Hello William,

I devised a very simple stone crusher our of some steel pipe and a flat
steel plate. The lower plate is a 12" x 12" x 1/8" plate. The upper tube is
a 2.5" diameter steel tube welded to the base plate and is about 10" high.
The inner ram is a solid piece of steel (about 15" long) with a hammering
bolt welded onto the top. The lower part of the solid ram is crosscut for
better crushing performance.

To crush the stone, you simply load the stone into the open tube, insert the
solid ram and hit it a few times with a small sledge hammer. Simple and
efficient! Periodically, I will dump the stone and sift it to grade it for
size. I usually make three sizes of crushed stone for my inlay work. It's
much cheaper to crush your own stone and this is an easy to make a crusher,
if you have access to some metal and a welder.

I have also seen just a steel pipe used, with a cap fitted to one end and a
solid ram that fits inside the pipe. It's used the same way, load the stone
into the pipe and smack the protruding ram with a hand held sledge.
Periodically dump and sift. Not as elegant as my crusher, but it works.

If you would like a picture of my crusher, let me know and will send you an
email copy as we can't post pictures here... Take care and all the best to
you and yours!

--
Better Woodturning and Finishing Through Chemistry...

Steven D. Russell
Eurowood Werks Woodturning Studio, The Woodlands, Texas
Machinery, Tool and Product Testing for the Woodworking and Woodturning
Industries

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On 7/9/07 8:26 AM, in article ,
"william kossack" wrote:

I use crushed stone such as Turquoise and Malachite on some of my
turnings. The cost for already crushed stone ranges from $10 and ounce
to $20 an ounce.

I've purchased some nuggets and I was wondering how to best crush it
myself. Anyone have a simple solution?

PS I also have some blue lapis and garnet which are much harder.
Anything I use would have to be tough. The only way I've been able to
crush some of the lapis is with a sledge hammer on a rail road track but
the bag shredded.