Using Rhino to cut stone

Gallery
1

Being a jeweler and stone bead maker for nearly forty years I must say that Rhino has been a godsend. With Rhino Neon and Brazil I can now play around with my ideas ahead of doing an actual process.

I recently started to make stone beads based on ancient designs that were out of the ordinary. The last bead I made was based on a Bactrian/Indus valley bead that is roughly 4000 years old.

When I had the bead nearly done I had the thought of cutting a small radius in the center to add a bit to the old design. In the old days my only choice was to do it and if it did not work, Oh Well!

When I had the bead to this point I took all the measurements and drew it in Rhino, I then made the cut for the radius in the bead and saw that I thought it would work out very well, all of this without having to make a single cut in the actual bead.
Rendered in Neon


Rendered in Brazil

Here is an image of the finished bead. The bead made of Polar Jade “Nephrite”.
FINISHED BEAD SIZE 2.11 inch 53.5 mm long .48 inch 12.1 mm in diameter hole size 5mm

Thank you all of those at Mcneel for being there and so helpful on this forum.

All my best … Danny

4 Likes
2

neat.
what do you use to cut it?

3

Jeff,
All the work is hand done on various machines. The hole is drilled with diamond drills in a small drill press. I rough round on a six inch diamond wheel and then I use a fixture on a milling machine table to hand turn the bead to the shape prior to the final shape with the radius. After this there is all kinds of hand work to smooth the bead prior to polishing with a wooden wheel and diamond powder mixed with a light oil. If you would like to see this bead in steps go to this link on my website and scroll to the bottom of the page.
http://www.lopacki.com/art/new/

Here is an earlier bead that led up to this bead.
Bead made of Arizona petrified wood.
FINISHED BEAD SIZE 1.6 inch 40.5 mm long .45 inch 11.5 mm in diameter

All my best … Danny

2 Likes
4

Wonderful work and very interesting presentation, thank you for sharing !

Joao