John Batcha <p><strong>Cabbing</strong> <br />The Steps from start to finish on creating a cab.</p> <p><em>Lets talk about slabbing and cutting the material first.</em><br />1. You try to look at the material to find the best pattern to cut. Cut slabs ¼ inch thick (Note: Thicker for bigger or higher domed cabs around 3/8 inch).</p> <p>2. Look at your slab and determine what pattern (size and shape) you want to cut. There are templates available for the standard shapes.</p> <p>3. Mark slab to cut out using a pencil, fine point sharpie or a welding rod with a sharpened point. If you put mark more then one cab to cutout on a slab be sure to leave space between each cab for saw blade thickness (Note: Saw blades come in different thickness so make note of blade your using).</p> <p>4. Cutout cab &#8211; Trim excess material around cab outline without cutting on markings. (Note: The less excess trim the easier to shape cab on grinning wheel).</p> <p><em>Next step Doping the Cab.</em><br />5. Now we need to dop the cab to a stick (for easier handling). Dop wax is a specialized stick of shellec, bees wax, resin, and dyes formulated to hold stones. To do this you heat up the cab and melt the dop wax. Once the dop material is melted you dip the stick in the dop wax and apply it to the backside of the hot cab. The slower it cools the better holding power! Or if it’s a big enough cab that you are making you could just hold it and not use a dop stick.</p> <p><em>Now it is time for the grind.</em><br />6. Now it time to start grinding the excess material off the stone. Normally your grinding wheels are between 60 grit to 100 grit (mine is a 80-grit diamond wheel). You want to remove the excess material down to the outside edge of the line you drawn for your cab.</p> <p>7. Once you are down to the line it is time to start forming the dome on your cab. Slowly work the edge of the cab. Go evenly around the cab removing material. Leave a 1/16-inch rim at the bottom of the cab don’t dome all the way to the bottom edge of the cab. This will cause chipping on the edge if no rim is left. Also be sure to completely dome (rounded top). If you leave a flat top on stone, it will be very difficult to get all the scratches out of the stone in later steps.</p> <p>8. How move next to the 220-grit wheel (or some range of grit around this). Go over stone with this fine grinding wheel to remove all the courser wheel scratches, and continue to shape the stone.</p> <p><em>Moving to the polishing wheels.</em><br />9. How as we move to the third wheel (280 grit) you put a little more pressure on the stone (push into sponge rubber) to form around dome and remove flat spots and scratches from the 2 previous wheels. So at the end of using this wheel you should have no flat spots and no scratches from the previous wheels. The other wheels down the line will not correct these issues. Dry cab off and check closely for scratches, repeat until no scratches are seen.</p> <p>10. The next wheel is 600 grit. Go over the complete stone for about 2 minutes look at the stone and verify there are no scratches from the previous steps if so go back to the 280 wheel.</p> <p>11. Go to the 3000-grit wheel then to the 14000-grit wheel, go over the stone for about 2 minutes on each wheel.</p> <p>12. When completed should have a polished cab. Some stones need to be done on a 50000 grit wheel to get a good polish.</p> <p>13. To remove the stone from the dop stick. Let the stone dry completely. Then put it in a freezer for a hour or less and the stone will fall off .</p> <p><em>There is also another way to do a cab.</em><br />It is to shape and dome stone with 80 grit wheel, then put it through the tumbler all steps except the courser grit. Vibrating tumble preferred (less chance of damaging stone). If the stone has different hardness (materials) in the stone it will under cut the soft areas of the stone. <br />I prefer not to use this method!</p> 2007-05-25T13:57:02-04:00 how-a-cabochon-is-made 30455 2007-05-25T13:57:02-04:00 18671 2007-12-15T16:00:45-05:00 *Cabbing* The Steps from start to finish on creating a cab. _Lets talk about slabbing and cutting the material first._ 1. You try to look at the material to find the best pattern to cut. Cut slabs ¼ inch thick (Note: Thicker for bigger or higher domed cabs around 3/8 inch). 2. Look at your slab and determine what pattern (size and shape) you want to cut. There are templates available for the standard shapes. 3. Mark slab to cut out using a pencil, fine point sharpie or a welding rod with a sharpened point. If you put mark more then one cab to cutout on a slab be sure to leave space between each cab for saw blade thickness (Note: Saw blades come in different thickness so make note of blade your using). 4. Cutout cab - Trim excess material around cab outline without cutting on markings. (Note: The less excess trim the easier to shape cab on grinning wheel). _Next step Doping the Cab._ 5. Now we need to dop the cab to a stick (for easier handling). Dop wax is a specialized stick of shellec, bees wax, resin, and dyes formulated to hold stones. To do this you heat up the cab and melt the dop wax. Once the dop material is melted you dip the stick in the dop wax and apply it to the backside of the hot cab. The slower it cools the better holding power! Or if it’s a big enough cab that you are making you could just hold it and not use a dop stick. _Now it is time for the grind._ 6. Now it time to start grinding the excess material off the stone. Normally your grinding wheels are between 60 grit to 100 grit (mine is a 80-grit diamond wheel). You want to remove the excess material down to the outside edge of the line you drawn for your cab. 7. Once you are down to the line it is time to start forming the dome on your cab. Slowly work the edge of the cab. Go evenly around the cab removing material. Leave a 1/16-inch rim at the bottom of the cab don’t dome all the way to the bottom edge of the cab. This will cause chipping on the edge if no rim is left. Also be sure to completely dome (rounded top). If you leave a flat top on stone, it will be very difficult to get all the scratches out of the stone in later steps. 8. How move next to the 220-grit wheel (or some range of grit around this). Go over stone with this fine grinding wheel to remove all the courser wheel scratches, and continue to shape the stone. _Moving to the polishing wheels._ 9. How as we move to the third wheel (280 grit) you put a little more pressure on the stone (push into sponge rubber) to form around dome and remove flat spots and scratches from the 2 previous wheels. So at the end of using this wheel you should have no flat spots and no scratches from the previous wheels. The other wheels down the line will not correct these issues. Dry cab off and check closely for scratches, repeat until no scratches are seen. 10. The next wheel is 600 grit. Go over the complete stone for about 2 minutes look at the stone and verify there are no scratches from the previous steps if so go back to the 280 wheel. 11. Go to the 3000-grit wheel then to the 14000-grit wheel, go over the stone for about 2 minutes on each wheel. 12. When completed should have a polished cab. Some stones need to be done on a 50000 grit wheel to get a good polish. 13. To remove the stone from the dop stick. Let the stone dry completely. Then put it in a freezer for a hour or less and the stone will fall off . _There is also another way to do a cab._ It is to shape and dome stone with 80 grit wheel, then put it through the tumbler all steps except the courser grit. Vibrating tumble preferred (less chance of damaging stone). If the stone has different hardness (materials) in the stone it will under cut the soft areas of the stone. I prefer not to use this method!