Aluminum dop sticks

I have always found traditional wooden dowel dop sticks and wax to be awkward, messy, somewhat unreliable, and most of all, slow and time consuming.  I especially don't like dopping small stones on small diameter sticks.  I find it difficult to hold and control a small diameter stick in my fingers and dome a small cab smoothly..... AND.... I like to scribe a line around the perimeter for the intended bezel height after I have established the outside shape.  This means I de-mount the stone, place the stone bottom side down on a flat surface, scribe my guide line around the edge and re-dop the stone to dome the top.

Another technique used by many, including me, has been to glue the stone to a flat head wood screw with epoxy or CA and screw it into 1/2", 9/16", or 5/8" diameter wooden dowels, or to glue the stone directly onto wood, brass or aluminum dop sticks.  That works OK, but....... every one of my wooden dowels is not exactly the same, meaning the pilot hole is not precisely dead center or perpendicular in the end of the stick, (small things like that annoy me),  I have to replace the wooden dowels once in a while as the pilot hole wears out from repeated use, I need lots of dops for all the stones I have in progress at any one time if the stones are glued right to the stick ...... AND...... (this is the biggie)........  I still have to (or want to) de-mount the stone to scribe my bezel height guide line around the stone after I have established the outside shape.

Here is my solution:  I use two sizes of aluminum dop sticks with tapped holes in each end.  One is  5/16" diameter with a 6-32 tapped hole in one end and a 10-32 tapped hole in the other.  The other stick is 1/2" diameter with a 1/4-20 tapped hole in one end and a 5/16-18 tapped hole in the other end. The sticks are 4" long have a 1" medium knurled area on each end.  I use 3/4" long flat head machine screws glued to the stones with CA.  I can glue up a large number of stones on the appropriate size screws and quickly screw them into the dop stick, snugging them up with a standard machine nut.  I also have a small bench block with four clearance holes drilled through it.  The clearance holes are a bit larger than the head diameter of the four sizes of flat head screws I use.  After grinding the outside shape of the cab I can quickly remove the stone from the stick (screw still attached), set the screw shank into the appropriate clearance hole in the block, scribe the bezel height guide line around the edge of the stone, and re-attach the stone back on the dop stick in no time at all.

When the cabs are complete I only have to place the stone(s) with the short screw attached into a sealed jar of Acetone or Nitro Methane to be-bond the CA.  I can use a smaller container since I don't have to place the entire dop stick into the container, and I still have the threaded dop sticks for use on new stones I am working on.

I also have an adapter with a 6-32 male thread and a female 4-40 thread which an be attached to the standard dop stick so you can glue up very small stones on 4-40 machine screws.

As far as adhesives go, I primarily use CA rather than epoxy, but for delicate stones I don't want to excessively expose directly to Acetone, Nitro Methane or their vapors for de-bonding, I glue up the stones with regular white glue and paint the edges of the screw head with nail polish after the glue has dried to waterproof the bond.  When it is time to take the stone off the screw, I dip a small artist brush in Acetone and remove the nail polish without unduly exposing the stone to the solvent.  Drop the stone with attached screw into water and the white glue dissolves quickly.  As you can probably guess, I prefer this method for opals.

Soon, in my on-line store and through my website, I will be offering a kit containing dop sticks, a starter assortment of screws and nuts, and the drilled bench block.  I know some of you might have a metalworking shop at home and are capable of making these dop sticks yourself. (or maybe already have).  The design is copyrighted, so you shouldn't make them for sale, but you may make them for yourself.  I will send you a copy of the drawing if you want, but honestly, if you have the capability to make these, you don't need the drawing, do you.....