Graves Cabmate Manual4/19/2021
Moreover theres another factor that isnt often considered and that is that on a flat disc, if you cut near the center, theres less diamond contacting the stone with each revolution than there is if you cut at the outer edge; thus, near the center, the disc cuts slower: I can, in effect, vary cutting speed.Just wondering if anyone has used it or has any experience with it.But since what I wrote is in fact largely about the Graves CabMate, it may give you some stuff to consider.
Ive been cabbing since about 1986 and have been using a flat disc machine exclusively since about 1990, namely the Graves CabMate. And yes, Ive also cabbed (extensively) on the Genie, on the All-U-Need (or something like that) slant flat lap machine, and, in Germany, on the big roughly 24 diameter Idar-type silicon carbide wheels which, after working on these, became my standard of reference. To go into detail a bit I should explain that each of these big wheels came with its own motor, water supply etc. After sawing and dopping your blank you went to the100 grit station, put on a white vinyl apron marked 100, did your cutting. Then you got up from that wheel and hung the 100 grit apron back on its hook nearby. Now you went to the sink where you washed your hands, the stones on their dops, and brushed under your fingernails. Then you went to the 200 station, took the apron marked 200 off its hook, put it on did your 200 grit cutting. And repeat: apron off FIRST (woe betide if you absentmindedly left the apron on, or -even worse- were seen at any station wearing the wrong grit apron) then wash up, repeat again: proceed to the next finer grit station, put on the apron etc. That went up to 400 grit if I recall correctly, maybe even 600. Twelve hundred (or maybe already 600) was done applying grit slurry by brush to a rotating hardwood log. Most of that is irrelevant to the flat disc versus ganged-wheel discussion except that the disposition of these big wheels permitted a particularly stable and comfortable cutting stance. You sat with your legs parted on a low stool in front of the wheel such that the wheel itself was almost in your lap and you cut with one elbow rested on each knee, stone on the dop in one hand, the other hand clasping the stoneholding hand at the wrist. All this will make immediate sense if you try it, sit down on a low stool with an imaginary dopped stone in your cutting hand give it a test run in front of an imaginary wheel (This is about the nearest to that stance that I can find at the moment ). Thus braced there was no risk of a slip or a lurch, you were comfortable, not strained, you had complete stability for perfect control of the stone; a vast amount of room to move the stone around, do the sides and even parts of the bottom; and lastly the curvature of a two foot diameter wheel is so slight that at cabochon scale it approximates cutting on a flat surface. Since experiencing this type of setup, as I said, its been my cabbing machine benchmark. What I want is a machine that at least approaches the same combination of control of the stone, freedom to move it, and ergonomic cutting-stance comfort. None of the standard hobby type peripheral wheel machines (I mean the ones that have the various grit wheels ganged up side by side close to each other all on the same shaft) are readily placed in that almost in your lap position which lets you work with the control-and-comfort stance I described. None will give you such freedom of movement: if you want to do the sides of a cab your knuckles are at risk from the next wheel over. If you want to do a large stone you have to pay serious attention that it doesnt bump up against the next wheel over get a gouge cut in it. I can sweep the stone across the entire disc without fearing what I might bump into.
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