Hi everyone, today I'm cutting up some rocks, so I thought I'd show you what I
was doing, let me pull the camera a little closer and I'll show you the rocks!
My friend Bill just sold me his slab saw, and he threw in a bucket of rocks as
a bonus
so I'm not sure what all these rocks are, but I think this one's a Montana agate
Not sure what these stripes are back here
that's the first one on the saw, though
here's what I've got cut so far
you can see it just sort of looks black on the inside here, can you see the
fracture right along there?
That's causing the slabs to break in half, so
they're coming out in two pieces
you kind of have to look from behind, so there's dark, then it's got this lighter
area through the middle with those little speckles in it, really cool looking
isn't that neat?
and then here's that, the end cut
cool stuff
alright, next I'm going to cut this one
I don't know what this is, but there's- I like it this way better-
there's these little dendrites all through it
looks really really cool, so, if you know what this is
make sure you let me know in the comments
so off to the saw it goes!
rock #2 is cut up, and it looks awesome
there it is, those dendrites in there are just really really cool
I tried a flashlight behind this one, and you can't really see much, you can see a
little bit right in there, I'll have to turn the lights off and show you, but
it's not like the other ones
actually I think up in here - yeah there's some light that shows through up there
and down there, but the white part is eh, a little bit there on the right, see it?
but it's so cool
yeah, it looks like little plants coming up there
alright
some close-ups of this for you
okay, let's move on to our next rock, so
that one's done for now, next one is this
and I don't know if this is just jasper, or if it's banded iron formation, it kind
of looks like banded iron formation, so
this one on the left is banded iron formation
and they definitely look similar. I got out a magnet
I wasn't sure, never checked banded iron formations to see if a magnet would stick
but it sticks very well
and it does not stick to this one at all
just slides right off
so, I don't know what it is, but it's going on the saw
well I've got one slab taken off of this there was an end cut, but it dropped
down into the saw oil I think, I can't find it in there anywhere, I kind of dug
around in the oil, but I think I'll find it when I clean out the saw
thought these little grey spots were interesting, looks like they might be
metallic
and, the next one I'm going to cut is right here
it appears to be maybe a moss agate of some sort, looks agate-y in there
like chalcedony in there
should be interesting to see what it looks like when we get inside of it
I got the first slice off of that rock, but I'm not going to show you the cut side yet
because I want to talk to you about something else first
this is the rock that I cut, and you can see that I've got it glued to a 2x4 now
that's because when you clamp this in the saw, you need enough to grab onto with
the vice, or the clamp in the saw
and I was able to just get one slice off of this one, so
normally when I glue these to a 2x4, that way I can grab this with the vice, I use
just wood glue, I don't use exterior wood glue, because if you use exterior wood glue
you can never get it off again, but if you use interior or the kind of
in-between, the water resistant stuff, you can soak this in water, it takes about a
week or two, and then it releases from the 2x4
so, I'm impatient and waiting a week or two wasn't that much fun, so I just
bought a gallon of this stuff, it's called water glass, or sodium silicate
and from what I've heard, it works a little bit better than glue and then it
releases, I think like overnight, I haven't really tried it much yet, but that's what
I've got this one glued on here with. It's kind of runny, I thought it was going to
be thicker than it is, so it's a little bit bad that way,
I'm just putting it on with a stick, kind of like a honey dipper right now, so I've
got to find a bottle to put it in
but once I get this figured out, this might be my preferred method to use, so we'll see
so anyhow, I'm going to take this out and clamp it in the saw, and I think I'll show
you the saw while I'm out there
this is my new Lortone LS-10 saw
so the rock just goes in here
in this case my 2x4 goes in there, and you just tighten down these wingnuts
oil's a little bit dirty, because I've been using it
and then this just slides forward, there's a crank down here so this moves back
and forth, so after I make one cut I can turn the crank and the whole vice just goes
to the left a little bit
so
move this forward under the blade
the one thing you've got to be careful of with this saw, my old saw was an ST-10
which was an older model of this, if you just put this down like that the oil drips out
my other one you could just drop it down and it was fine
this one you've got to push it in and make sure it's behind there, I've made that
mistake a few times
so you just turn it on here
and this little chain is hooked up to the vice
and as it moves through the saw that way, it pulls on the chain and turns it off
when it's done
but it's a lot quieter than my old saw, my old saw was getting really really loud
it's down in the basement, because I'm going to do some work on it
probably got to change the bearings and
on the other one the pulleys ended up going bad, and I had to change the pulleys and
that made it quieter last time
you can hear it starting to cut now but
the other one you couldn't hear yourself talk over top of it
alright, so I'll just come back in 20 minutes or a half an hour, and that'll
be cut, and I move it over and cut another slab that time
alright, I think I messed up. Supposed to keep the best for last, and I think
I might've just done the best second to last
so check this out, stuff is really cool
get it wet, maybe it'll show up a little bit better
so if we shine a light from behind
see some of that stuff in there really well
isn't that cool?
this one
maybe it's better without the light
here's the cut side
that's super cool stuff
so here's the board, and I only soaked this for, maybe a couple of hours
and then I was impatient and I tried to pry it off and I broke it, I left that
little piece behind
but, look at the little piece
this is super thin, this is maybe a 16th of an inch
there we go
look, you can see right through it
I think the lights going to be too bright on this one, if I go off from the side here
isn't that fun?
some people make fun of me for liking rocks
they don't know what they're missing, this is awesome!
alright, I've got one more rock
I believe this one is Wonderstone
not 100% sure, but that's what it looks like
so I'll go cut that one up, and I'll be right back!
alright, I've got this cut, the end had kind of a dip in the middle, so this came
off in two pieces, that was the end cut
but look at the inside of this one
that is so cool
not only do you have the banding going this way, but you've got these stripes
going this way. Those are not saw marks, they kind of look like saw marks, but it's
completely smooth across there
but look how it kind of cut right through the red banding
it's fun
little speckles down here, I like that part
I thought I might be disappointed after the last one, but I'm not
this is fun stuff
Okay, I'm going to put a playlist of other slabbing videos here, so if you want
to look at more rocks being slabbed, I think the rest of them are all Michigan
rocks, check that out and I'll see you next time!