Latest Stones

Posted on June 20, 2011 by allan

I had some time over the weekend to cut a couple of new stones – a horrific Mahenge Spinel that was a nightmare to cut, first having a hidden crack and then shedding chunks while cutting. It survived but with a few scars, not the least of which is a severely over-cut table. But it is a very pretty and sparkly pink. It also gave me an excuse to use my new RedWing+5 lap, which worked with flying colours.

The sadistic 1.2 ct Mahenge Spinel from hell...

 

The other stone is a completely stunning Afghan blue tourmaline. The piece of rough was gorgeous but as I was cleaning and skinning it, it started to show stress fractures developing. I quickly preformed the stone, dopped it and proceeded to cut it as fast as I could. The result is the breath-taking stone below.

 

Afghan Blue Tourmaline Roug

Rough 9.19 ct Afghan Blue Tourmaline from Lisa Elser

 

3.2 ct Faceted Afghan Blue Tourmaline

Not sure what I’m going to do with this tourmaline, but it definitely deserves a place of honor in my collection.

 

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TuneUp Media Sucks (not faceting-related)

Posted on May 28, 2011 by allan

Ok, I have to get this off my chest.

I purchased a software utility that works with iTunes to clean up the music library back in December. I purchased their Gold/Lifetime option.

Today I tried running it and was forced to upgrade to the latest version. In that version I find a function has been removed, and a new function added. However, to use that new function, DeDuper, I have to pay additional money.

Somehow TuneUp Media has figured out that a Lifetime license doesn’t mean that you get any upgrades to the software for free. They also think that Lifetime means they can remove functionality from the software at whim.

Despite over a month of complaints and various media/Twitter/Facebook campaigns, the company still does not think their early Lifetime customers really deserve what was sold to them.

So just a warning… if you’re considering buying TuneUp to clean up your music library, be prepared to be screwed over in the future.

-Allan

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Redwing+5 Lap

Posted on May 14, 2011 by allan

Okay, just a quick post to gloat a bit…

Gearloose recently was asked to make a custom run of his old Redwing laps – with a twist. He changed the BATT center to his BA5T formula and christened them the Redwing+5. The initial run sold out very quickly despite not being advertised, only mentioned on the Gemology Online forum. I had to do everything in the book to avoid buying one of these laps and was painfully relieved when the last one sold. I’m surprised my tongue didn’t fall off after being bitten for so long.

Feedback from the users of these laps was great – fast and a joy to use, as my experience with other Gearloose products. People are using 8k diamond on the copper for pre-polish and making meets (yes, 8k is able to move the facets efficiently) and 100k or 200k on the BA5T center for polishing. I sighed and reminded myself how responsible I was for not buying one of these laps.

Anyhow he then decided to make a second small run of these laps due to popular demand. And I caved like a little boy in an ice-cream factory.

I just received my very own one of these extremely limited-run items and have to show it off. It’s a thing of beauty!

Now the trick is to find some time to actually use it…

Please note: both runs of these laps are completely sold out. Contact Jon at http://www.gearloose.com if you are interested in purchasing one of these laps. You may be able to convince him to do another run.

The Redwing+5 box label

The Redwing+5 Faceting Lap - Copper with BA5T Center. Thanks Gearloose!

The Redwing+5 Faceting Lap - Copper with BA5T Center. Thanks Gearloose!

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My Newest Favorite Lap – the GreenWing!

Posted on January 2, 2011 by allan

Okay, I actually made this video and posted it on Gemology Online some months back, but just realized I’d forgotten to post it here. Jon Rolfe of www.gearloose.com has been hard at work formulating a number of new laps over the past months. I am a very happy customer of his, and am absolutely amazed by the new Greenway Chrome Oxide composite polishing lap, and the GreenWing.

I’m in the process of cutting some stones this holiday break (gasp!) and I just LOVE the GreenWing – it now means I’m down to 2 laps to cut and polish stones! I use a plated 600 to rough and make the general meetpoints, then follow up with the GreenWing charged with 3000 diamond on the BATT ring to make the final meets before polishing with straight water on the Greenway center.

It’s fabulous on Tourmaline and Garnets – try it, you’ll like it!

BTW – I am just a very happy customer of Jon’s, I’m not a dealer and receive no benefit from writing this, other than encouraging Jon to keep up the innovation and make more amazing faceting equipment.

So, here’s the Quicktime video of Charging the GreenWing with 3000 grit Diamond:

And here’s me using the charged GreenWing to complete the meets and polish the pavilion of a bi-coloured Afghan Tourmaline (a surprise present for my spouse’s birthday this year). While it looks like I’m moving the stone over both the charged BATT and Greenway portion in the same sweep, I’m not – it’s the facet towards the outside of the lap I’m cutting.

And here’s the final results, with fingerprints!

Bi-Colour Afghan Tourmaline

Bi-Colour Afghan Tourmaline

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Patriot Faceting Machine Update

Posted on June 25, 2010 by allan

I got an email from someone today and they mentioned the Patriot faceting machine. As I have not really seen anything lately I did a search for “Patriot Faceting Machine” in Google just now.

The good news? My omnifaceter.net website comes up as the first two entries (as of today, anyhow). The next entries are for Aussie Sapphires’ review and then a sales page for the Patriot Faceting Machine on the Sierra Gems website.

Their ad copy reads:

“Jersey Instruments first U.S. made machine was called the OMNI.  Since then the machine has gone through many revisions, many based on customer feedback some on technology advancements.  There have been many changes and improvements to the original design and it has come to the point where it needed a whole new name.  PATRIOT was chosen for the machine whose parent immigrated to the U.S.A. from Australia.”

I have a couple of obvious questions:

  1. If this Patriot faceting machine is so much better than the Omni, why doesn’t Jersey Instruments advertise their latest and greatest machine on their own website? Why isn’t it being marketed on the various faceting forums to let people know of the new machine?
  2. If the Patriot faceting machine is so much better than the original Omni, why don’t they specifically state what the changes were and how they’ve improved the original design? For that matter, why hasn’t Jersey Instruments ever told the world what changes they’ve made to back up the claims they’ve improved the Omni-e faceting machine model that I write about here?

I would not risk USD $2,500 of my hard-earned money on hoping that Jersey Instruments has indeed fixed all the problems with their Omni-e and Patriot faceting machines. In many ways these problems are unfixable as the company does not have the skill or ability to build a quality faceting machine. There has been no substance to back up their claims and frankly, there are better cheaper machines out there that are built to the quality required to facet stones.

My advice? Save yourself a good deal of  frustration and investigate a different machine.

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Omni “Patriot” Faceting Machine

Posted on June 13, 2010 by allan

Some interesting developments lately – someone noticed that several Omni faceting machines have been posted for sale on ebay, one of them labelled the “Patriot Faceting Machine”. These are being given outrageous prices – Buy It Now for $3,199. I believe I bought my original Omni-e for $2,200.

There is also mention of an “Omni Patriot” faceting machine at the Aussie Sapphire website. Read their full article as there is an interesting comment about the “poorly finished machining” and that “the problems were in our opinion major not minor.” His comments were directed at the original swing-arm Omni-e. Please note that the review date of his comments is May, 2010 – fully 3 years after I received my Omni-e faceting machine and discovered the basic fit, finish and engineering flaws.

Jersey Instrument’s website has not been updated which I find curious. I would have expected the manufacturer to be the first to start the marketing and spreading the news of the new machine. It’s also curious that there are no photos anywhere of this “Omni Patriot” – all the photos outside my own are copies from Jersey Instruments. Even the ad text for the ebay sales are just cut-and-pasted from Jeff Graham’s self-serving “review” of the Omni-e.

I guess things will unfold in time. I hope that the Omni Patriot is a better machine than the original Omni-e, but I believe that the Omni Patriot will be a re-packaged Omni-e with all the accompanying flaws, poor manufacturing and lack of execution. Kind of like putting lipstick on a pig.

I hope that more people are not going to be in the same position as I was, and I hope they have enough sense to test out the machine before putting their money down. There are many other much better and more affordable options that will actually do what they are supposed to, which is facet gemstones accurately.

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Faceting Rough Removed

Posted on April 16, 2010 by allan

As of April 16, 2010 I am removing the remaining pieces of faceting rough for sale. I am temporarily relocating to Ireland and the issues with taxes and duties is too great to deal with for the return.

Thank you to all who have purchased in the past.

-Allan

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Custom Quills

Posted on April 3, 2010 by allan

I am sold out of the custom-made stainless-steel collet quills. I have no plans to make any more. This dop was the final change I made to my Omni-e Faceting Machine before abandoning the swing-arm base completely and moving to a custom-made flat base. The new quill eliminated a lot of the error and frustration I experienced when trying to cut to meet-points.

These quills were a custom design made for me by my friend Mike. Unfortunately he’s no longer manufacturing faceting parts.

Custom Collet Quill Mounted on the Omni-E Faceting Machine

Custom Collet Quill Mounted on the Omni-E Faceting Machine

Original Brass Omni Quill and New Stainless Steel Collet Quill Side by Side

Original Brass Omni Quill and New Stainless Steel Collet Quill Side by Side

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Omni-e Drip Tank

Posted on January 30, 2010 by allan

In response to a question posted elsewhere (I’ve moved it to this page), here are some photos and comments about the drip tank configuration for my Omni-e faceting machine.

Since I have dismantled my Omni-e and done significant modifications, I have used some older photos that I took in the beginning. I am unable to locate the original drip tank to take specific photos but these should help.

Note here that the drip tank is mounted on a hollow post that is attached to the base. The drip tank container has a corresponding metal post screwed and sealed into the middle of the plastic which fits into the hollow post. This container holds about 500ml (1 pint)  of water.

You can barely see through the front wall of the plastic a bright circle and then a yellowish patch in the middle. The yellowish patch is sealant around a screw holding the post to the water container. If memory serves me correctly the bright circle is a wide washer which reinforces the plastic where the screw goes through.

Omni-e Drip Tank Spout Detail

Here you can see the front of the container where the drip spout is fastened and sealed to the drip tank.

From the description in your comment, it sounds like you have a different drip tank configuration. I hope you are able to find a solution to your issue.

-Allan

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45 Degree Angle Dop

Posted on January 9, 2010 by allan

Mike also made me a custom 45 degree angle adapter for cutting and polishing the table on stones. You can read about the issues with the original Omni-e angle dop supplied by Jersey Instruments on this post 45 Degree Angle Adapter Defect from David Hudson.

I actually have had and used this new 45 degree angle adapter for at least a couple of months now. It’s a solid and extremely well-made piece, weighing in at about 4 oz/120 grams. It is machined from a single piece of brass, which means there is no way it can slip out of alignment.

Custom 45 Degree Angle Adapter for the Omni-e Faceting Machine

In the photos I’ve removed the top dop-holding screw to show the nylon tip – a very well-thought part of this adapter’s design. It prevents the holding screws from scarring the soft brass of the dops.

The 45 degree angle adapter is heavy. Along with the nylon-tipped screws this helps reduce the amount of squealing tha tthe stones make when grinding and polishing the table. The squeal-factor with this new table adapter is almost zero so far – with the original Omni-e table adapter I often would hold the stone or dop to try and dampen down the noise. I also took to wearing earplugs.

The final additional benefit of this adapter is that you can use it to validate the calibration of your Omni-e faceting machine’s angle read-out. Because it has a flat bottom, you can insert it into the quill and then lower the faceting head until the angle adapter is sitting flush on the lap. Your angle read-out should be 45 degrees; if not, you know it needs adjustment.

This particular 45 degree angle adapter is machined specifically for the Omni-e’s 0.300″ dops

Unfortunately Mike is no longer in the business of making parts for faceting machines.

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