How to drill A Hole In A Gemstone
HOW DO YOU drill a gemstone – Tutorial l Gem Collectors
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what we're going to show you are the two
primary methods of taking a crystal or a
gemstone or a simple stone from the yard
and making it into a usable piece of
jewelry and in this case a pendant
without anything else but a diamond
drill bit and a bail no casting no
fabrication no big money spent
you often heard me talk about how easy
it is to do you're gonna see exactly how
it's done
and in today's stones today you get to
see two of the most common ones you hear
about a tourmaline crystal and an
aquamarine crystal today all it's gonna
take is diamond drill bits but make sure
you have enough of the right selections
so you can choose wisely
look at this this was a sad aquamarine
crystal that happened to cleave or
fracture right down the middle look at
the great color natural color beautiful
piece right you think it's ruined uh-uh
no it actually is going to be a perfect
two dimensional pendant when we're done
we're gonna drill the top you can see it
has a perfect flat back and a beautiful
front visual image so we're gonna
resurrect that what could have been a
potential disaster and turn a pumpkin
into a coach we have this beautiful
black Shore tourmaline crystal now
because you we work with the flat part
against the chest or against the body
right so it lays right well in the case
of a tourmaline crystal remember we're
working with raw gemstones if you look
at the end of a tourmaline crystal the
direct opposite from the flat side is a
point well we can hardly drill through
it and let me get a tool here so we can
hardly drill through it in this there
reaction right because you're drilling
right on the point and that's what would
be required to have the flat part
against you so how do we do this well we
drill it right in the middle of the
crystal straight down and then we'll add
this type of finding will adhere it with
a special type of let's just say glue
and then we'll attach this bail to that
ring very simple very functional and
it's not going to cost a lot of money to
drill the hole in in any kind of a stone
object they make something called a core
drill that's where the drill is actually
hollow in the middle very effective for
drilling a hole and keeping the bit
clean now
in the hole cleaned out from the
material that is being drilled and
ground up into powder
so though the hole putting in the
tourmaline is going to be too small for
core drill use what we're going to use
is we have a nice solid burr that we
have picked out and with it we have
created a pan of water and in this case
it was just a lid I had from something
else
nothing fancy we just put enough water
in it here and at times you can drill it
while it's actually in the water
depending on the material or you can
just use the water to keep dipping it in
there to get the cooling factor and to
keep the hole cleaned out as well little
place there a little mark not very big
but I see if that is going to be in the
spot that I want it to be and it appears
that yes it is so then what I do I make
a little bit more pronounced the next
time still going slow because I haven't
created a channel yet for that burr to
ride in
as you can see it's starting to get more
pronounced now you're starting to see
some material be removed as I get more
confident that it is centered where I
want it to be you don't want just dry
powder coming off of there though you
can for a moment but in general you want
some type of cooling lubricant it can be
oil depending on the material alright so
now I like the placement of it and I can
feel confident that I can continue
drilling it to the depth that I need it
to be when you see me spinning it and
rotating it like that what that is doing
is it keeps the drill channel clean in
other words
it allows the powdered tailings so to
speak
to be raised to the surface as you see
that it's doing
now every now and again what I'll do is
I'll take it to the water
I'll swish it around and then I'll clean
out the drill Channel
oh yes it definitely exceeds the depth
of the finding all right that step is
over now we go to the aquamarine being
that this is a crystalline piece you can
physically see where the hole is going
from the direct frontal image so it
makes it easy to make judgment on
whether that's going to Center the piece
up or not and I think we're pretty
pretty much spot-on here so I go a
little bit further into the process
making sure that still there's enough
water because the diamonds can be worn
off quickly through friction through too
much heat and it's not that the Diamonds
wear so much it's the metal holding them
so once I feel comfortable that our
pilot hole has been bird deep enough
then I can go ahead and not worry about
centering I can just worry about
drilling now in this case because it is
able to be put down in the water this is
one that I think I'm going to drill
while it's in the water and not totally
submerged you'll see how I keep moisture
fed to it point let's check how close we
are to going all the way through it
because what you don't want to do is
punch through the other side at high
speed as you risk chipping the
surrounding area
it's kind of neat to be able to look at
it and see that hole being drilled
towards you as I'm gonna demonstrate
right here you can see the bit in action
so to speak
and there we are there we have it now
with the Black Tourmaline known as sure
with the hole drilled in the middle to
the depth that we want we now are going
to take our finding which I is a cap
with a twisted post which makes the
adhesive adhere and stick better and all
we have to do now is use our the
adhesive of my choice which is a
two-part epoxy and the 5-minute one is
fine alright so we're gonna go ahead and
epoxy this in and we'll be right back to
you
we've applied our adhesive and now we
want to put the cap in the hole but it's
not as simple as you may expect you want
to make sure that the direction of the
ring is turned in the direction that you
want the bail to go through so in the
direction that you want it to point so
even little differences can make a
difference in the end the way it looks
so you want to make sure you position
this and that you turn it in the
direction that you intended for it to
sit in other words we wanted it to be
against the side that was towards the
back now this adhesive it may be
five-minute but if you're not keeping an
eye on it it will move on you so we're
just gonna keep a close eye on it for a
moment and make sure it does it turn
then we're gonna attach the bail we've
chosen one and that will is thin enough
I hope to go through that rig and
remember the point goes forward so does
the bail and is as simple as that
and we're just going to use our pair of
pliers to close that opening up and
we're done now I like to put a little
bend in the end of that piece and what
that does it helps assure that it will
stay closed more effectively without
causing a problem for you and the chain
being able to slide through and there
you have it we can close it in a little
bit more if we so desire but for intents
and purposes that is a pendant ready to
go that easy that simple gem shopping
netwerk has just brought you something
that you will not see in any format and
this aquamarine as well in another style
and format of lapidary skills yes
lapidary skills right here this is how
it's done and this is what we can bring
you here had gem Shopping Network and we
are happy to show you how it's done on
the how do you series so thank you very
much for watching please tell your
friends neighbors make it a party get
the popcorn out because it's just like a
how-to show about gardening about
woodworking but this case is something
no one else will show you and this is
something important that you need to
know how do you you're gonna run across
a lot of items in the jewelry industry
and a lot of items that you'll write
here gem shopping and if you've ever
wondered how we created pendants in
gemstones we just showed it to you thank
you very much see you again
next time
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