stone crusher for inlay material

Hello William,

I devised a very simple stone crusher our of some steel pipe and a flat steel plate. The lower plate is a 12" x 12" x 1/8" plate. The upper tube is a 2.5" diameter steel tube welded to the base plate and is about 10" high. The inner ram is a solid piece of steel (about 15" long) with a hammering bolt welded onto the top. The lower part of the solid ram is crosscut for better crushing performance.

To crush the stone, you simply load the stone into the open tube, insert the solid ram and hit it a few times with a small sledge hammer. Simple and efficient! Periodically, I will dump the stone and sift it to grade it for size. I usually make three sizes of crushed stone for my inlay work. It's much cheaper to crush your own stone and this is an easy to make a crusher, if you have access to some metal and a welder.

I have also seen just a steel pipe used, with a cap fitted to one end and a solid ram that fits inside the pipe. It's used the same way, load the stone into the pipe and smack the protruding ram with a hand held sledge. Periodically dump and sift. Not as elegant as my crusher, but it works.

If you would like a picture of my crusher, let me know and will send you an email copy as we can't post pictures here... Take care and all the best to you and yours!

There's a place in Detroit (DAGS) that will sell you a 50# bag of red garnet for just a few bucks. Your choice of grit size. Even with shipping, the price has GOT to beat $10/20 per ounce. I chased this down about a year ago but never followed through on it so my info is pretty sketchy.

Bill

I've been experimenting with doing something similar, although instead of stone, I'm going to use stained glass scraps. My wife does stained glass, and there's always plenty of those scraps around that can be had for nothing. :)

While my use of stained glass isn't necessarily going to be a substitute for something like Turquoise, stained glass does crush pretty easy. I've just used the freezer style resealable bags, as the plastic is a little thicker, and then just tap them with a hammer or sledge. It doesn't take a lot of force to break the glass so just tapping helps keep the bag from completely disintegrating during the grinding process.

As mentioned, I've been experimenting with this. So far, I've yet to find the right glue to use. I've been using "clear" epoxy, but when it dries, it has been cloudy, and thus obscuring the glass granules underneath. Can anyone recommend a good glue to use that dries clear, hard and is also (hopefully) relatively inexpensive?

Hi Michael

I find using CA gives me the best clear filling results, mind you this was not on glass fill, but metal powder and flakes, where the epoxy really dulled the bright metal color/cheen. Seems logical also, as first you can fill with 100% material, glass in your case, and only fill the openings left in the fill, while with epoxy you are never able to use that much material in the mixture and still have the epoxy work. Also the hardened CA itself is clearer than Epoxy.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Hi Bill

Impact, is the best way to break the stones, and a retainer is needed to keep the grit from disappearing, I haven't done much of this, but a set of large bolts and a nut would work, just like this, the large bolt with the nut on only a thread or two, some small stone in the nut and than screw the other bolt down onto the stone, tighten and hammer, repeat, repeat, the hammer hits will crush the stone, and it's easier controlling the size they will get crushed to, but you do need some large bolts and thick nut to start of with. Of course a pipe with a metal plug welded in one side, and a fitting steel rod to use as a ram or hit with a hammer would do also, but you might end up with just colored dust that way.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

I have found several very good epoxies that end up crystal clear. The best ones are marine epoxies, so you will spend much more money on the cemicals, but they are great: MAS and system 3 resins (can get from

Have used both with good results and I have used this one a lot with good results (used on fiberglass and as a top coat, and it cured crystal clear): #635 thin I have NOT tried this, but it looks even clearer than the #635 above, has a reasonable price. They're all about the same price. I think

West System epoxy

you can get at a lot of marine supply stores, and I find the 105 + 205 is very clear, however their literature says "not intended for clear coating" don't know if it's referring to poor UV protection or what, but something to consider. Also, of all of them West system uses a 5:1 ratio for the mixing which is harder to verify exactly when mixing small batches, so I avoid it for that reason. The downside for you inlaying is the cure time for these clear epoxies, which goes into several hours, and if you're doing it on a flat surface, that's not a problem, but on curved surface, you want a faster cure.

The cheapest faster cure by the gallon is Devcon 2 ton crystal clear epoxy, however it's really hard to find the gallon kit anymore, and this one may become hazy in time, but I used it and it seemed very clear to me.

With all epoxies, you can make them cure quickly with a heat gun, but be careful...too fast and it cracks as it cures.

Thanks, I'll give this a try. Is there any particular brand you find works best or will any generic "super glue" in the CA family provide clear results?

I'm thinking though that I'll need something like this stuff[1] from Lee Valley as opposed to those little tubes of super glue.

[1]:

I just put my CA on sale a couple hours ago. About a $2 an ounce, flat $4.50 delivery.

I turn pens and some bowls. This is what I use for a finish on the pens about 90% of the time.

Yes, this is a shameless commercial plug. Bill

Hi Michael, I usually get mine in 2 oz.bottles, I do get them from a wood turners club member, or sometimes Lee Valley, if you get a bottle of thin and one thick, plus a bottle of accelerator, you're all set.

I find that in small checks and splits, wen I use thin CA first and then thick CA, the thick will flow right in, just try it, you'll see that wetting with thin CA first, the thick will flow right in after it.

Not all CA glues are equal, I find the Star brand I get works very well, Bill's price looks pretty good, but I have no experience with it.

And don't be to much in a hurry, just go slow, and you'll do fine, one caveat, don't glue yourself to it ;-))), (nail polish remover will undo this)

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Michael I found this tutorial on, inlay turnings, could be some help for you ??

http://www.yoyosp> Hi Michael, I usually get mine in 2 oz.bottles, I do get them from a

Big grin ... sometimes the zen approach of 'becoming one with the wood' is counterproductive. ;-) Leo is 100% right ... keep 'unsticker' within reach. The first time you use it, it could pay for itself forever.

I haven't done any crushed inlay yet (so many directions to go, but only one pair of feet!), but I can vouch for its usefulness as a surface finish.

I use the thin to start repairs or to stiffen up punky areas, the thick for barrel finishing or crack filling.

Bill

Hi Bill, yes I know what you mean, you can go only one direction at the same time, also there are just not enough days in a year/life to cover it all, but just for some eye candy, I put this one in here.

Like to see some real impressive inlay,????????

Have a look, yes he uses CA also.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

WOW! I don't have to do what he does to drool like everyone else! Just amazin'!

Bill

I think I'll give the Lee Valley Cyanoacrylate Set[1] a try, which looks to come with both thin and thick consistency glues, some accelerator and some solvent. From that collection of stuff, I should be able to figure out something that works right for me.

Thanks for the info.

> Have used both with good results Thanks for the reply and epoxy recommendations. I know Woodcraft carries the System 3 product line, so I'll likely give that a try first as this will be the easiest to get ahold of.

Thanks to all the other replies, I've got some good options to further my experiments now.