abalone help

K

kiinstructor

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Ive never worked with abalone or any kind of pearl material as far a machining. I have a customer who wants some diamonds in his cue. Any suggestion on cutting this stuff or where to get abalone thats close in thickness to what I need for inlays. Will standard carbide mills work? Thanks for any advise and direction. Mark
 
kiinstructor said:
Ive never worked with abalone or any kind of pearl material as far a machining. I have a customer who wants some diamonds in his cue. Any suggestion on cutting this stuff or where to get abalone thats close in thickness to what I need for inlays. Will standard carbide mills work? Thanks for any advise and direction. Mark
Click to expand...

Mark,

Duke of Pearl in Ca.

I think his slabs are .070 thick.

Yes carbide end mills work just fine. I use Envirotap cutting fluid on the table from Enco - no oil and Environmentally safe.

Don't drop them on concrete, they break like glass. I learned the hard way. LOL

Good luck,

Rick
 
check out stewmac. dont know if theirs would work on cues but last time I checked, they have pre cut notched diamonds for sale
 
I PMed him a good source for Abalone according to the rules. Those above who are posting sources should edit their posts and PM sources.
 
So as Im understanding, you need to use some type of oil to cut the pieces. Is that true? Im almost temped to get the precut pieces, the pockets are no problem. Thing is they are so damn thin. .080 is about the thickest Ive seen in green abalone. Naturally thats what this guy wants. Must have to cut the pocket once the butt is to size, inlay and then contour to the cue. What a fricken pain.
 
kiinstructor said:
So as Im understanding, you need to use some type of oil to cut the pieces. Is that true? Im almost temped to get the precut pieces, the pockets are no problem. Thing is they are so damn thin. .080 is about the thickest Ive seen in green abalone. Naturally thats what this guy wants. Must have to cut the pocket once the butt is to size, inlay and then contour to the cue. What a fricken pain.
Click to expand...
Most dots and smaller slotted diamonds work fine at .080" if the cue is within .030" of finished size. If you want larger inlays get the 1/8" material and cut your own parts.
 
kiinstructor said:
So as Im understanding, you need to use some type of oil to cut the pieces. Is that true? Im almost temped to get the precut pieces, the pockets are no problem. Thing is they are so damn thin. .080 is about the thickest Ive seen in green abalone. Naturally thats what this guy wants. Must have to cut the pocket once the butt is to size, inlay and then contour to the cue. What a fricken pain.
Click to expand...

Laminated shells can be had as thick as .250" but is quite expensive. Over 1600.00 for a 4.5X9."piece. Tony Zinzola, who used to post here till he was run off, used a lot of small inlays and he would finish sand the cue and then inlay them .020 to .040 thousands deep and then turn once again to final size and very lightly sand.

I've inlaid many pearl dots and slotted diamonds with no problems. If needed, you can always glue on on top of another to get the desired thickness.

Dick
 
Thanks for all you help guys. I didnt have a clue to inlaying abalone and now Im diving in. Thanks Dick for the advise on gluing them together to get the desired thickness. Also thanks chris and everyone else for the sources. The stuff is not cheap and I didnt expect it to be. My main concerns were the machining and the fact that the stuff is brittle. I also was worried about breaking bits as their not cheap either. Ill take it slow and make more shallow passes and I think Ill be fine.
 
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