I have a baaad itch to make stone marbles

[Toecutter]

I want to make stone marbles and looking at the tools to do it along with the techniques used, any of you guys on here making marbles?? anyone have any equipment they wanna sell??

 

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[A2coins]

That could be a cool business polished rocks too

 

[Toecutter]

I ordered motors and a dc controller along with a wet saw, sphere machine is gonna happen!!

 

[Toecutter]

gonna build something like this....

 

[cheese]

I've contemplated building one but haven't gotten around to it yet. Good luck and show us your progress!

 

[gunsil]

Sphere machines make spheres, marble mills make marbles. Have fun with that, I cut and polish stones but have never tried spheres.

 

[Toecutter]

I have a few pudding stones I want to make spheres out of and a couple agates, also going to set up a sort of cabbing set up as well, thinking Ill use my high speed bench grinder and put a cabbing disc on it

 

[Toecutter]

Sphere machines make spheres, marble mills make marbles. Have fun with that, I cut and polish stones but have never tried spheres.

Thanks for clearing that up, for a newbe like my self there the same thing lol

 

[gunsil]

There is a big difference!! A sphere machine makes one sphere at a time, a marble mill can often make many at a time. Marble mills work differently than sphere machines but only make small spheres like average marble size, sphere machines usually make spheres much larger than marbles. Look around on craigslist and ebay, there are lots of good used lapidary machines for sale and they work better than "adapted" tools. For instance a tile saw will cut rocks but not as well as a true rock saw, same with grinders. I have been lucky to get some very good lapidary machines quite inexpensively by buying used gear.

 

[Toecutter]

I was wondering about the size, when is it considered a sphere and not a marble? Im planning to make them from 3/4 to maybe 3 inches...

 

[gunsil]

Well, I suppose it is subjective, but marble guys consider marbles as playing size, less than one inch diameter. Spheres are usually larger. The home made machine you show will work but it looks like the guy in the video is just re-polishing an old marble. The thing with that type of sphere machine is that you will need different "cups" for every size sphere you wish to make. In other words you cannot make a 3" sphere with the same cups you use for a 1&1/2" sphere. The larger the sphere the more power needed in the motors. I am sure there are other instructions for home made sphere machines, I have seen several at rock shows. MI is a rockhound friendly state, you should look for a rock and gem club in your area. Most rock clubs have machines for all club members to use and/or folks experienced in various lapidary endeavors like yours.

 

[smokeythecat]

You are talking spheres. They do make machines especially made to make the spheres. I always wanted to try that but, alas, it didn't happen.

 

[gunsil]

Well, I suppose it is subjective, but marble guys consider marbles as playing size, less than one inch diameter. Spheres are usually larger. The home made machine you show will work but it looks like the guy in the video is just re-polishing an old marble. The thing with that type of sphere machine is that you will need different "cups" for every size sphere you wish to make. In other words you cannot make a 3" sphere with the same cups you use for a 1&1/2" sphere. The larger the sphere the more power needed in the motors. I am sure there are other instructions for home made sphere machines, I have seen several at rock shows. MI is a rockhound friendly state, you should look for a rock and gem club in your area. Most rock clubs have machines for all club members to use and/or folks experienced in various lapidary endeavors like yours.

Try this:MWF Michigan Clubs it is a list of MI gem and mineral clubs.

 

[Tpmetal]

depends on what you got laying around. I have seen them made from a diamond core drill head mounted like a router(watch your fingers!), seen them made from a piece of metal pipe using silicon carbide grits and doing it from hand(slow but you can get perfect spheres with unreal surface polish). But the basic idea is that you have a circle surface smaller than your marble where the lip is the working surface, and you basically work the sphere buy spinning it evenly around in the circle(it almost sits on top like the circle surface is the pedestal). So depending on how many you plan on making, you can rig it like I described or if making a lot buy the stuff needed from a company

 

[gunsil]

That could be a cool business polished rocks too

Sadly, one cannot make much money making stone spheres or cutting most cabochons. Most of this work is done overseas where a couple dollars a week is a good wage and even with global shipping costs it is almost impossible for an American to compete in such a market.

 

[Tpmetal]

Sadly, one cannot make much money making stone spheres or cutting most cabochons. Most of this work is done overseas where a couple dollars a week is a good wage and even with global shipping costs it is almost impossible for an American to compete in such a market.

yeah for sure no money to be made doing it by hand lol

 

[SanMan]

I have a few pudding stones I want to make spheres out of and a couple agates, also going to set up a sort of cabbing set up as well, thinking Ill use my high speed bench grinder and put a cabbing disc on it

Wrong "RPM"

 

[SanMan]

What you should be looking at is how, "Bearing Balls" are made.

Like by former company, Hoover Ball.
Or current companies like, Baltec, or Spherics, or Winsted Ball.

"And", The RPM makes all the difference.

See if you can find a video on how a bearing manufacturer
makes bearing balls.

Two counter rotating flats, load it up with rough blanks, a lot of coarse
compound,..... and let her run.

The coarse compound breaks down doing the roughing work,.......
it becomes finer and finer, the balls become rounder and rounder,.....
the surface finish becomes better and better,..... in the end.

Beautiful roundness, beautiful sphericity, beautiful surface finish.

Then, careful sorting buy size.


The End

 

[Toecutter]

Iv done quit a bit of research on making spheres, the machine in the video is more for reference but Im going to try the same method using pvc cups of different sizes, the sphere will be mostly formed when it goes in the machine, if that doesnt work out ill make cups and use diamond pads,

I do have the nitch of Michigan pudding stones and Petoskey stones, the tourist that go to the U.P. love that crap, but im not in to make money but I may offer the service if i can get it down pat..

They do sell machines for spheres but the prices are crazy 800$ on up, Ill have about 75$ into this machine for starters..

The cabbing set up I may use a old lab centrifuge and convert it to a cabbing set-up...

 

[Toecutter]

Its alive!!