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cold dopping
I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found
to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger |
Ted Gittinger wrote:
I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger I dont know about hot dopping but I do know about 2 part epoxy. If I wanted an answer like yourself, Id just go adead and try it on any stone that you can afford to screw up. Certainly epoxy will hold the stone well. you then need to try out the "attack" solvent. As you rightly surmise if you cant get the stone out of the epoxy unless you use a hammer then your in trouble! We have the erquivalent here under another name. works well. However, the hot process of dopping seems to me the preferred way to go as its quick, whereas 2 part epoxy ,unless youve the 5 min setting time type will be too slow for the professional stone cutter. Just as few thoughts over my morning coffee. |
Ted,
For Opal I use an adhesive called "GOOP" that is available at your friendly local Ace Hardware store. It sets up with a "rubbery" consistency and all it takes to remove it, from the stone and the stick, is a razor knife. I don't like to use harsh solvents like Attack on Opal, perhaps just a prejudice. The back of your Opal should be flat and finished to 400 grit, clean and dry, to use the GOOP. I dip the dop in GOOP and press it firmly to the Opal. Hold for a few minutes then set aside for 24 hours to fully set up. I have a drilled block that I place the dopped stones in to set. Yeah, yeah. I know. Production shops don't use slow setting adhesives much but if a guy dops a dozen or so stones with GOOP and another dozen or so stones with Epoxy and compares results I believe he will find that the GOOP gives a safer bond. The GOOP will warn you if you are heating the stone too much during the final couple of polishing steps because heat softens it enough to allow the stone to move. If your GOOPed Opal moves, you are getting it too hot for comfort. Heat kills more Opals in the cutting than any other cause (except out of round wheels that slap the Opal to death). -- Don Thompson Remmy sez, Count de Monet. Unless, of course, you are Baroque. "Ted Gittinger" wrote in message ... I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger |
"Ted Gittinger" wrote in
: I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger I'd be nervous using super glue or epoxy on an opal, if by opal you mean gem opal as opposed to fire or Mexican opal. For other less delicate stones you can use two-part epoxy. Use a filler in the epoxy(cornstarch works well if it's fresh). Then you can use water as the solvent. I have also heated the dop to pop the stone off. My favorite, though is super glue gel. Again, I use heat to remove the stone from the dop. You could try either of those methods on a piece of low quality opal rough to see what effect they have on the opal. -- Saint Séimí mac Liam Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve Prophet of The Great Tagger Canonized December '99 |
On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 01:21:11 GMT, "Ted Gittinger"
wrote: I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger I've used epoxy for dopping and Attack for removal with no problems or damage to opals. It was scary at first, but it works very well. However, I'm going to try Goop for my next one. Charlie Leo |
In article ,
"Don T" wrote: "Ted Gittinger" wrote in message ... I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger I have had no problem releasing epoxy from opals with acetone. Another trick if you use dop wax and have a problem with stones popping off: put a drop of super glue on top of the wax still on the dop stick and put the stone back on, hold for a few seconds, and finish working it. It will release with whatever method you normally use to get the stone off. The dop wax will normally release from the glue leaving it on the stone. I just scrape it off the stone with a knife. -- |
Ted,
I use my fingers to hold opals as much as possible. I can hold some pretty tiny stones with my small fingers. I know the risks involved, but I rarely loose one. I do a lot of koroit and boulder so those are easy to hold to, but I can easily hold a crystal opal around 20 carats. When I do need to dop, I use E6000, which is the same stuff as Goop as somebody else mentioned. I use golf tee's for dop sticks and have no problem tearing the opal off the E6000 when I'm done. Kind regards, Mardel Rein www.cooltools.us Ted Gittinger wrote: I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger |
Ted Gittinger wrote:
I am interested in knowing of any cold-dopping methods that have been found to work well, especially for opals. Will Epoxy work, following by dissolving the glue using Attack or some other solvent? Regards, Ted Gittinger Super Glue -- dissolved by acetone. It's my standard and it doesn't seem to hurt opal. --RC |
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