Home brewed machinery
I wrote about a used book on homemade lapidary equipment and I asked
why not try something else. Mr. Wykoff sells CDs on how to build such
things, Wykoff’’ book “Beyond the Glitter” became required reading
for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA, the final authority)
and the American Society of Gemcutters and the International Gem
Society (IGS). In any event the man is recognized as an authority
worldwide. As to home brewed machinery you can learn how to make a
cabbing unit, faceting machine, and some others. These are not crude
junkomatics.
In any event the links I added were edited out (probably automatic
by the server). So for those who may be interested type in gemlore
productions into the google search engine. This will get you his
Ebay store (he is retired) and see if this can be of use, you may
want to look at some other things as well. You can also get some of
the CDs through the IGS. He also sells a kit for a faceting machine.
If you have access to machine tools you may also wish to visit
gearloose. My only comment on the $145 book is that you are paying
for it’s rarity, so if you are not a collector give this a try, one
comment on the book was that it wasn’t that good and dated. Then
again it is the rarity and the collectability that you pay for, the
other should prove far more practical, I would assume. For myself as
soon as I get some things squared away I am going to get me one of
those kits, I have wanted something like that for a while, but there
is always not enough money to get everything, not at once anyway.
One last thing you can get the library (of CDs) or parts that interest you
and further your education.