Milling Jade on a Shapeoko 3 XXL

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Hello All,

Eldest daughter came to me with a request. She is looking to cut Jade on my Shapeoko 3 XXL and we all know that means “Dad, will you …”

She is looking to cut @1” holes in the Jade for various jewelry designs.

Am planning on using a diamond blade to create a flat side & CA glue for holding. After that, not a clue on bits, feeds & speeds, cooling, etc.

Any advice or links on a better holding method, bits, F & S, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks

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You’re boring holes or cutting out small discs?
Is a diamond hole saw on a press an option?

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Oh boy!!! Complete Guide to Jade Carving. The Tools you need and How to do it.

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  1. Diamond tooling
  2. Coolant, water or they make a specialty lubricating coolant for grinding with diamond. Rustlick G-1066D High Performance Synthetic Grinding Coolant
  3. I am not that familiar with the 3 but your going to want to either remove the mdf spoil boards or make a waterproof container.
  4. Depending on size of material if you can physically clamp it or use a mixture of beeswax and rosin or something similar to wax the jade to a piece of glass that could be clamped in place.

This just barely covers what your going to want, I do this in our shop all day long, every tool is diamond so think grinding not cutting.

My best solution, if you have a drill press make a dam out of putty inside a water container and just use a core drill to punch a 1" hole. The router speed is way too fast, you want something on the order of low hundreds rpm.

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Neil,

Thanks for the response. After talking with daughter #1, she is attempting to make a “Pie Stone”.

Seeing the confusion in my eyes (I’m thinking a triangle shape), she finally shot me a picture of the item.

Jade Pie Stone / Donut / Life Saver?

So, off to purchase some diamond tools & crank the drill press RPMs down.

Should be interesting to see how this comes out. At least she didn’t wait until a week before Xmas to ask for help on this.

Thanks again

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Steve,

Thanks for the link. Tools are on order & your link helped a ton!

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Peter,

Thank you for the help & the time saving. Tools are on order and should be here by Friday night.

I made her a jig to hold the jade in place. I’m planning on using water and the drill press as she is grinding away.

My drill press can go as low as 125 RPMs, so sounds like something in the 350-500RPM should work just fine. Slow & steady will be the order of the day.

Thank you for the info

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