Post #248741 by Paipo on Sun, Aug 13, 2006 3:13 PM

OK, there's some good questions to answer here! I'll reply to each separately because there's a bit to get through.

Flynny, I'm not surprised your burrs shed their diamonds, as out of all the tools I use they are the only ones I won't buy cheaply off ebay. Grinding wheels, core drills etc, are fine, because for the price you get plenty of work from them, but burrs need to be the best quality you can afford. See if you can get the HONGIA brand (Taiwanese) I use, they are the standard for jade and stone carvers here.

As for the water, it needs to be directed on to the burr itself so it never goes dry when cutting at high speed (it's OK dry if the RPM are very slow - this is how I sand my detail). I use a barrel of water that just gravity feeds along irrigation hose, reduced down to about a 7mm clear flexible hose, then down to 1-2mm at the tip. The ink tube from a ballpoint pen is good for this. A friend of mine uses the same idea, but directs the jet onto a block, and just moves the carving and burr under the stream. Whatever feels best, I like my method! Just remember, water hitting the burrs at 30-50,000 RPM will go everywhere, and always wear glasses when using aggressive cutting tools.