More Soapstone

[Rcnewcomb]

The finished piece will be 4 inches (~100 mm) in diameter and 1 inch (~25mm) thick.

Roughing was done with a 0.25" ballnose bit.

[Savannahdan]

This is gonna be interesting. I have a bunch of agate pieces my wife got for me a few years ago and haven't had the opportunity to do anything with them. Keep the pictures coming.

[Rcnewcomb]

Finished with a 0.25mm tapered ballnose at 9% stepover at 180 IPM @16K RPM

[mtylerfl]

Beautious!

[Fleming]

Randall that is an awesome piece!

[watsonswords]

That is beautiful!!

[Bob Reda]

very nice

Bob

[Phil]

Well done, Randall.

Phil

[Leo]

WOW - I really like that a LOT.

[scottp55]

A piece to be proud of Randall!
Worth the extra time for the .25mm TBN I think:)
Well done!
scott

[jay pieper]

Randall---
Knocked another one out of the park !!!
Simply stunning, beautiful job.

[Rcnewcomb]

Worth the extra time for the .25mm TBN

The curious thing about machining softer stone, I have to really slow down the larger bits -- I was running the 1/4" ballnose at 30 IPM with a 0.05" depth of cut -- but the tiny bits I can run almost as fast as in hardwood (180 IPM rather than 240 IPM).

[laflippin]

That is extremely cool, Randall.

[scottp55]

Thanks for that Randall!
Are you thinking that you have a more commercial piece(30% Talc) or more of a carving piece(50-80%)?
Reason I ask is I have the 2 pieces I can scratch with thumbnail....
And one almost greenish cast that it takes a pre-1981 penny to scratch.
(My stovetop Soapstone I use for simmering, I can barely mark with thumbnail).

You're Inspiring Me:)
scott

[Rcnewcomb]

Are you thinking that you have a more commercial piece(30% Talc) or more of a carving piece(50-80%)?

This is a more commercial piece, since it was much harder than previous soapstone I've cut.

I started my roughing with a 1/4" end mill, but it was high speed steel (HSS) rather than carbide. Within 60 seconds the bit was orange/white hot. That is why I switched to the solid carbide 1/4" ballnose bit.