I’d love to learn to facet gems, but don’t have a very big budget to buy myself a faceting machine. Ebay has several of these cheap machines from China, could anyone let me know if these are at all usable? It claims to have a 96 gear but I don’t see any in the pictures.
Many thanks in advance!
Never used or seen one, but it does say 96 gear, lower down the page. Oh and the large brass wheel on top.
Oh I didn’t see that the brass wheel is the gear, thanks!
no dops, you’ll need to check the size, and get those and a 45 degree angle dop, transfer jig, no other index wheels on the site, so your stuck with 96 index, Any problem, i doubt they’d know how to fix it or explain it in emails.Shipping etc. Added it all up, you might be better off getting it closer to home
My first thought is what do you plan to cut and to what grade?
If you just think of cutting synthetic stones or other stones that not have a grate value maybe it could cut a stone. Most likely it will be frustrating depending of what accuracy you can adjust the machine to.
A good quality rough would easy exceed the machine in price.
The laps will be much more of an investment then this machine.
There is other types of machines that are not to expensive like the sterling from Sri Lanka but it’s a platform machine and it’s a bit all over the place. I have kind of learned to cut on it but honestly if you not cut native cuts or cutting for money I would recommend something with more accuracy and where you have grater control of the depth of cutting and not only relying on your hearing as the machine not run true to the platform (atleast not mine) my self looked at 2 machines , the sterling and Omni or patriot I think it’s called now. Whiteout have tried or seen any other faceting machines then my own I would have chosen the patriot if I would start fresh and not have anyone to rely on.
I have a colleague who purchased on of the Chinese eBay machines, close to unusable, floppy, inaccurate and basically a total ripoff.
Look for a proprietary brand on the second hand market, be prepared to have it serviced and then you’ll be on the right track. Budget for some new pre-polish and polishing laps as what might be in the package could be worn and inaccurate so you’ll be battling on your first stone and getting very frustrated.
Good luck and be patient, the right machine will come along. Talk to lapidary clubs as well, someone might be selling or know of someone selling their machine.
Seems like I’d be wasting my money on this then. I’ll keep looking for a good second hand one, thanks for the advice!
I bought one of these machines a week ago HJ-GF4 from HAJET
this machine is very robust and heavy it will definitely last for years its built like a tank, the total weight is roughly 30Kgs pretty accurate, on the lapping side, the attachments are reasonable, and it needs better speed control i think the laps run too fast so i will fit a PWM to control the speed better.
I must add I am not a seasoned faceter, have only been doing this for a couple of months, but i do have a great imagination for my own designs.
The machine I purchased is in the link below
They only give you the basic attachments so make sure you comunicate with them before hand so that they can send you a list of whats included with the machine, otherwise you will only get the basics
Best Regards Selekolela
Just helped first time faceter put machine together no cone dops 4 flat dops 6 mm size dops -Laps 1/8 thick 6 “ diameter one96 index wheel all adjustments are with set screws only half good item is led light but then again it spots not good for faceting my advice save your money buy anything but chinese made facet machine cost less than 500 dollars you get what you pay for