Amber Listserv / Sphere shaping and polishing equipment

[Andrea Paysinger]

I have several pieces of Covington equipment.

check the kit at the bottom of this page
http://www.covington-engineering.com/sphere_machines.htm

I gave away a large sphere machine a few years ago.  I bought it at  
the annual rock and gem show at Quartzite back in the '70s but never  
really used it much - made a few agate, quartz, petrified wood,  
rhodolite, etc., spheres, nothing of amber.

A friend makes spheres from fossil ivory, using rubber funnels which  
he has modified with epoxy to form cups.  He doesn't use power tools  
at all.  He mounts one funnel/cup on the shaft of a potter's  
turntable and holds the other with his hands and uses a slurry of  
grits, gradually working the shape that begins as an octahedron down  
to a smooth sphere.


I'm sure there are many other lapidary equipment companies that you  
can find on the 'net but I just happen to be familiar with this one.

Andie