cube. Then you cut off all the corners, and then you cut off all the corners again. (That’s 32 cuts so far). Then you grind it so it is fairly rounded. Then you place it is a sphere machine. This is a machine with 2 or 3 cups that you place your rock between and they grind against the rock to create a sphere. You go through several stages from coarse to polish and after a few days of attended work, you have created a sphere.

This is not for everyone. It is time consuming and costly. 

Marbles. Marbles are made in a manner similar to the way spheres are made. Except you can use a different machine to create lots of little marbles at once. This machine is called a bead mill. It is made of 2 plates with hemispheres cut in each. You place the rocks (already cut and ground) into the hemispheres and add water and grit. The 2 plates turn opposite each other and grind the rocks into small spheres.

Faceting. Faceting is the art of taking a transparent rock or crystal and making flat faces (facets) on it to make the light refract and reflect from the stone better. The trick is to make it appear as if more light is coming from the stone than is going into the stone.

To facet, you need a small (4") trim saw and a faceting machine. There are lots of faceting machines on the market. Typically, the more expensive the machine, the better the features. They even make machines that will do more than one stone at a time.

Faceting is a very rewarding hobby, though it can be costly to get into and to purchase rare stone material, but it is one of the most rewarding if you like colored stones.

For more information on these and other aspects of the arts of Lapidary, check out Introduction to Lapidary.