Lapidary Shop Stock Products List
Our list was created with the old standby products and recommendations
from our Radical Rocks Facebook group. By the way you can join this awesome
community, in our private Facebook group featuring education, news, tips &
more! Disclaimer; This if for entertainment and informational purposes only, I
have not tried all the methods and products listed, so use at your own
judgement, and your own risk, always follow the manufactures instructions and
personal safety recommendations. Results will likely varies depending on uses
and materials and other factors.
Adhesives
CA/Super glue; Three main types. Be sure to have De-bonder nearby.
This glue is heat sensitive, this can be bad or good. If you are working small
stones glued to a nail and work it slowly so it will not get hot and fall off,
then when you have completed the grinding and polish you just heat the nail and
the stone pops off before the heat travels to the stone, if done correct.
a.
Thin CA/Super Glue/Starbond; Can be used for
stabilization of porous stones and for some cracks or fractures. This is said
to work best if the stone is not completely separated.
b.
Thick/Gel CA/Super Glue/Starbond; Used as
dopping adhesive as mentioned its heat sensitive. Also, can be used for filling
small pits and voids in stones.
c.
CA/Accelerator or Flash set; This will increase
drying time from hours to minutes. The accelerators may reduce the strength by
a small amount. Always have De-bonder on hand, especially for use with an
accelerator.
d.
De-bonder; Working with CA/Super glue products
can instantly bond skin to skin or other materials, it’s going to happen if
your using it for lapidary and you will rip your skin off to remove from a
stuck material. Keep some in your shop.
Dopping Wax; This is called a wax,
yet it’s not waxes it’s a shellac-based, pitch like adhesive that is heated to
specific temperatures 140f to 170f, typically this is heated in a dop pot made
specifically for this dop.
a.
Green Dop; generally, a good all-purpose dop
melts about 150f with a flame or electric dop pot.
b.
Black Dop; Generally, melts about 175f don’t use
on opal or sensitive stones.
c.
Brown/Dark Red Dop; generally, melts about 140f
at lease what I saw on Kingsleynorth web site.
d.
Debonding; Usually slow cooling. Denatured
alcohol can dissolve it enough for removal. Freezer has worked well for most hard-untreated
stones for me.
Epoxy; Several types of epoxy are
used as adhesives, stone repairs, hardening, and as a base for stones.
a.
5 Minute; This can be used as a temporary bond
but can yellow in time. It is usually used as a dopping material for faceting. Also,
can be used as a back adhesive for the stone to the finding. It is a two part
epoxy the requires good cleaning of surfaces before bonding as with all bonding
agent.
b.
Epoxy 220; Great for securing gemstones to
findings and has a good heat tolerance.
c.
Hughes/ Epoxy 330; Used for making Triplets for
opals and other stones as it is a water clear epoxy. Also used to repair broken
or split stones. Note somewhat heat sensitive as with many epoxies.
d. Opticon
224; Used as a fracture sealer and can also be used to stabilize stones,
such as turquoise. Our Link for this product. https://amzn.to/2Rcqq37
e.
PC 7; This is a past epoxy found at most
hardware stores. It is a two-part epoxy and can be used as a backing for
stones. Set time can be speed up by use of a 100-watt light powered dop pot to
about 140f, but do not heat above 200f
f.
Attack; is a de-bonding solvent for epoxies.
Used often to remove stones from findings or stones dopped with epoxies.
Jewelry Glue; there is a many type of what is classified as
“jewelry glue” Basically a hobby glue.
a.
E 6000; Craft glue to bond dissimilar materials
with a slightly flexible bond. Used usually to glue cabochons to findings, or
to prongs or caps.
b.
G-S Hypo Cement; A jewelry glue, that can be
used on many materials, and to bond on dis-similar materials. Used to bond the
end of bead stringing materials at the tie points.
Temporary bonding; Used often for bonding sandpaper to a
flat surface, such as a lap. Also used to temporarily bond on the surface of
stones or other materials for templets to cut or carve. Spray each side to be
bonded until it becomes tacky then adhere to bond.
a.
3M Supper 77; A multipurpose spray adhesive
often used in a lapidary shop.
Chemicals
Ammonia; This can be used to create patina on metals, brass
and copper, the process is called “fume”. Suspend the metal above the ammonia
in a closed container, results depend on the strength and amount of exposure,
and varied in colorization from darkening, to vivid blues and greens.
Baking soda, AKA Sodium Bicarbonate; This household item is
a wonder in the lapidary shop as well and is a must have in you shop. Baking
soda will neutralize other shop acids such as your pickle or oxalic acid and
others. Be careful and research be causing the reaction will cause bubbling.
Vinegar and baking soda will create a violent reaction, there are YouTube
videos of folks making rockets with this mix. So be safe and research thing you
want to use it with. Baking soda can be used to clean too.
Borax/Boric acid; Often used as a flux, either dry or wet,
used for brazing or casting. It helps remove contaminates when brazing or melting
metals.
Cupronil; Is a fire and flux scale preventer for silver,
copper and brass brazing or soldering. A blue liquid sprayed or dipped to
improve solder flow, also helps reduce fire scale of the metal being heated.
De-bubbler or bubble preventer; These are not used much
today. A debubblizer is supposed
to reduce surface tension so that bubbles will not
attach themselves to the model. In the day people used vibrators alone, the debubblizer helped release
the bubbles and often contained soap or another
surfactant to reduce the surface tension.
Now days most of the better investments contain a surfactant as part of the formulation and I usually
don’t use one of the spray-on
debubblizers. In fact, some commercial debubblizers have a warning that they should not be used with vacuum
debubblizing.
Flux; This is a chemical or mix of chemicals to improve the
flow of solder. Read the product information.
Liver of sulfur; Used to add darkness or patina to copper and
silver. It smells like a rotten egg and should only be used outside due to
these nasty fumes.
Oxalic acid; This is great for cleaning crystals and geodes;
it removes iron stains pretty good to great. It can work better when heated a
bit, however this will create toxic fumes. I have always used at room
temperature just fine. Always use proper (PPE) personal protective equipment’s.
Sodium Bisulfate; This is for cleaning silver, copper, or
brass as preparation for soldering. It is commonly called “Pickle” or as a
pickling agent and works best when heated at 120f to 150f this is often done
with a small crock pot set at the proper setting.
Vinegar; Can be used to test stones for carbonite content.
Also used in combination with a coil of copper to speed up a natural patina
process and coloration of chalcopyrite after its cut.
Yellow ocher; This is a powder used to limit solder flow.
Detergents
Dawn dish soap; Washing and a good de-greasing soap. This
works well for removing oil from saw cut slabs. Also used for the first stage
of rock tumbling as a surfactant and cushioning, due to the bubbling effect. A
side effect is it also reduces the noise of tumbling. Also, can be used in
between changing grit size to clean stones of previous grit before tumbling the
next grit, usually about one-hour duration.
Ivory snow and baby detergent; Used as a cushion and cleaner
in tumbling of stones as above with Dawn.
Tide laundry soap granular; This make a good de-greaser for
cement floors. Wet the area sprinkle grains and use a stiff broom or brush to
loosen stains for several minutes to half hour ensuring it stays damp to wet
then rinse.
Fuel/Gas
Acetylene; Flammable gas for wielding, brazing, solder,
casting, and metal cutting of soft metals to steal. Can be used with a tip that
creates a venturi drawing in air for solder work but burns cleaner and hotter
when used with oxygen. The smallest tanks are size B and used most for lapidary
work.
Butane; Usually sold in small canisters to refuel small hobby
torch. These are a good way for beginning in silver solder work for lapidary
projects.
Denatured alcohol; Sometimes used in alcohol lamps to heat
dop sticks for dopping stones. Also used in wax casting. Also, can be used to
clean.
Mapp gas; A mixed gas a bit hotter than propane sold in
medium canisters, usually a torch tip for soldering is screwed into the top of
the canister. This is often used for small copper plumbing projects and can
also be used for silver work, but the flame is a bit to turbulent and will blow
light silver finding parts out of place.
Propane; Can be used effectively for most silver work,
specialty torch with a hose and small tip work best for lapidary. As with the
map gas the torch tip that screws into the top is a bit to turbulent for fine
silver work in my opinion.
Solvents
Acetone; Works good for thinning or cleaning epoxies. Also
good for prepping stones for fracture repairs or hardening treatments.
Denatured alcohol; Great for cleaning and or prepping stones
for bonding or dopping of most glues, dopping or epoxy. Also, for cleaning
tools of dop, epoxy or glue.
Lacquer thinner; Used as a cleaner. Also, can remove black
felt marker or “sharpie” from stones.
Useful Products
Cleaner;
Tarn X; Tarnish remover maybe used on stones, but not on opal,
pearl, amber, turquoise or shell.
Jewelry cleaner; Many to chose from to clean jewelry and some
stones, but not sensitive stones as above with Tarn X.
Casting;
Investment; High Temperature or plaster for creating molds
made from wax masters in the lost wax process. It is made from silicon-based
powder and mixed with water then poured over the wax cast master into a flask
or cubical, then its cured in a kiln. There is investment for various metals
such as silver, gold, and platinum.
Spray shellac; Used to seal organic materials as preparation
for wax casting and casting.
Geode Work;
Shaving Cream; Works Ok to keep grit out when lapping and
polishing. May need to reapply throughout the process.
Lapidary work;
Bee’s wax; Can be used as a lubricant for burs and saw
blades. Also used as an adhesive to pick up small stones so they can be placed
in a setting. I have heard it is used as a finish on a soapstone carving when
applied and in an oven.
Burr life; A liquid or solid that is used to reduce friction
and to increase the life of burrs, saw blades, drills, and such.
Lube cool; Additive when using water to cool and lubricate a
lapidary saw when cutting.
Mineral oil; Used as a lubricant and coolant for lapidary
saws when cutting.
Veterinary grade light mineral oil; This is used for cutting
saw cooling and lube when cutting. It is a replacement for Pella and Almag
oils. It has a higher ignition point than traditional oils some 40f to 100f. It
has no smell and is nontoxic. Normally used as an animal laxative.
WD-40; This lubricate will penetrate oil and water and is
used to lubricate mechanical parts and to loosen bolts and such. It is very
good at helping to remove rust.
Products & Guides
Links
Introduction to Lapidary, book; https://amzn.to/2RhNzRx
Opticon 224 Hardener & Fracture healing; https://amzn.to/2Rcqq37
Hughes/ Epoxy 330; https://amzn.to/2XdZHXJ
“Remember
Rockhounds don’t Die They petrify”
Join me on the
Radical Rocks Podcast, our Blog or social media below, also
see our affiliate links below that help support our mission to keep
Rockhounding and lapidary arts alive and thriving. Feel free to contact me
with any suggestions on this blog or any other ideas you may have. If you would
like to sponsor in some way, or have your club, book, or mine, spotlighted in
Radical Rocks, Blog, Podcast or Video’s feel free to contact Shane with Radical
Rocks
MeWe, better than Facebook; https://mewe.com/join/radicalrocks
Affiliate/referral
links
Fundrise,
become a real estate investor for only $500 I have for months now and it’s been
earning an average of 10% dividends. https://fundrise.com/i/33o5g
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment. I will review content for spam and such.