Thin-section

Thin-section making recipe for secondary school teachers and students. Index. by Yoshio Okamoto 8th March 2020, revised on 9th May 2020.

Any comments or questions to yossi.okamoto <at> gmail.com

My major is not petrology, but in my undergraduate class, I had a chance to make thin-sections with the traditional method, which employs abrasives and a long time tough jobs.
Becoming a geoscience teacher, I spent much time making thin-sections with our students using a traditional method and a half with a self-taught way.
Therefore, I try to improve our method through our practices.

Now, I got a renewal method for classroom use using cheap mass production tools.
This method employs a hybrid method of traditional process and renewed ones
The thin-section making is divided as follows,

The details of the following are, please visit the links!

Part I.(Another page)

1) Sample collection as an appendix of 2)

2) A tip cutting from the sample

Part II. (Another page)

3) Grinding one side

4) Gluing to a slide-glass.

5) Cutting again

6) Secondary grinding

7) Cover glassing

8) Clean up and labeling.

Part III. Important notice!
After long use time our rock saw causes a trouble which the motor bearing is rusted and stuck due to water leak.
In this case, we have to disassemble the motor and change the bearing for repairing.
The detail is here,
http://seagull.stars.ne.jp/2020_Thin_Section/Fix_Rock_Saw/index_e.html


Therefore,we made a home-made rock saw based on a cheap bench grinder! Please visit the making page.	Rcck_cutting! Click to watch a Movie.

Our new grinder based on a kitchen knife sharpener. Please visit the making page..	Rock grinding! Click to watch a Movie. #180 grit diamond plate.

Slide-glass, Epoxy glue, cover glass, and UV resin	For cover-glass gluing, we use a UV light to consolidate the UV resin.


A professional type rock saw having 250mm diamond blade at Tennoji highschool attached to Osaka-Kyoiku University.	A rock is cut easily by a powerful motor. However, these apparatus is high expensive and very rare to set up these machines in a ordinary secondary school.

Grinding on a glass plate using abrasive #300 carborundum and water as a middle stage. They are enjoying the job and talking!	Grinding on a glass plate using abrasive #1500 arundum and water as a final stage.