Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

A while back I picked up this old Beacon Star 6" cabber at a good price. Tho old & dirty, the bearings are free & quiet, and the shaft is in pretty good shape. The plans are to convert it to take 5 - 6" X 1/2" convex carving wheels so I can work inside curves on freeform cabs.

The machine as it sits.


One of the 5 convex wheels.


3/4" id X 1/8" thick nylon spacers to set the space between wheels.


The plans are to fill the existing holes in the hood with Devcon Liquid Steel, and to re drill the hood for 5 needle valves, so each wheel is centered under a valve. I have all of the needed plumbing pieces, and a brand new 1/4 HP motor which should be enough to spin this machine. I'll add pics as work progresses.

That's a nice old machine, can't wait to see it when you refurbish it.
Please post pics so we can see your work in progress!
Chris

That's the plan Chris. I need to finish tearing it down so I can soda blast it down to bare metal. But I need a very low humidity day for that. Too much humidity makes the soda clump up in the blasting nozzle.
I want to paint it as close to the original color as possible. Also going to see if I can remove the data plate on the front with a heat gun, so it can be put back on after painting.

I actually just ordered a bunch of wheels from China, and a few of them are the opposite of what your planning on using, concave wheels.
I was gonna get some convex wheels, but I'll see what the quality of the concave and 6" x 1.5" electroplated flat wheels are like first before getting into the more funky shapes

I'm interested in this because I've never seen convex wheels before, and am curious as to how you use them; presumably you're using it for carving, judging from the name of this thread. I'm looking forward to seeing how you use it.

PinkDiamond wrote:I'm interested in this because I've never seen convex wheels before, and am curious as to how you use them; presumably you're using it for carving, judging from the name of this thread. I'm looking forward to seeing how you use it.

Actually, the plans are to use the convex wheels to do inside curves on freeform cabs. The 6" wheels on my Genie limit me to how tight of curves I can do. The 1/2" diameter of the edge of the convex wheels will allow me to do inside curves down to 1/2". I have 9 lbs of Woodward Ranch red plume agate coming, and because of the shapes of the rough agate biscuits, freeforms are a must to get the most out of slabs.

Here are pics of the diamond grinding wheels:

Convex wheel:


Concave wheel:

Ooooh, I like that; both of them. I hate to ask another stupid question, but you can't really carve on them, right? You can only cut concave or convex domes on rough or into rough, right?

I bought my convex wheels from a guy called Jade Carver. His name says it all. Don't know about the convex wheels, but the concave come in different widths from 1/4" up to at least 1". For carving they would be great for removing lots of material in a hurry, to get down to the point where you would start in with a Foredom and diamond points.

I see, so you would use it pre-carving to get down to where you want to start.