Hi experts! Concave design, notation and render. If anyone would like to contribute their knowledge I'd welcome discussion/feedback/criticism. Is this of use to facetors? Is the UI/UX functional? What adjustments would you suggest?
Video: Ashton Gems concave cuts (recreated) wireframe and render within pluto unearthed.
Cut this as a quick one while waiting for glue to cure on a bigger piece - What a nice pattern to cut. Intuitive and simple.
Used 40 mesh diamond paste on copper to make the meets after rough-in, and a tin lap for polish this time around. Cutting with the charged lap was nice. Tin lap gave a nice finish, though slightly round. Polished up really quick, maybe a result of the flatter facets in the cutting and prepolish stage. Girdle is a bit dirty, but I think it turned out nice. Some dust on the stone in the video.
Color #104 spinel. Had to mess with the tonemapping on the video because reddit kept blowing the saturation out, looks close enough on my monitor. ffmpeg command in case anyone wants to process an iphone video the same way:
ffmpeg.exe -i FILENAME.MOV -vf "zscale=t=linear:npl=1000,format=gbrpf32le,zscale=p=bt709,tonemap=tonemap=mobius,zscale=t=bt709:m=bt709:r=tv,format=yuv420p,eq=saturation=0.75" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -bsf:v filter_units=remove_types=6 FILENAME.mp4
So my dopholder swung backwards when I inspected the last polish on my stone. Hit the machine hard and cracked. I tried the ink trick to see how deep the crack is but I cant seem to get the inc into it, if theres a surface opening a needle cant catch it.
How do I save my stone? Cut or be content with the failure and do the crown?
hi all,
I'm playing with a couple free mobile apps to scan rough stones into 3D models. This video shows the real roughs and the results by RealityScan.
It's descent and with more photos, the accuracy can be improved. I've also tried Kiri engine and Scaniverse, the results will be posted later.
I wonder if anyone else have done these before, and maybe share some experience?
[Edits] Here's the results with Scaniverse and Kiri Engine. Scaniverse does everything on the phone, RealityScan and Kiri Engine require to upload the photos and the calculation is done on the server. Personally I prefer RealityScan and Kiri. More comparison will come later
Hi everyone,
I'm a 30 year old beginner that was able to take a class and figure out that I do like the process. I would like to work towards fantasy cutting. For my first machine, price to value learning wise I would like to get a used ultra tec v2 or potentially facetron. But I know ultra tec sells a fantasy cutting machine that works best with a v5, so I'm wondering if I should just save for a v5.
I'm leaning towards v5 but want to know opinions on what beginner machine I should get
I am able to attend open lab hours that have ultra tec v2s
I'm also open to alternative paths to fantasy cutting that may be cheaper overall and accurate cutting.
Thanks!
Do they take an already faceted quartz and then cover it with a film?
Finished this stone last night and I'm VERY happy with how it came out. The color and cut compliments each other very well. Not too big, not to small.......I think just right for a pendant or center stone for a ring.
• Rough: Synthetic sapphire (Flame fusion)
• Weight: 2.05cts
• Color: Paraiba green
• Design: Angles "Old Mine Brilliant No 1" Modified
Thanks for looking.
The purple one is amethyst (I'd say ametrine, but the rough was sold as amethyst), the green one aventurine and the red is lab sapphire.
The first 2 (amethyst and aventurine) I faceted them on a wonky homemade machine, and then the sapphire was my first on my new Fable mini faceting machine. All of them had a yield of about 30-35%, so not bad I guess.
About the cuts they are (or try to be, because mistakes did happen lol):
- Amethyst: Marco Voltolini's "Pandora" crown and Greg Glenn's "Silicon Blossom" pavilion
- Aventurine: Arya Akhavan's "Rectus Quadratus" double crown
- Lab sapphire: Robert Strickland's "Premiere Rose Replica" pavilion and "Compear 1.25" crown (and royally fucked that one up, had to adjust the angles to make them easier to achive with my machine -which only has an analog quadrant with a 1° precision- and completely changed the shape of it)
This took a lot of time of trial and error and getting a semi-proper set up, so I hope I'll be able to start getting more stones done quicker now.
Since where I live there is no easy (or any way, really) way to access to classes or machinery, I'm sure I'll have to bother you all with some questions from time to time, so please bear with me.
Currently working on a new lab sapphire, hope this one doesn't develop so much orange peel and refuses to polish properly like the previous one did! (This time I'm only cutting it with 400 and 600grit plated laps and then going to a resin bonded 3000 and 50000grit laps to finish it, so let's see how that goes).
This is a flame-fusion lab sapphire I finished in an antique-inspired cushion. I’ve been on a scissor-cut kick for a while, but I keep coming back to these chunky facets and the open culet.
I love how this one turned out — especially the flashes it throws as it moves. There’s just something about antique-style faceting in colored stones that gets me.
Anyone else gone down the antique-cut rabbit hole lately?
I've been working on fantasy cut in GemSim recently and finally get it to a usable state. I don't have a fantasy machine and never done fantasy cut myself. So anyone with experience please give it a try and let me know if there's any issues. Thanks a lot!
I started figuring the crown out but keeping everything aligned has been troublesome with this one, and our girdle line is all but nonexistent.
still having fun and learning. Hope you all enjoy and happy cutting.
I have been using the same thing for polishing, and it has worked well... till this stone (the last one in the video). Can anyone tell what stone is this and what I should use to polish it?
Well I’m happy, it’s pretty even with a chip and I’m headed straight to the bench after posting this to see if I can chase that chip out.
It’s nice to finally hold a trilliant after everything.
Hope you’ve all enjoyed and happy cutting!