That is the question.
I have been purchasing my mineral / rock thin sections for about $8.00 CDN per slide or $700.00 CDN /100. I know it is not cost effective to buy a lapping machine ($650.00 CDN) and make less than a 100 slides. But could I make my own slides by hand with the tools I already own.
The slide presentation shows my first attempt at grinding and polishing two thin section slides.
It is still Winter outside (March 6, 2015) and no opportunity for picking up sample rocks of any kind. Unless it is the rock salt they put on roads.
I did manage to find some rocks in my landscaping supplies for my model buildings. The rocks were also just the right size for a first attempt.
See photo 1.
Making thin section slides, according to the articles on the web, requires patience and a very flat work surface. Patience is free, but the very flat work surface required purchasing a lapping plate from Lee Valley Tools. $16.00 and a series of carbide polishing papers. $18.00 CDN.
I do not know why, but I always seem to follow the Frank Sinatra song "I did it my way."
To mount the rock I used Super Glue Gel, not the liquid as suggested. The evidence of that is on Photo 6.
The process is rather straight forward and slow and can be outlined in these steps.
1 Mount the rock on a wooden clothes pin.
2 grind and polish on side flat.
3 Glue the flat side to a clean slide.
4 Use the Dremel to with a cut off disk to trim the rock as close to the slide as possible
5 Use the Dremel tool with a drum sander and grind the rock as close as possible without screwing up.
6 Place a sheet of #80 grit on the lapping plate and slowly grind the rock flat.
7 Continue the process with 100, 220, 400 and 600 grit papers. Carefully cleaning the sample and work area between grits.
8 Check for specimen thinness by looking through it with an OLD microscope you do not use anymore. It will get dirty and be useless for anything else in the future.
9 When light shines through the specimen, switch to 800 and 1200 grit for the final polish.
10 Figure out "Was it worth it?"
Review what I did. (Wrong)
1 I did not polish the first flat face smooth enough.
2 I used the wrong mountant.
3 I did not polish the final surface long enough.
4 I did it my way.
It was an interesting experiment, but not something I would do on a regular basis. I would do it again if I came across a specimen that looked interesting and was not already in my collection.
Click on the image
- IMG_0159.jpg (7.43 KiB) Viewed 8618 times
to see the slide presentation.
