My 50mm Meteorite Sphere Collection

B

Boba Debt

Jr. Member
Oct 8, 2017
37
35
Havelock, NC
Primary Interest:
Other
I discovered you could buy meteorites 2006 and since then I have been steadily growing my collection but progress is slow because I only collect spheres

This makes my collection very unique because, as far as I know, I am the only collector that does this. I'm not saying that another person with deep pockets couldn't copy my collection but I was the first and so far the only person to focus on spheres

Most of the meteorite community thought I was crazy at first but then as my collection grew they warmed up to the concept

Others collect whole specimens, end cuts and or slices but I went with spheres because they give you a different perspective of a meteorite.

There are only a few readily available spheres and they are made from the most common material and the size is dependent on the whole specimen that it is made from.

Since my collection was only going to be comprised of spheres I decided to set the size of my spheres to 50mm. Had I selected a smaller size, I could have quickly obtained a large collection. If I went larger, I would still be looking for my first specimen.

However, finding 50mm Meteorite Spheres was more difficult than expected, so I learned how to make them. I developed a new less wasteful process which I use to make spheres for my collection & I found a very good sphere shop in Texas called The Rare Earth Trading Company which I use for materials that I cannot work.

So far I have collected 20 meteorite or meteorite related spheres and I just bought a Mesosiderite, which has been very difficult to locate at an affordable price


Here is my collection, the individual images are listed in the order they were obtained.




GIBEON

IAV / FINE OCTAHEDRITE IRON- 488 GRAMS





NWA 869

L3/6 CHONDRITE - 225 GRAMS





CAMPO

IAB-MG / COARSE IRON - 485 GRAMS





BRAHIN

PALLASITE - 335 GRAMS





SEYMCHAN

IIE / UNGROUPED IRON - 520 GRAMS





GUANG DONG

TEKTITE - 145 GRAMS





NWA 2828

EL3 CHONDRITE - 158 GRAMS





DRONINO

ATAXITE / UNGROUPED IRON- 536 GRAMS





GAO-GUENIE

H5 CHONDRITE - 227 GRAMS





URUACU

IAB-MG / COARSE IRON - 533 GRAMS





NININGER

MUSEUM WALL BRICK- 171 GRAMS





BLACK ONAPING

SUDBURY IMPACT MELT- 185 GRAMS





TOLUCA

IAB-sLL IRON- 528 GRAMS





CANYON DIABLO

GRAPHITE NODULE- 247 GRAMS





NWA 791

L6 CHONDRITE - 220 GRAMS





DHOFAR 1289

L4 CHONDRITE - 214 GRAMS





LIBYAN GLASS

IMPACT MELT GLASS - 147 GRAMS





ZAG

H3/6 CHONDRITE - 246 GRAMS





GHUBARA

L5 CHONDRITE - 230 GRAMS





DHOFAR 1724

H4 CHONDRITE - 222 GRAMS



​
 

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Good luck with your collection, and thank's for sharing. :occasion14:
 

When I saw your first post, I was uncertain about one of the spheres, that melt glass one to be exact. It looked so different from the others.

It looked surprisingly like a "mill marble"... these are marbles that are melted to make fiberglass. I find them in mill towns where fiberglass was once produced. Your close ups show that indeed is not a mill marble.

https://www.cmog.org/artwork/217-clear-glass-marbles-fiberglass-textile-manufacture

Thanks for sharing!
 

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This is the core machine I used to make my first iron sphere from a 57 pound Campo Whole Specimen



It took 2 days and it resulted in a 7 1/2 core that was just over 2” in diameter

I had that core turned on a lathe into 2 separate spheres, one for m y collection and one for eBay. I also sold the remaining whole specimen on eBay for more then I paid for it.

Because it was so time consuming that was the only time I used it.

Now I have a machine shop that turns a 51mm x 51mm x 60mm rough into my 50mm sphere

This is the steel prototype



Once I polish it I remove the hexagonal stem, sand and polish that area and then I etch the entire sphere





I modified an MK-100 Brick and Paver saw so that I could cut stones and irons to make my sphere roughs



Instead of using a band saw with a kerf so wide that you get 25-30% cut I use a .030” abrasive blade that produces slices that are almost ready to etch with about 5-7% cut loss.

Here is an example of a freshly cut iron slice, it has not been sanded nor polished




I have processed meteorites for hunters on a profit sharing basis but I only do that if they have a material that I can use for a sphere in my collection.



I also buy whole specimens to make spheres and I always sell the left over end cuts, slices and “scraps” at very competative prices.



In the near future I will have some nice large Bondoc Mesosiderite end cuts and slices that I will list for sale but if you’re not an rabid meteorite collector and just want a space rock I have lots of little left overs from my previous sphere projects that I sell super cheap.
 

Last edited:
This is the core machine I used to make my first iron sphere from a 57 pound Campo Whole Specimen



It took 2 days and it resulted in a 7 1/2 core that was just over 2” in diameter

I had that core turned on a lathe into 2 separate spheres, one for m y collection and one for eBay. I also sold the remaining whole specimen on eBay for more then I paid for it.

Because it was so time consuming that was the only time I used it.

Now I have a machine shop that turns a 51mm x 51mm x 60mm rough into my 50mm sphere

This is the steel prototype



Once I polish it I remove the hexagonal stem, sand and polish that area and then I etch the entire sphere





I modified an MK-100 Brick and Paver saw so that I could cut stones and irons to make my sphere roughs



Instead of using a band saw with a kerf so wide that you get 25-30% cut I use a .030” abrasive blade that produces slices that are almost ready to etch with about 5-7% cut.

Here is an example of a freshly cut iron slice, it have not been sanded nor polished




I have processed meteorites for hunters on a profit sharing basis but I only do that if they have a material that I can use for a sphere in my collection.



I also buy whole specimens to make spheres and I always sell the left over end cuts, slices and “scraps” at very competative prices.



In the near future I will have some nice large Bondoc Mesosiderite end cuts and slices that I will list for sale but if you’re not an rabid meteorite collector and just want a space rock I have lots of little left overs from my previous sphere projects that I sell super cheap.
 

Hey Boba, a little head's up - You need to be a "Charter" member to sell Items on the forum. I really suggest you join, because I would love to buy some space bits from you! I first saw your colloction over on Bill Southern's Nuggetshooter forum. Really Neat collection! :occasion14:
 

Very nice collection.

In my town there is a Metorite hunter and no its not
the same guys from the TV show.

He has a Large bank vault built into his house. Very large collection.
 

Terry Soloman said:
Hey Boba, a little head's up - You need to be a "Charter" member to sell Items on the forum. I really suggest you join, because I would love to buy some space bits from you! I first saw your colloction over on Bill Southern's Nuggetshooter forum. Really Neat collection! :occasion14:
Click to expand...


Well that's a shame about selling. I don't do enough of this to pay for memberships on a bunch of forums. The last sphere I made was in 2014.

Plus when I sell the left overs I sell them cheap because I just don't like to have a lot of material laying around.

I could make more money on ebay but I don't have the time to list all of the individual pieces.

I guess I'll just have to list the scraps on the forums that don't require membership.

Sorry about that




Here are some Canyon Diablo Graphite Nodule slices that I cut when I made my sphere, these are long gone but it's not every day you get to see a slice of a graphite nodule

 

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Bondoc Mesosiderite-B4 Meteorite – The Good & the Bad

I received my Bondoc whole specimen yesterday and I processed it into my sphere rough cube today.

The GOOD – Very easy to cut

The BAD – not a lot of visible metal

Here is a picture of the whole specimen







Here is a picture of it after cutting








Overall I will be happy to have a meso sphere in my collection, I just wish it had more metal in it.

I am soaking a small slice in phosphoric acid so we will see how that turns out
 

This is my first processed slice of the Bondoc B-4 Mesosiderite










It has an interesting look.



This piece is just over 1 3/4” wide and weighs 10 grams
 

Question about Processing my Bondoc End Cuts


Because the focus of my collection is spheres I will admit that I don’t really know much about what other meteorite collectors like


I have started to process the smaller slices and end cuts of my Bondoc Mesosiderite by soaking them in phosphoric acid and then I polish them up to 400. I might go to 800 but I have to get some supplies to do that.


They end up looking like the 10 gram slice I posted above


I don’t mind risking the “value of the specimen” on these smaller pieces but I don’t know if I want to do that for these larger end cuts:










What do you all think?
 

Today I re-etched my irons, normally I etch the Dronino (center iron) but it looked good polished so I left it

I also buil anew display board in anticipation of 3 new spheres I should be adding in the near future

 

I’m selling some Bondoc Mesosiderite on another forum and one of their members took advantage of an opportunity to buy a set of slices cut from a single end cut that had a lot of visable metal.

He bought the slices in column B because he thought it was neat that they were cut from a single section




I set up this image for him to show the post cutting shape of the end cut




Here they are ready to be packed up for shipping




He opted to do the final polishing so I look forward to seeing how he is going to display these.
 

This is a 3 slice display I made when I used to make 50mm square slices to get a better understanding of what they would look like as a 50mm sphere and to figure out how to work them








 

I started to process a 2400 gram Sikhote Alin end cut

Here is a video of one of many cuts I made which yeilded a 443 gram end cut






This is what the 2 pieces looks like





Here is the 443 gram end cut that is 3.5 wide and 2.25” tall





 

I started to process a 2400 gram Sikhote Alin end cut

Here is a video of one of many cuts I made which yeilded a 443 gram end cut






This is what the 2 pieces looks like





Here is the 443 gram end cut that is 3.5 wide and 2.25” tall





 

The initial process to turn the 2504 gram end cut into end cuts, slices and my sphere rough is complete

With my current work schedule it took about 5 days making one cut per day.

Here are some pics of the processed material












We ended up with the following


A – 262 gram end cut with 5 cut faces
B – 358 gram end cut with 3 cut faces
C – 163 gram end cut with 3 cut faces
D – 443 gram true end cut, single cut face, this is the nicest end cut of the lot
E – 14 gram fragment consisting of what looks like 2 crystals


My sphere rough weighs 1126 grams and Dmitry is going to earn his money if he gets a 50mm sphere for this rough because it is tight.

We had an initial cut loss of 138 grams or right around 5% so that’s good
 

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