45 Degree Angle Dop

Mike also made me a custom 45 degree angle adapter for cutting and polishing the table on stones. You can read about the issues with the original Omni-e angle dop supplied by Jersey Instruments on this post 45 Degree Angle Adapter Defect from David Hudson.

I actually have had and used this new 45 degree angle adapter for at least a couple of months now. It’s a solid and extremely well-made piece, weighing in at about 4 oz/120 grams. It is machined from a single piece of brass, which means there is no way it can slip out of alignment.

In the photos I’ve removed the top dop-holding screw to show the nylon tip – a very well-thought part of this adapter’s design. It prevents the holding screws from scarring the soft brass of the dops.

The 45 degree angle adapter is heavy. Along with the nylon-tipped screws this helps reduce the amount of squealing tha tthe stones make when grinding and polishing the table. The squeal-factor with this new table adapter is almost zero so far – with the original Omni-e table adapter I often would hold the stone or dop to try and dampen down the noise. I also took to wearing earplugs.

The final additional benefit of this adapter is that you can use it to validate the calibration of your Omni-e faceting machine’s angle read-out. Because it has a flat bottom, you can insert it into the quill and then lower the faceting head until the angle adapter is sitting flush on the lap. Your angle read-out should be 45 degrees; if not, you know it needs adjustment.

This particular 45 degree angle adapter is machined specifically for the Omni-e’s 0.300″ dops

Unfortunately Mike is no longer in the business of making parts for faceting machines.