Diamonds are a girl’s best friends! (and for the boys who engrave too)

Photos 1) Screen shot of Diama Diamonds main page 2) Sample of some of their burs as they are packaged when they arrive.

Diama Diamond - a great supplier of high quality diamond burs at a great price.

So if you live in the USA this is our favorite place to buy diamond burs and one of the tricks of smoothing your engraving their name is Diama Diamond and here is the web site:

http://www.diamadiamonds.com/?section=home

Why do we love them??

*Because they have amazing customer service, you call and a person answers! NO ANSWERING MACHINE!

*Their prices! 1.25 to 1.75 each! That’s it!!! Though you need to buy them in minimum of 5. It is a great deal. And I got an email this year where the prices went SUPER LOW my order of $50 dollars came down to $30.

TIP FOR SMOOTHING: Start your cut with aregular standard coarse bur one of the cheaper burs you get as a pack on amazon or ebay like this for example:

http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Quality-20-Piece-Diamond-Point-Rotary-Tool/dp/B000MOI9G6/ref=sr_1_5?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1311326250&sr=1-5

Or buy some directly from Diama Diamond. (standard coarse)

These above can give you a rough cut and start your engraving but if you want to smooth it and prepare it for polishing I would go back and smooth it with one of the burs from Diama Diamond and any bur that has a very fine to super fine or micro fine composite polishers from Diama Diamonds, a very light touch and slow speed and you will get the smoothing done. It takes practice but it’s not that difficult.

All their burs are for a size 1/16 collet so make sure you have that, you can also download a PDF copy of their catalogue which the original size of the burs once you print them.

Shipping is not that expensive I believe about $10 for every order under $100 dollars; though my last order took a week to ship, good thing I was in no hurry. Give them a try if you are looking for no hasstle, quality products with great customer service at a good price! They are closed and shut down their website to celebrate Jewish holidays. So if the site is down when you try it please try again at a later day. Thank you and I hope this helps! If you know of any other suppliers please give us the information so we can know about them as well! Thank you and happy engraving!

On the hunt for the white/green stone burs!

If you live in the United States and you are new to the world of drill engraving you might be having a bit of a hard time finding the so illusive green and white stones! Well worry no more! For here we have found them for you (with photos and also with first hand experience) So here we have META Dental and their catalogue

Catalogue: http://www.metadental.com/catalogs/Catalog-META-2011-v5-Lab.pdf

Website: http://www.metadentalco.com/

All you really need is the catalogue just to start . So what we have here are the green and white stones and we have them in two sizes as shown on the photo. The larger burs are the ones on page 1 and I will give you their number they are:

Large green burs - GO13 and GO19 catalogue page 1

Large white burs – W020 and WO30 catalogue page 1

The small burs are on page 2 and they are:

Small bur white - RD-1 catalogue page 2

Small bur green – FL-2 catalogue page 2

The small burs are better for polishing and creating a gray film look, like fog… I do not use them for smoothing but for adding a bit of detail. I will write about smoothing next week (keep tuned) The best thing is that I have found that the small burs can be used with water. Also the larger ones can be used with water but are not as smooth as the larger ones. Please have a look at their website and get a price by emailing them. They have great customer service and fast shipping. Now the shank for the larger burs shown on here is about 3/32” and 1/16 for the smaller ones.

But if you think that is all we have… you are incorrect! If you really need to have them right now and can not wait to try them till you get an email from Meta Dental… they also sale them on EBAY and here is the link:

http://stores.ebay.com:80/Certified-Dental-Supply-LLC/Finishing-Polishing-/_i.html?_fsub=1851881014&_sid=841805744&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

Go towards the bottom and you will see them (with free shipping) You can get the FG:FL3A (free shipping) I hope this has helped you as it helped me. Again… DO NOT BUY everything you see… try a small box for 9.99 (free shipping) before you go like me and buy the whole stock! =) also do some more research, try dental web sites etc. – Look at how an item is listed and use those words to google search. Happy engraving my friends! Happy engraving!

My dream machine the glass engraving lathe from Kurt Merker GmbH

Well what can I say... some girls want shoes and a purse, some a new car or a new phone... As far as I go; I want a lathe! I am working very hard to get it though I wont probably know what to do with it when it gets here... I will be quick to learn. This is the KMK1 from Kurt Merker in Germany. here is their link:

http://www.merker-kmk.com/indexe.html

It is featured in the book Techniques of Glass Engraving by Peter Dreiser and Jonathan Matcham (2nd edition) and it seems lovely! The idea is to learn the copper wheel engraving which is sadly and "endangered species" art; one that by all meanings isn't easy to learn and I am sure it will take time to do so but it will not be impossible and it will be rewarding. This is their lathe and you can visit their website (though you will have to contact them regarding price) I would say the lathe will set you back about $4,000 us dollars (with out the wheels) and almost $6,000 with the wheels. Some people might think "whats the point of spending that much?" but there is something in me that tells me it is the right thing to do... and so I'll do it! In the mean time however I will keep on engraving with my drill and sharing with you all the beautiful work of the amazing artists I admire, and aspire to be like, as well as the things I am learning by trial and error. Here is the lathe pictured with the diamond wheel set.

Foredom drills and micromotors - For the drill engraver

So… if you live in the USA I think this is one of the best places to get a micromotor or a flex-drill. Foredom has been in business for many years and their customer service is amazing! I bought a kit from them a year or so ago, that I have never had a problem with. It came with two hand pieces. The collets I use are (the sizes of burrs I use I should say) are 1/16”, 3/32” and 1/8” the number 28 hand piece is very nice, thin and light. The truth of the matter is that all you need is a hand piece, the motor, foot operated control and the sizes of collets mentioned before. So save your money and do not go buying a whole kit with dvd and all that good stuff! ≈ (that’s my opinion) We tend to over buy things when we do not know exactly where to start. The best thing to do is GOOGLE search. I got my kit which is listed here for over 400.00 dollars:

http://www.foredom.net/search.aspx?find=kits&log=false&category=38

however I got it for about 330.00 US Dollars. Foredom also sales diamond burs, which I have not tried, but I have tried their stone burs and were not very good. So I will post a supplier for burs later this week. This is the link for the micromotors (which I wont comment on because I do not own one and have no experience with them but if anyone know please comment)

http://www.foredom.net/micromotors.aspx

This is their link for some of the diamond burs

http://www.foredom.net/search.aspx?find=diamond+ball

here are the stone burs

http://www.foredom.net/search.aspx?find=Aluminum+Oxides%2c+3%2f32%22

Play with the site and do some searching you will find a lot of cool stuff!

I hope this helps you and please comment or write if you have any questions =0)

Also a few more things, make sure the motor is about 1/6 of horsepower and also make sure you get a motor hanger (unless you want to lay the motor down on a table) However I find it to be more practical if it is hanging. You can also buy a kit (like the one pictured above) on amazon.com (but remember you don't need a whole kit just the basic stuff) or as I said before, do some research and you might find it cheaper. Good luck =0)