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So, why make spheres anyhow?
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A person can take a great deal of satisfaction turning a dull, dirty rock into a shiny orb whether it is a 4"
sphere or a 1/2 " marble. Plus, it can be fascinating to watch the random dance of the sphere as it waltzes between
the cups. A weak-minded person such as myself can spend hours at this activity.
You can end up with a lot of hand made marbles. I find that almost everybody is grateful to recieve one,
or more, of the pretty ones. Especially grandkids. There may be some value in the spheres, but I find it difficult
to part with them.
Making the marble sized spheres and up to 2 or 3 inch is much easier and faster than the larger ones. A
4" sphere can take days to grind and polish while a 3/4" marble can be made in a few hours. Depends on the material.
Garnet is very fast, agate is quite slow.
Every crystal ball is unique, of course, but you never know how pretty it will be until it is polished.
I've got one of about 1.4" that I have convinced my grandkids that it shows Superman's ice palace at the North Pole.
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If a person were to really get into sphere making, he would need more than one machine to keep busy.
It is obvious, that if a person has only one machine, he's going to have a
lot of time on his hands. It has been my experience that one person can easily tend 4 machines at one time. That
could be one coarse, 1 medium, 1 fine, and 1 polishing. And that is with silicon carbide grit. With
diamond, either diamond filled, diamond compounds or diamond powder, you could tend several more machines. You could hand
grind a rough while tending the 4 machines. With this process, the production rate could be as high as maybe 2 per hour,
but, of course, agates would take longer.
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