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New tips frequently added so check back often for new tips.

EBAY FOR COLLECTIONS

Go to Ebay for your rocks and minerals! You can find some really fun mineral specimens online, and if you look around some, you can find whole collections being sold off! We have gotten really cool deals online and it's so fun to bid on them...and win!

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GREAT COLLECTOR BOXES

One of the best holders for a beginning rock collection is a plastic fishing tackle box or an embroidery floss box. You can get either in various sizes, and at reasonable prices. They are easy to label, great for a little bit of cloth or cotton fluff in each compartment and just add your specimens! A great way to properly store your precious collections!

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FLAT LAP DISCS

Need somewhere to store your 6" sanding and polishing discs? Use an inexpensive music CD case. They fit in the pockets perfectly, and you can label each pocket with a different grit number.

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FLAT or VIBRA-LAPPING TIPS:

For best results, use graded abrasives for lapping. It is recommended to use 220 grit for rough grind and 600 grit for fine grind. Final polish with Tin Oxide.

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STIFFENING EARRING POSTS

Soldering an earring post will always soften the wire a bit. Easiest way to harden it is to grip the end of the post with your flat-jaw pliers and twist it a couple half turns. This work-hardens the wire and at the same time tests your soldered joint.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

USE A SPRAY BOTTLE

Those little spray bottles you can find at the drug store are great for firescale preventers and debubbling solutions. A quick firescale preventer is liquid flux, and a homemade debubbling solution is a little Dawn liquid in rubbing alcohol.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

BROKEN DRILLS

Have you ever broken a drill bit off in a hole? Sometimes you can grab it with pliers, but other times the steel piece is below the surface in the hole. If this happens, you can usually dissolve the steel in a solution of alum. Alum is typically available from a food store or a drug store. Use about a teaspoon per cup of warm water. Submerge your piece so that the partially drilled hole is facing up so that bubbles can float free.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

PICKLE PROBLEMS

Dropping a hot item into the pickle after soldering causes a hiss that sends small droplets of the acid pickle into the air. This will rust your nearby tools and can't be all that good to breathe either. My solution is to use a coffee cup of water next to my solder block to quench the piece and then decide if I want to drop it in the pickle.

Also, a hot pickle pot gives off fumes that bother me in my home workshop. I get around that by using my pickle cold. I mix it a little stronger than with a hot pot so that it works just as quickly. I keep it in a large-mouth peanut butter bottle and cap it off whenever I'm done using it.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

JUMP RINGS

It's better to use a round jump ring on the end of a chain instead of an oval one. Oval rings will wear faster because tension on the chain concentrates wear on the smaller ends of the jump ring. Wear is distributed evenly on a round jump ring because it can rotate through the last link of the chain and the clasp. This gives the ring a longer useful life.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

ORGANIZING SMALL PARTS

With all the little components we use for our projects, it makes sense to have a good way to keep them organized and preventing them from getting lost. A great small container to use is available in numbers and for free at your local drugstore. Ask at the photo processing area for some of the 35mm plastic film cans. They have a tight fitting lid and are great for carrying beads, findings, jump rings and silver scraps.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

BURNISHING BEZELS

A dapping ball can sometimes be used to burnish a bezel. I noticed this when setting some 8 x 10 cabs on a piece of filigree. It was difficult to get enough pressure with a regular burnisher, so I tried a dapping ball and found it much easier. Make sure the ball is well polished (hit it with the Zam wheel) and let it ride along the base of your piece. Select a ball big enough to hit the top of the bezel at the right angle to burnish it down onto the stone.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

SUPER PICKLE

We've all made the mistake of putting some steel in the pickle pot. This can cause all your pieces to be coated with copper. Easiest way I've found to clean it off is to fill half a coffee cup with the pickle and put in an ounce or two of hydrogen peroxide from the drug store. Throw your pieces in and the coating is gone in about 10 minutes. When finished, pour the solution back into your pickle pot.

Courtesy Bench Tips by Brad Smith

TUMBLING HINTS for APACHE TEARS

When attempting to polish "Apache tears" we have heard of lots of personal "recipes". Here are some methods you may want to try.

1. In steps 3 & 4, add corn syrup to the load to slow down the action. This thickens the slurry and will keep the Apache tears from scratching themselves.

2. Use cerium oxide as a polish, and use it with oatmeal. Let it go for several weeks. Do NOT add water in this method. Polish dry.

3. Use a vibrating polisher. These type polishers do not have the harsh action a rotary polisher has.

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OPENING GEODES

When you want to crack open a geode.. one of the best ways is to use an old sock and a thin hammer, like a rock hammer. Find a nice smooth part and whack it, hard, but evenly. Smacking it against concrete or something like that tends to crumble them too much. One swift hard strike seems to result in the best cracking of most geodes.

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MARKING PENS

A fine felt tip permanent marker pen is great for marking non-porous polished or rough stones. This can be for tracing cabs, marking defects, etc. It can even be used in faceting. These marker pens should not be used on opal, turquoise, or other porous or fragile materials.

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SAVE TRIP SAW SCRAPS

Most tumblers produce better results if there are small bits and pieces of rock of the same hardness in with the bigger ones you are trying to polish.

Source "Rocky Tales" 4/05

TARNISH

Tarnish is caused by sulfur gases in the air. Chalk is a natural absorber of sulfur, so place sticks of chalk (blackboard chalk) in your cases, jewelry boxes, jewelry drawer or just around your jewelry.

Source "Blue Agate News" 1/08

JERGEN'S LOTION

When saving recently cut rocks or other greasy jobs, instead of soap try Jergen's Extra Dry lotion and then rinse in plain water, the oil will wash off in one application and your hands will smell like lotion instead of strong soap.

Source "Rocky Tales" 9/04

CUTTING GEODES

Cutting geodes in the right place can be tricky. Try rolling the geode on a flat floor several times and mark the "up" side each time.Then cut on the plane parallel with the floor. Crystal growth inside the geode is probably most developed at the top and bottom of its resting position

Source "Toledo Gems" 1/03

CLEANING GEODES

The use of denture tablets work well for cleaning geodes. It will get inside all of the cracks and crevices

Source Unknown

CLEAN THAT SILVER

When you use fine steel wool on a (silver) piece, be sure to rinse the silver thoroughly in water before continuing the next step of soldering. Even the heat of the torch will not eliminate the steel wool dust that accumulates on the piece, and if you drop it uncleaned into the pickle, you will get a fine cast of copper plating, covering the silver entirely.

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DISPLAY CASE TIPS

Your display should enhance your specimens, not the opposite. Use plain, light-colored lining material for finished stones and jewelry. Ironed white cotton sheeting gives a good background. For large or dark-colored minerals, fossils, artifacts, etc., rough, textured, darker material may be suitable. Cloth, paper or wood liners may enhance the large colorful specimens. If the lining becomes the most conspicuous, eye-catching part of your display, it's time to change it.

The case should never be crowded and there should always be a point of interest. An odd total number of specimens is good. When you first look at your case, your eye should focus on the point of interest, e.g., the largest specimen or the most beautiful or brightest specimen; then your eye should follow to the other material in the case. The most common mistake of beginners is to crowd their show cases, trying to display all their best work. Leave some for the next show.

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GREAT LOOKING LABELS

Great looking display labels can be made by typing the descriptions (with a computer so the font size can be made large enough to read easily) on ordinary paper and then having a print shop duplicate them on clear acetate film. You then cut them to size and place them directly on your case liner so the liner fabric shows through.

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OUT OF THE PICKLE POT

Sometimes it can be a problem to remove a small piece from your picklepot. At our local kitchen supply store, we found just the solution: a set of four nylon screened strainers. Watercool the soldered piece first, place it in the appropriate-sized strainer and then place the strainer in the picklepot. It can be easily retrieved and then rinsed. Make sure your strainers are plastic or nylon mesh. Do not use metal strainers in your picklepot!

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WASHING CRYSTALS

Wash Crystals in soapy water and clean with a toothbrush, and/or place in a glass container with enough water to cover the crystals. Place a tablet of effervescent denture cleaner in the container and soak over night. Rinse crystal well.

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VASELINE

If you put Vaseline around the rim of your tumbler before bolting on the lid, you will get a tighter seal and an easily removable lid. You can do the same on a tube of epoxy; the cap will not stick or cause trouble when you want to use the epoxy again.

Source "The Coral Geode" 4/98

SMALL ROUND CABS

If you need to make small, perfectly round cabs (1/2 inch or smaller), it can be difficult because the eye can't easily pick out imperfections in the smaller sizes. I've found that if you use the back end of a drill bit -- which is the same size as the desired final diameter of the cab -- for the dop stick and carefully grind up to it, the cab will be perfectly round. Be sure to preheat the end of the drill bit with a heat gun to assure good bonding of the dop wax. I have cut cabs down to 1/8" using this technique and it's particularly helpful when trying to cut a matched pair. The drill bit can then be used as a mandrel to make a perfectly fitting bezel for your cab!

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CAB SOLUTION

Need two cabs of exactly the same size? Glue two slabs together with paper between them. Cut to size and separate by soaking in warm water.

Source "Golden Spike News"