What tools/ equipment do you need to shape and buff and drill stone, shell, minerals?

Question

The cheapest ways possible

Answer 1

You will need to rent a masonry drill with a desired diameter drill. For buffing, rent a 7" grinding tool.

Answer 2

A 'rotary tool', like Dremel, would probably be your best overall choice.  One tool with different tips.  If you're going to be doing a lot of it, get one with a flexible shaft... easier on the hand/wrist, hehehe.

You can spend as little as $30 on the rotary tool itself, or go for more expensive models.  And there are tons of various attachments for them... from buffing wheels, to drill bits of various types, to grinders... all kinds of stuff.

Ebay search of "dremel" turned up 1300 items, thats how popular it is, hehehe -

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll...

You can find these at any local hardware store, and even department stores, like WalMart, or Target.  Often you can get the rotary tool with a basic starter kit, and they'll also carry an assortment of other tool attachments.

Have Fun

Answer 3

If you're working with small pieces, for example, for making jewelry? then the other posters are correct - get yourself a Dremel tool. You might consider getting some additional burrs for shaping the stone. Diamond encrusted burrs will last a long time and cut through anything.

Also, if you buy a Dremel kit, it should include a nice assortment of buffing wheels and points. Get yourself a tube of Zam brand buffing compound and you'll be amazed at what a nice job it does for polishing stones and shell.

If you're talking about larger pieces of stone, you would want to invest in some stone cutting chisels, rasps and files, possibly even an air hammer fitted with the correct chisels.

But, since you mentioned shell, I'm going to guess that you're working small scale.

These diamond encrusted rifflers must be mass produced in China to be so cheap, but I have a couple of sets and they are fantastic for just the kind of work you're talking about doing. You will need hand tools like these in addition to a power tool like the Dremel. These are extremely handy and inexpensive:

http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp...

Answer 4

Dremmel tool has every attachment needed to polish stones to jewlery condition. $75 will get you a good start and 150 and you will have it all. walmart carries the sets.