Hello to everyone my name is Alex , I'm from Romania - Europe / , I'm glad that I found you guys and maybe you can help me with my problem .
Since in Romania you can't find to many precious stones , actualy the only stones I know you can find here are Jasp and Amber , we lack at materials resources for polishing gem stones ,I love stones from my early age and I colect them as a hobby ,I have a project and I need to cut some stones and polish them ,so I search on web how to do that.
The thing is, what I don't find in my country is "dop wax" or "dopping wax",. So my question is do you know any Dop Wax recipe to make at home ? ,I didn't found to many info on web .
So thank you so much , and I hope some of you can help me out , best regards Alex.
If you're cutting cabs dopping wax isn't necessary. I use superglue gel directly between the stone and a wooden dop. If you want to use it though it would be best to just order some online. Is shipping to Romania an issue?
You may find your answer here. It's basically stick shellac, beeswax or paraffin, and a thickener. The thickener doesn't need to be limonite; brick dust is an ingredient in some old adhesives. Of course you will need to experiment with the proportions. I've rejuvenated some of my own dop wax in the hot pot by adding a few small flakes of beeswax. It took only a very small amount of beeswax to make it much more fluid, which suggests that shellac is the major component. Google also "sealing wax".
Hi Alexro, on the basis that newcomers should be given all possible encouragement, PM me your address and I'll post you some, since both countries are in the EU there shouldn't be a problem.
Hi Alexro, on the basis that newcomers should be given all possible encouragement, PM me your address and I'll post you some, since both countries are in the EU there shouldn't be a problem.
Hi there Alan , well I can't use the pm feature so I can leave my email here : alexandru.ilica@gmail.com
Thank you Hans , well I found that info before I start to write this topic , but is all blurry to me - It's not a proper recipe, for sure someone knows exactly how to prepare some...,but thx anyway , I look forward to find one
If you're cutting cabs dopping wax isn't necessary. I use superglue gel directly between the stone and a wooden dop. If you want to use it though it would be best to just order some online. Is shipping to Romania an issue?
Hi there Stephen , well I will try to cut unusual forms - but I'm not looking to cut professional - just to use some stones to make some jewelry and some artefacts for my university admission.
I don't have to much time , I'm behind schedule I don't want to wait 2 weeks or more to get my product - and ofc budget , I need to buy all my tools and materials and they are so fu...g expensive.So I try to make them myself. and limit my budget as much as possibile .
I hope you understand my issue , and thx for your time to answer ! , regards Alex
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:01 pm Posts: 1902 Location: Pine City, NY and Dothan, AL
I've never used it for cabs, but plain shellac works fairly well for faceting. Graves sells it in sticks, but you can melt shellac flakes, which most any paint store may have.
I've never used it for cabs, but plain shellac works fairly well for faceting. Graves sells it in sticks, but you can melt shellac flakes, which most any paint store may have.
Hi there Al , well I think I can find some shellac flakes and I will give it a try .thx , the super glue I'm not sure I want to work with it , since I cut free forms and unusual.
I stumbled on a way to make dop wax by accident recently. I was playing around with pine sap to make glue and came up with a wax that melts at a very low temperature (100°F or less!). I used it to cut about 20 cabochons of various sizes today and it worked great. It will melt in direct sunlight on an 85°F day so it needs to stay around 50°F to risk any mess occurring.
I mostly cut agate and precious opal from Australia. Ive noticed it is not quite as strong as the common green wax but if you use it right there wont be any issues. I find it particularly nice for the opal because I don't need to heat it as much.
I used sap from the Douglas Fir tree here in Washington state, usa.
Here is the recipe.
- 75 grams pine sap - 37.5 grams candle wax - 7 grams wood ash
-Use a non stick pan to heat the pine sap until it becomes a liquid taking care not to burn or ignite the sap. Keep a lid for the pan close to smother the flames in case it does ignite.
-Strain the sap through a fine mesh strainer into a non stick container, silpat, or another non stick pan
-Heat sap and add wax stirring to fully mix the two together
- Sift the wood ash and mix it into the sap/wax mixture.
-pour into nonstick molds and use just like regular dop wax
-just remember this wax melts at a very low temperature.
Notes: the sap is basically a shellac so everyone here was correct. The small amount of sap keeps it from being sticky and prevents it from igniting. The white wood ash is essentially a form of calcium lime and acts as a hardner
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:04 pm Posts: 1642 Location: Walnut Creek, CA
Hi Alexro, I'd also consider using "5 minutes epoxy". I use it both for faceting and cabbing.
Pro's: Easy to find. Not too expensive It holds the stone very well Very forgiving in terms of putting your stone exactly how you want it. Easy to take off from the stone/dop, with the proper technique No real need to use solvents
Con's: You need to wait 2+ hours for curing (not the advertised 5 minutes...) It requires (moderate) heat to take it out of the dop/stone.
How I take it off from the dop/stone: Technique #1: I heat the (brass or steel) dop with a common "Bic" lighter until the epoxy becomes rubbery, and I scrape it off with my fingernails. Technique #2, for heat-sensitive stones: I put my dop+stone in a small pot with some water and a cloth at the bottom, bring it slowly to a simmer (or less). I take out the dop+stone, and scrape the rubbery epoxy off. (I almost never use this procedure anymore... )
Also, keep in mind that not all epoxies are created equal, so you might want to try to find the one you prefer. I really like the 5 minutes clear Devcon epoxy, but in Europe is not available, so I started to use the Pattex there. It takes a bit longer to cure, and it's a bit stronger in bonding. Gel epoxies tend to stay a little rubbery also when cured, avoid them, even if for cabbing is probably not too important.
You do not want to use the super-strong epoxies, tho. The 5-minues work well because they are weak and degrade easily at low heat. Pretty bad as a glue, but excellent for dopping.
I use epoxy also on heat-sensitive stones like opals and I've never got a problem, but I've never tried with amber. I don't know how amber responds to solvents used with other dopping techniques either, tho. So when you cut amber you might want to do some specific tests (and research how other cutter deal with this problem). I'm sure some people here tried.
That said, for reasonably large cabs, I don't us dops at all.
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm Posts: 1424 Location: San Marcos, CA
Although this articles poster has not been seen here since 2016, some recent posts shed some useful thoughts on dopping. I really have not seen a convincing argument to use epoxies in lapidary or faceting processes, maybe in faceting a door knob size gem it may be beneficial out of convince to using a large amount of wax. It always seemed as though the mixing, releasing of epoxies was a lot of added work and time to deal with. What is the overall benefit of using it, is it the security of knowing that once is sets, there is no way the stone is moving, popping off? Always found just a simple drop of CA glue, brown wax and green wax suffices with a lot less to deal with and very very seldom does it not have the needed holding strength as an epoxy does, in lapidary and faceting procedures. In lapidary where dealing with heat sensitive type materials, some exterior grade wood glue with a coat of nail polish works quite well and a simple soak in water for a short while releases very easily when used on a wood dowel. Just my two cents.
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