Easy Stone Crushing for Inlay

For stone bits small enough for inlaying, you only need 4 items.

Step 1: Tools

Simple enough items. Hammer, 1.5" & .75" metal pipe cape, and a 1" wide pipe.

Step 2: Crushing

First, put the .75" pipe cap on the 1" pipe.

Second, put the stone that needs to be crushed into the 1.5" pipe cap.

Third, put the end of the smaller pipe cap on top of the stone and give the end of the pipe 1 good smack with your hammer. Watch out for your fingers if you miss!

Forth, shake the crushed stone a little in the larger cap so the bigger chinks of stone go into the middle of the pile. Give the stones another hit with the pipe and hammer like before, and continue this until the larger pieces are as small as you need them to be.

Step 3: Storage

After you've reached your desired stone inlay size, make sure to store the stones in a solid container and not a plastic bag. The edges of the stone will cut through the bag and leave a hole over time.

Hope this instructable helps you with my Bentwood Rings with Stone Inlay project!

Step 4: Experiment

Play around with stone sizes when you inlay. You might find you like a more powdery grit or larger chunks of the stone. Or maybe you like the individual pieces look over the solid color look. Maybe its the opposite for you. Try it out!

Comments

[carlavara13]

I having a problem with the stones having specks of metal and grease from pipe. I clean it well but the small stones need to be soaked and the dust created looks “dirty”
anyone have this issue or have thoughts on the solution?

[nikkismith182]

Awesome idea! Do you ever have trouble with smaller particles of stone “escaping” or kind of ricocheting out in between the caps when you hit the pipe with the hammer? No matter how enclosed I try to keep everything when I crush stones and such, they always do that, and I’ve been desperate to find a way to keep that from happening.

[BarbaraB233]

You've given me so much inspiration and the ideas are running through my head. I have some small Maine-mined Malachite and Tourmaline stones that were a gift from my father from about 45 years ago that I might use. I like both the tiny almost powdery bits and the larger pieces as well, so I just may try more than one!

[Unicorn_King]

SMASH!!!!!! >:D

[tictactyler]

Such meth

[Al_B]

I would like to try making a ring and than putting it on the rotary atachment in my laser engraving machine and engrave the outside. There are so many possabilities. Thank you for sharing your ideas here.

[thetreehearts]

Sounds like a great idea, try it out. :)

[Al_B]

Can I use almost any wood or do you recommend any particular species? I was thinking of using either Cherry or maybe Maple.

[thetreehearts]

Are you using solid wood to make the ring or you doing a bentwood ring? Maple looks great when sanded and finished, and it is also very easy to work with. It will look great with some stone inlay.

[Fikjast Scott]

what a great idea, I really like your instructable

[thetreehearts]

Thank you. :)

[Straklin]

Nice, thanks!

[bcavaciuti]

there are also a few instructibles on how to make a tumbler. I think you can do it with different sized grit in abowl attched to tumble dryer or washing machine.

It is amazing how beautiful simple pebbles or stones we walk over everyday or at the beach are, just because they aren't a precious stone it doesn't mean they aren't suitable for jewellery(unless it is something like chalk!).

[bcavaciuti]

I have found green, red, white, purple, black, clear, stones just on the beach and in my garden. Also coloured glass or old ceramic which are both man made stones if arranged correctly could create the desired effect for free.

[iscovell]

You should include a picture of your work... I did check them out, and they incredible. Really nice work!

[thetreehearts]

That sounds like a good idea, and thank you for the compliment! I'll have to add a couple at the end for examples. :)

[livichris]

where do you source nice colourful stones like this?

[thetreehearts]

Sometimes customers give me a stone that they want to put into a ring, or sometimes I buy a single tumbled gemstone from another Etsy seller. If you do not shop on Etsy, you can always go on Amazon or Ebay to buy single tumbled stones.

[zcheshire]

Heisenberg!