info on old lapidary equipment needed

Hi, I'm new to the group and lapidary as well. I picked up some old
tumblers and what I guess is a flat lapping tool. One of the tumblers
is pretty big, the drum is 9" in diameter and 12" long. It is 10 sided
and rubber lined. The name on it is craft tools. Its pretty old
looking, but hasnt been used much, It runs good, but needs a new belt.
The other tumbler is smaller, about 7" in diameter and 4" deep. It
needs a new motor, but looks fairly unused. I cant find a name on it.
The flat grinder was made by craftsman. It has a solid cast aluminum
tub, a clamp for a stone that swivels and raises, a cast aluminum
slurry hopper with a spigot for dripping I guess. It has a wheel on it
that seems to be just steel. It is kind of flexible. I'm not sure what
kind of wheel it takes or if this one is any good. It is rusty, but
the tool looks fairly good. It looks pretty old cause I dont think
craftsman makes their stuff this good anymore.

Does anyone know anyhting more about this craftsman flat lap,or the
craft tools tumbler? Are they any good?

Thanks
Roger

"big head" wrote in
:

Hi, I'm new to the group and lapidary as well. I picked up some old
tumblers and what I guess is a flat lapping tool. One of the tumblers
is pretty big, the drum is 9" in diameter and 12" long. It is 10 sided
and rubber lined. The name on it is craft tools. Its pretty old
looking, but hasnt been used much, It runs good, but needs a new belt.
The other tumbler is smaller, about 7" in diameter and 4" deep. It
needs a new motor, but looks fairly unused. I cant find a name on it.
The flat grinder was made by craftsman. It has a solid cast aluminum
tub, a clamp for a stone that swivels and raises, a cast aluminum
slurry hopper with a spigot for dripping I guess. It has a wheel on it
that seems to be just steel. It is kind of flexible. I'm not sure what
kind of wheel it takes or if this one is any good. It is rusty, but
the tool looks fairly good. It looks pretty old cause I dont think
craftsman makes their stuff this good anymore.

Does anyone know anyhting more about this craftsman flat lap,or the
craft tools tumbler? Are they any good?

Thanks
Roger



Can you put up a picture of the craftsman machine somewhere? Or e-mail me
some photos and I'll put them up if I can identify it?

--
Saint Séimí mac Liam
Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve
Prophet of The Great Tagger
Canonized December '99

big head wrote:
Hi, I'm new to the group and lapidary as well. I picked up some old
tumblers and what I guess is a flat lapping tool. One of the tumblers
is pretty big, the drum is 9" in diameter and 12" long. It is 10 sided
and rubber lined. The name on it is craft tools. Its pretty old
looking, but hasnt been used much, It runs good, but needs a new belt.
The other tumbler is smaller, about 7" in diameter and 4" deep. It
needs a new motor, but looks fairly unused. I cant find a name on it.
The flat grinder was made by craftsman. It has a solid cast aluminum
tub, a clamp for a stone that swivels and raises, a cast aluminum
slurry hopper with a spigot for dripping I guess. It has a wheel on it
that seems to be just steel. It is kind of flexible. I'm not sure what
kind of wheel it takes or if this one is any good. It is rusty, but
the tool looks fairly good. It looks pretty old cause I dont think
craftsman makes their stuff this good anymore.

Does anyone know anyhting more about this craftsman flat lap,or the
craft tools tumbler? Are they any good?

Thanks
Roger

That Craftsman thing sounds like a faceting machine.

--RC

I actually cut and polished my first stone on one of those things! And
they did make a faceting head and mast for it - which it sounds like it
may have.
They were made by and sold by another company who's name I can't recall
now. I think they go back to the late forties/early 50s maybe. Dunno
when they stopped making them. They had a saw attachment (weight-fed
swinging vice IIRC) and horizontal SiC wheels.

Carl


Rick Cook wrote:

big head wrote:

Hi, I'm new to the group and lapidary as well. I picked up some old
tumblers and what I guess is a flat lapping tool. One of the tumblers
is pretty big, the drum is 9" in diameter and 12" long. It is 10 sided
and rubber lined. The name on it is craft tools. Its pretty old
looking, but hasnt been used much, It runs good, but needs a new belt.
The other tumbler is smaller, about 7" in diameter and 4" deep. It
needs a new motor, but looks fairly unused. I cant find a name on it.
The flat grinder was made by craftsman. It has a solid cast aluminum
tub, a clamp for a stone that swivels and raises, a cast aluminum
slurry hopper with a spigot for dripping I guess. It has a wheel on it
that seems to be just steel. It is kind of flexible. I'm not sure what
kind of wheel it takes or if this one is any good. It is rusty, but
the tool looks fairly good. It looks pretty old cause I dont think
craftsman makes their stuff this good anymore.

Does anyone know anyhting more about this craftsman flat lap,or the
craft tools tumbler? Are they any good?

Thanks
Roger


That Craftsman thing sounds like a faceting machine.

--RC

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Carl 1 Lucky Texan wrote:
I actually cut and polished my first stone on one of those things!
And
they did make a faceting head and mast for it - which it sounds like
it
may have.
They were made by and sold by another company who's name I can't
recall
now. I think they go back to the late forties/early 50s maybe. Dunno
when they stopped making them. They had a saw attachment (weight-fed
swinging vice IIRC) and horizontal SiC wheels.

Carl


Hey Carl thanks for the info, I think what I have is the weight fed
vise, I was wondering what the pulley was for that is mounted across
from the vise. What I have just clamps the stone in place and does not
look like it would do facets. Is it possible to buy a faceting
attachment? The cutting wheel looks to be in poor shap and I dont know
if it is a saw blade or a lap. I looked at some lap plates and they
said they are meant to be mounted on a more solid plate. Any idea
where I could get the backing plate? I'll try to post some pictures
as soon as I can borrow my daughters digital cam and figure out how to
post them.

Thanks
Roger

Oh forgot, one more question, faceting is probably deeper into the
hobby that I want to go at this point, if I can find the right stuff to
make this machine work could I do cabbing and maybe polish flat
surfaces like a geode half on it?

Thanks again
Roger

big head wrote:
Oh forgot, one more question, faceting is probably deeper into the
hobby that I want to go at this point, if I can find the right stuff to
make this machine work could I do cabbing and maybe polish flat
surfaces like a geode half on it?

Thanks again
Roger

Sure. In fact if it's the machine I'm thinking of it would be a lot
better at cabbing or flat lapping geodes than it would be at faceting.

--RC

I have known one person personally who adapted a faceting head to the
unit. Sounds like you do have the slabbing vise and, if the steel disc
you have is about 1/8" thick or less it may be a saw blade.
I actually ground and polished my first genstone on one of those units
in Jr. High art class. It was set up for cabbing.
If you insist on using it as your first lapidary machine, you mat need
to find some adapters or have some made to install some of the newer
type laps and wheels. It's doable, but might be better in the long run
to buy some more modern type macinery. Also, if there is a Gem& Minerla
club in your area you may find someone to give you some personal help
getting started.
One of the beter places for help would be;
http://www.gemcutters.org/today.htm join up and ask the list about the
machine and dig around in the archives. Drop my name/handle if you want
- someone might remember me there.

Carl
1 Lucky Texan


big head wrote:
Oh forgot, one more question, faceting is probably deeper into the
hobby that I want to go at this point, if I can find the right stuff to
make this machine work could I do cabbing and maybe polish flat
surfaces like a geode half on it?

Thanks again
Roger


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