Crushing Turquoise for inlays? PIC

[Michael Mills]

I haven't tried turquoise but I have used key filings with a coffee grinder.
Some "bewares" ... do not fill it full, about 1/2 max. My first one bit the dust also. I read the directions on the second grinder and it stated no more than 10 second burst, the motor just won't hold up to the heat generated with 2-3 minutes of constant grinding. No problem with the second and it has been several years; I give it about a minute rest between burst to cool down a little.

[Robert J Webb]

My hobby is power carving bowls, primarily mesquite and it has a lot of worm holes and natural cracks. I fill the cracks with turquoise, malachite or lapis. Since I use such large quantities of the minerals I buy the rocks on ebay and and crush them in a small rock crusher and after I get them to an appropriate size I crush them further with a masa grinder that I purchased on Amazon. I screen the size of the mineral with baking sifters and put in bottles. Most of the time the minerals are set with super glue. This is the most economical method of getting large quantities of inlay minerals that I have found. If I were using small amounts I would purchase it from Amazon already crushed.