UV reactive synthetic spinnel : Step Frosted Hex Kozibe

[@NaberiusDaOdd]

Hello, that stone is beautiful. I was curious about how much your set up cost you and what machine you're using? I want yo get into this hobby, but I think it's gonna be a while before I can get a decent machine.

[@WeekendGemcutter-kx6pf]

I use an ultra-tec v5, very expensive but it is considered as one of the best, there are cheaper machines, like the sterling arount 2000$ The sterling is a handpiece machine while the ultratec a mast machine, if I had to do it all over again I think I would get the sterling because in the end, even with a very precise machine everything is done by eye, and a handpiece machine can grind the table (flat part) more easily. after that you need laps (diamond wheels). here I used a jq green resin lap 60 (100$), then a copper lap with 600 diamond paste (200$) then a batt lap with 3K paste (250$) then a diamax with 60k diamond paste (200$) Those laps will last forever and the diamond paste is cheap. the material was synthetic spinel, with 50$ you get enough material to make 9 of these gems (which are very big, 21mm), if you made smaller ones you could make much more out of this. there is a vevor kit that can be enhenced for 500$ total, but from what I've seen, it's not very good