US3902285A

US3902285A - Lapidary dop stick and method of making and using the same

Info

Publication number: US3902285A
Application number: US490071A
Authority: US
Inventors: Thomas P Lalish
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1974-07-19
Filing date: 1974-07-19
Publication date: 1975-09-02
Anticipated expiration: 1992-09-02

Abstract

A lapidary dop stick is preferably inexpensively made from a cut section of an electric cable where the insulating sheath thereof has been cut back to bare the electric conductors which are separable to varying degrees to provide a dop stick end face of a size to accommodate the size of the stone to be grounded or polished. The separated conductors are dipped into melted sealing wax which fills the spaces between the separated conductors. A flattened end face is formed on the sealing wax so the ends of the separated conductors are exposed or contiguous to the flattened end face of the sealing wax which can then be applied to a heated stone where the conductor ends act as heat sinks during the subsequent polishing or grinding operation.

Description

United States Patent [191 Lalish [451 Sept. 2, 1975 LAPIDARY DOP STICK AND METHOD OF MAKING AND USING THE SAME [76] Inventor: Thomas P. Lalish, Box 304,

Downers Grove, Ill. 60515 [22] Filed: July 19, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 490,071

[52] US. Cl. 51/229; 145/61 B [51] Int. Cl B241) 19/22; B25g H10 [58] Field of Search 51/229; 125/30 R, 30 WD,

1,214,009 l/l9l7 Coleman 51/229 X 2,641,879 6/1953 Dalrymple 5l/229 3,323,259 6/1967 Stout 51/229 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLlCATIONS United Kingdom 51/229 Primary Examiner-Al Lawrence Smith Assistant Examiner--Marc C. Davidson Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wallenstein, Spangenberg, Hattis & Strampel [57] ABSTRACT A lapidary dop stick is preferably inexpensively made from a cut section of an electric cable where the insulating sheath thereof has been cut back to bare the electric conductors which are separable to varying degrees to provide a dop stick end face of a size to accommodate the size of the stone to be grounded or polished. The separated conductors are dipped into melted sealing wax which fills the spaces between the separated conductors. A flattened end face is formed on the sealing wax so the ends of the separated conductors are exposed or contiguous to the flattened end face of the sealing wax which can then be applied to a heated stone where the conductor ends act as heat sinks during the subsequent polishing or grinding operation.

10 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures LAPIDARY DOP STICK AND METHOD OF MAKING AND USING THE SAME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a unique dop stick and a method for making and using the same. The dop stick and the method of using the same is particularly advantageous to lapidary hobbiests who cut, grind and polish their own stones.

In the process of polishing or grinding a stone, it has been customary to secure the stone to a body of heatsoftened sealing wax carried on the end of a dop stick which hardens at room temperature to produce a secure bond with the stone. The sealing wax was previously applied to the end of the dop stick by the user who clipped the stick in a melted body of sealing wax in a pot placed on a hot plate or stove burner.

In prior techniques for applying a stone to a dop stick, after the user dipped the end of the dop stick involved into the body of molten sealing wax to apply a glob of such wax thereto, he applied the softened glob of sealing wax to a stone resting on a heated surface like a hot plate. If the stone was not heated to the softening temperature of the sealing wax, while the stone will initially adhere to the sealing wax the bond therebetween will be so weak that the stone will be readily severed from the dop stick when it is applied to a grind ing or polishing wheel. On the other hand, if the stone resting on the hot plate or other source of heat remained too long thereon, the stone sometimes overheated and exploded. creating a hazard to persons or property in the vicinity thereof. Thus, the proper securement of a stone to the glob of sealing wax carried on the end of a dop-stick handle has heretofore required a degree of expertise of the user thereof which is obtained only through much experience. A major difficulty was in determining when the stone was heated to the proper temperature. There has thus been a need for a simple process of securing a stone to a glob of sealing wax carried on the end of a dop-stick handle which assures a proper bond between the stone and sealing wax.

Frequently, the heat generated in the stone during the grinding or polishing thereof is sufficient to soften the sealing wax on the end of the dop stick where the sealing wax will not hold the stone in place, with the result that the rotating grinding or polishing wheel pulls the stone from the softened sealing was. It, therefore, becomes desirable to remove heat from the vicinity of the stone during a grinding or polishing operation to avoid the softening of the sealing wax. In one dop-stick construction presently available on the market, the head of the dop stick comprises a hollow conical shell which is adapted to receive a glob of sealing wax therein. The rim of the conical shell acts as a heat sink during the grinding or polishing operation to carry heat away from the end thereof. This and other types of more sophisticated dop sticks heretofore designed have left much to be desired from the standpoint of the quality of the heat sink produced thereby, and the cost of fabrication thereof occasioned by the molding and/or machining operations necessary to manufacture the various parts of the dop sticks. Also. to accommodate the different-sized stones to be polished or ground, a wide variety of dop stick head sizes are necessary which has heretofore increased the cost of manufacture of the dop sticks.

Accordingly, one of the objects of the invention is to provide a dop stick with a sealing wax receiving head portion which provides a much more effective heat sink that was heretofore possible with prior dop-stick constructions.

Another objectof the invention is to provide a dop stick construction as described where the user does not need to heat up a supply of sealing wax in which to dip the dop stick.

A further object of the invention is to provide a dop stick which can be initially or" subsequently adjusted to a desired size to accommodate stones on various sizes after application of sealing wax thereto.

A still further'object of the invention is to provide a dop stick which can be manufactured at a much lower cost than prior dop-stick constructions.

Another object of the invention is to provide a unique method of applying a dop stick to a stone which enables the user to know exactly when the stone is heated to a proper temperature to make a secure bond with the sealing-wax head of a dop stick.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one of the features of the invention, a lapidary dop stick is provided with a handle portion from the outer end of which extends a plurality of heat-sink-forming members having outer ends in spaced relation and in approximately the same plane in which the stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered thereto. The outer ends of the heat-sink-forming members are distributed over an area to be occupied by the stone so that when the stone is adhered to the dop stick there are distributed heat sink points where the heat generated in the stone by the grinding or polishing operation is rapidly carried away from the point where the stone is adhered to the dop stick. In a related feature of the invention, the dop stick just described is most advantageously sold to the ultimatacustomer with a body of sealing wax already filling the spaces between the heat-sink-forming members so the user does not need to bother with providing a molten body of sealing wax in which to first dip the dop stick. The end portions of the heat-sink-forming members are most advantageously exposed on a flat end face of the body of sealing wax so as to be placeable contiguous to the stone to which it will be applied. When the dop stick is used to apply a stone secured thereto to a grinding or polishing wheel, the heat generated by the polishing operation is very quickly drawn away from the stone by the many heat-sink-forming members distributed along the suface of the stone. The scaling wax will therefore remain hard so that the polishing or grinding operation can be reliably carried out without fear that the stone will be pulled from the sealing wax.

In accordance with a specific aspect of the invention. the heat-sink-forming members are most advantageously wirelike metal elements which, before appliczr tion of the sealing wax thereto, can be spaced apart any desired degree to encompass an area corresponding to that of the stone to which the dop stick is to be used. Thus, the manufacturing operations are simplifed by the fact that the basic dop stick unit initially has a fixed size and construction. except that the ultimate fabrication of the dop sticks involves separating the wirelike elements to different degrees to form the different ready to use sized dop sticks after application of sealing wax thereto.

In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a number of such dop sticks of different size are sold together as a kit together with relatively small individual wafers of the same sealing wax to constitute another aspect of the present invention. These wafers of sealing wax are used as a means for informing the dopstick user when a stone being heated has reached the desired temperature to form a secure bond with the sealing wax on the end of the dop stick. One such wafer is placed upon a stone resting upon a surface heating the same and when the wafer softens the user knows that the dop stick is ready to be applied to the stone. The user then applies the body of sealing wax on the end of the dop stick to the outer face of the stone by pressing down on the dop stick so that softened wafer is spread thinly over the surface of the stone and the initially exposed outer ends of the wirelike elements distributed through the sealing wax are brought close .to the surface of the stone. After holding the dop stick against the stone for only a few seconds, the user can then remove the same and the stone will be securely bonded to the body of sealing Wax when the same cools after a few minutes.

In the most preferred form of the invention, the cost of manufacture ofthe dop stick described is reduced to an absolute minimum when the dop stick is constructed from a severed piece of a commercial electric cable having the usual rubberlike outer insulation and twisted-aluminum or copper conductors within the same. A short length of insulating material is removed from one of the ends of the severed cable piece. and the exposed conductors separated to a degree depending upon the size of the dop stick involved. The separated ends of the severed cable piece is then dipped into a body of sealing wax to apply to a glob of soft sealing wax thereto. and by pressing the same upon a flat surface a flat face is produced at the end of the dop stick at which the ends of the conductors are exposed to form the efficient heat sinks previously described.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon making reference to the specification to follow, the claims and the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a side elevational view of a short piece of electrical cable from which insulation has been re moved at one end and an end cap has been placed on the other end as a first step in the production of a lapidary dop stick including features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the dop stickmaking unit of FIG. I with the bared conductors separated as a second step in the fabrication of a lapidary dop stick.

FIG. 3 is an end view of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the completed dop stick after application of a body of sealing wax to the separated conductors shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an end view of the completed dop stick of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is aside clevational view of the end portion of a cable piece like that shown in FIG. 1 where the conductors have been separated to a lesser degree than that shown in FIG. 2 to form a smaller-sized dop stick head, the dashed lines therein showing the outlines of the body of sealing wax to be applied thereto;

FIG. 7 is an end view of the dop stick shown in FIG. 6 after the application of sealing wax to the end thereof;

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of the end portion of a cable piece like that shown in FIG. 1 where the conductors have been separated to a greater degree than that shown in FIG. 2 to form a greater-sized dop-stick head, where the conductors have been spread apart so far that the ends thereof are in different planes as illustrated by the dashed end portions of these conductors before they have been ground as illustrated, so the ends are in a common plane;

FIG. 9 is an end view of the dop stick of FIG. 8 after application of the sealing wax to the end thereof;

FIG. 10 shows a number of different sized wafers of sealing wax which would be normally sold with a kit of dop sticks including the variously sized dop sticks illustrated in FIGS. 5, 7 and 9;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a hot plate with a stone being heated thereon and one of the wafers in FIG. 10 applied to the stone;

FIG. 12 illustrates the hot plate in FIG. 11 with one of the dop sticks shown in FIGS. 5, 7 or 9 being heated on the hot plate and subsequently, as shown in dashed lines, applied to the wafer carrying stone to adhere the stone to the dop stick; and

FIG. 13 shows a stand in which a number of dop sticks are placed to cool the same in preparation for using the dop stick to perform a stone grinding or polishing operation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION While a dop stick made in accordance with the broader features of the present invention may take a variety of forms, in the most preferred form it has the construction illustrated in the drawings. As thereshown, cach dop

stick

2, 2 or 2" comprises a

handle portion

2a, 2a or 2a" which is grasped by the user and a head portion 2/), 2b or 2/2" to which a stone is to be securely bonded so that it can be polished or ground by grasping the

handle portion

2a, 2a or 2a" and applying the same to a grinding or polishing wheel. The dop stick head portions 21), 2b 2b" illustrated have widely varying sizes, but each of these dop sticks can be made from an identical short piece of commercially available electrical cable. FIG. 1 illustrates completely such a severed piece of electrical cable after the rubber-like sheath of insulation 3 thereof has been removed at one end of the cable piece to bare the somewhat twisted bundle of electrical wires 4 which extend the full length of the cable piece. The opposite end of the cable piece may be covered over by a cap 7 made of any suitable heat insulating material. The variously sized dop sticks 2, 2 or 2 are made by separating the bared wires to varying degrees. In each of these forms of the invention. the ends of the wires are distributed over an area in proportion to the size of the stone to be carried thereby. Copper and aluminum Wire commonly found in electrical cables is inherently deformable to any desired shape or position. For the purposes of the present invention. the ends of the wires should be approximately in or near a common plane extending generally transversely to the longitudinal axis of the dop stick. As shown in FIG. 8, when these wires are separated to a substantial degree. the ends thereof will be in substan tially different planes. and thus to achieve a position where the wire ends are in or near a common plane the wires are ground away into such a common plane 55.

While in accordance with previous dop stick construction practices, the dop stick could be shipped from the manufacturing plant of the customer in a condition where it must subsequently be dipped into a body of molten sealing wax or other thermoplastic material. in accordance with the most preferred form of the present invention the sealing wax or other thermoplastic material is applied during manufacture of the dop stick so the ultimate user does not have to bother with melting sealing wax or the like in a container and then dipping the end of the dop stick into the molten mass of sealing wax to complete the fabrication of a dop stick. When the bared wire ends of a severed cable piece is dipped into a molten mass of sealing wax. the wax will fill the spaces between the wires 4 to form a monolithic block of approximately the same outline as the volume occu pied by the deformed wires. FIG. 4 illustrates the last step in the fabrication of the dop stick now being described where a body of sealing wax S has hardened around the separated wires 4. When the dop stick is intially removed from the body of molten sealing wax. the outer end of the body of sealing wax will then have a generally rounded configuration illustrated by reference numeral 5a and will extend substantially beyond the plane of the ends of the wires. This end of the body of sealing wax is then flattened so that the ends of the wires 4 are exposed or immediately contiguous to the transverse outer face of the body of sealing wax. This is achieved by pressing the end of the body of sealing wax before it has hardened against a surface to flatten the same and to bring the ends of the wires to the outer face of the body of sealing wax involved.

Sealing wax has a melting temperature of about 200F. When the softened sealing wax cools to room termperature. it has a stone-like hardness which acts as a firm bond to a stone applied thereto if both the stone and the body of sealing wax were brought into contact at this melting temperature or somewhat thereabove.

After completion of a stone grinding or polishing operation. the stone can readily be removed from the body of sealing wax by heating the sealing wax to its softening temperature and then pulling or otherwise separating the stone therefrom. If desired. the user of a particular dop stick can vary the size thereof by melting the sealing wax from the end thereof the expose the wires 4 and then forming the wires into a desired configuration followed by a grinding operation where needed to place the ends of the resulting wires in approximately the same plane as explained. The dop stick is then redipped into a molten bath of sealing wax.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, the problem of determining when to apply the dop stick to a heated stone. there are provided

small wafers

6, 6' and 6" (FIG. 10) of the same sealing wax used in the dop sticks involved. Different sized wafers are provided for different sized stones. although this is not absolutely necessary since the smallest wafer can be used for most if not all stone sizes. In accordance with the preferred practice of the present invention. a

wafer

6, 6 6" etc. is placed upon a stone 10 (FIG. 11) as it is placed upon the upper surface of a hot plate 8 or other source of heat. When the temperature of the stone has risen to the melting temperature of the sealing wax. the wafer will start to melt indicating to the user that it is time to apply the dop stick to the stone. The end face of head portion of the dop stick involved isheated to this temperature by either pressing the end face thereof upon the hot plate and rubbing the same-along the hot plate until portions of the sealing wax are left upon the hot plate as shown in FIG. 12, or the user initially applies the end face of the head portion of the dop stick to the .upper surface of the stone resting on the hot plate to soften the body of sealing wax carried thereby. Only a few seconds is needed to heat the sealing wax on the dop stick to the desired temperature. In either event, the user then presses down firmly upon the dop stick until the relatively rigid end portions of the wires thereof rest against the stone. The dop stick is then removed from the hot plate and the stone remains attached to the sealing wax on the end of the dop stick. The dop stick may then be placed into a rack. like rack 14 in FIG. 13, for cooling. In only a few minutes the sealing wax cools to a point where the consistency of the sealing wax is stone hard and a secure bond has been effected between the stone and the sealing wax.

The particular rack 14 shown in FIG 13 has vertically spaced partitioned sections and 14h separated by corner posts 15. Correspondingcompartments 16a and 16b in the lower and upper sections 14a and 14]; of the rack are in alignment to define individual support cavities for the various dop sticks which are placed into these cavities with the head portions thereof facing upwardly. as shown in FIG. 13.

It is apparent that the present invention has provided a highly unique. reliable and inexpensive dop stick which can be manufactured for only a fraction of the cost of much more sophisticated dop sticks presently available. Moreover. the present dop stick provides a greatly improved heat sink at the outer face of the dop stick to insure that the heat resulting from a grinding or polishing operation will not soften the sealing wax of other thermoplastic material used to bond the stone to the dop stick. Additionally. in the preferred form of the invention where the dop stick includes as an integral part thereof the sealing wax or other thermoplastic material, and wherein it is sold with individual wafers of a similar material. the effort expended by the user in applying the stone to the dop stick is greatly simplified from that required by the prior art.

It should be understood that numerous modifications may be made in the most preferred form of the invention described. without deviating fromthe broader aspects of the invention.

I claim: I

I. In a lapidary dop stick including a handle portion to be grasped by the user thereof and a head portion at one end of the handle portion onto which a stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered, the improvement wherein said head portion comprises heatsink-forming members having outer ends in spaced relation and in approximately the same plane in which a stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered to the head portion of the dop stick, said outer ends of the heat-sinkforming members being distributed over an area to be occupied by the stone so that when the stone is adhered to the dop stick there are distributed heat-sink points where the heat generated in the stone by the grounding or polishing operation is carried away from the point where the stone is adhered to the dop stick. and a body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material filling the spaces between said heat'sink-forming members to form a body of thermoplastic material to which a stone can be adhered when the thermoplastic material is softened when subjected to a temperature lower than that which would damage the stone. said body of thermoplastic material terminating in a substantially flat outer face at or adjacent said plane at the ends of said heat-sink-forming members so that ends of said heat-sink-forming members will be immediately contiguous to the stone to be secured thereto.

2. The dop stick of claim 1 wherein said heat-sinkforming members are wirelike elements extending generally axially into the handle of the dop stick and flaring outwardly towards the outer ends of the wirelike elements.

3. The dop stick of claim 2 wherein said wirelike elements are deformable to different angles. so that the overall area occupied by said wirelike elements can be varied in accordance with the size of the stone to be adhered thereto.

4. The dop stick of claim 1 wherein said heat-sinkforming members are wirelike elements. said handle portion comprises an outer sheath of an insulating material and said wire-like elements extend into and through said insulating sheath.

5. A lapidary dop stick comprising: a handle having an outer sheath of insulating material. said sheath having extending therethrough a number of heatconductive wirelike elements, the sheath and the wirelike elements therein constituting a rigid handle to be grasped by the user thereof, the wirelike elements passing beyond the outer end of the handle and terminating at points where the outer-end portions thereof are spaced from one another and terminate in approximately the same plane in which a stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered to the dop stick. to provide when the stone is adhered to the dop stick widely distributed heat-sink points where the heat generated in the stone by the grinding or polishing operation is carried away from the point where the stone is adhered to the dop stick. and a body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material filling the spaces between the outer end portions of said wirelike elements and terminating in a substantially flat outer face at or adjacent said plane at the ends of said wirelike elements. the room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material being adapted to soften and adhere to the stone at a temperature below that which would damage the stone.

6. A method of making a dop stick comprising the steps of providing an electric-cable-like structure with an outer insulating sheath and a bundle of permanently deformable metal wirelike conductors. removing the insulating sheath from an end portion of the cablelike structure to bare the end portions of the conductors.

spreading the bared ends of the conductors to space the ends thereof to a degree which encompasses an area to be occupied by a stone to be adhered to the dop stick. and then applying to said bared and separated conductors an initially heat-softened body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material to which a heated stone. will adhere when the heated stone is applied to the softened thermoplastic material and the thermoplastic material is allowed to cool.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said body of thermoplastic material after being applied to said bared conductors is flattened to provide an outer-end face in or adjacent said plane at the ends of the conductors, so the conductors are contiguous to the outer-end face of the body of thermoplastic material.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the exposed metal wirelike conductors are spread apart to a degree where the ends thereof are in substantially different planest said method including performing a grinding operation on the ends of said wirelike conductors so the ends of the conductors are in substantially the same plane as the flat-end face of said body of thermoplastic material applied or to be applied thereto.

9. A method of applying a stone to be ground or pol ished to the ends of a dop stick comprising the steps of: providing a dop stick having a handle to be grasped by the user and a head portion at one end of said handle. said head portion including a body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material to which the heated stone would adhere when the heated stone is applied to the softened thermoplastic material and the thermoplastic material allowed to cool. providing a wafer of said room temperature hard thermoplastic material.

placing a stone upon a heated surface and placing thewafer upon the stone. and when said wager begins to soften applying the end of said body of thermoplastic material on the head portion of the dop stick upon said softened wafer on the stone and pushing down thereupon.

l(). The method of claim 9 wherein said body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material has incorporated therein one or more heat-sink-forming members extending generally transversely to the end of said body of thermoplastic material which members will draw heat away from the outer end of the body of thermoplastic material to avoid softening thereof when the stone is being ground or polished. the ends of said heat-sink-forming members when said head portion is pushed down on said softened wafer spread the wafer material thinly over the stone to bring the ends of the heat sink-forming members near or against the stone.

Claims

1. In a lapidary dop stick including a handle portion to be grasped by the user thereof and a head portion at one end of the handle portion onto which a stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered, the improvement wherein said head portion comprises heat-sink-forming members having outer ends in spaced relation and in approximately the same plane in which a stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered to the head portion of the dop stick, said outer ends of the heat-sink-forming members being distributed over an area to be occupied by the stone so that when the stone is adhered to the dop stick there are distributed heatsink points where the heat generated in the stone by the grounding or polishing operation is carried away from the point where the stone is adhered to the dop stick, and a body of roomtemperature-hard thermoplastic material filling the spaces between said heat-sink-forming members to form a body of thermoplastic material to which a stone can be adhered when the thermoplastic material is softened when subjected to a temperature lower than that which would damage the stone, said body of thermoplastic material terminating in a substantially flat outer face at or adjacent said plane at the ends of said heat-sink-forming members so that ends of said heat-sink-forming members will be immediately contiguous to the stone to be secured thereto.

2. The dop stick of claim 1 wwherein said heat-sink-forming members are wirelike elements extending generally axially into the handle of the dop stick and flaring outwardly towards the outer ends of the wirelike elements.

3. The dop stick of claim 2 wherein said wirelike elements are deformable to different angles, so that the overall area occupied by said wirelike elements can be varied in accordance with the size of the stone to be adhered thereto.

4. The dop stick of claim 1 wherein said heat-sink-forming members are wirelike elements, said handle portion comprises an outer sheath of an insulating material and said wire-like elements extend into and through said insulating sheath.

5. A lapidary dop stick comprising: a handle having an outer sheath of insulating material, said sheath having extending therethrough a number of heat-conductive wirelike elements, the sheath and the wirelike elements therein constituting a rigid handle to be grasped by the user thereof, the wirelike elements passing beyond the outer end of the handle and terminating at points where the outer-end portions thereof are spaced from one another and terminate in approximately the same plane in which a stone to be ground or polished is to be adhered to the dop stick, to provide when the stone is adhered to the dop stick widely distributed heat-sink points where the heat generated in the stone by the grinding or polishing operatiOn is carried away from the point where the stone is adhered to the dop stick, and a body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material filling the spaces between the outer end portions of said wirelike elements and terminating in a substantially flat outer face at or adjacent said plane at the ends of said wirelike elements, the room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material being adapted to soften and adhere to the stone at a temperature below that which would damage the stone.

6. A method of making a dop stick comprising the steps of providing an electric-cable-like structure with an outer insulating sheath and a bundle of permanently deformable metal wirelike conductors, removing the insulating sheath from an end portion of the cablelike structure to bare the end portions of the conductors, spreading the bared ends of the conductors to space the ends thereof to a degree which encompasses an area to be occupied by a stone to be adhered to the dop stick, and then applying to said bared and separated conductors an initially heat-softened body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material to which a heated stone, will adhere when the heated stone is applied to the softened thermoplastic material and the thermoplastic material is allowed to cool.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the exposed metal wirelike conductors are spread apart to a degree where the ends thereof are in substantially different planes, said method including performing a grinding operation on the ends of said wirelike conductors so the ends of the conductors are in substantially the same plane as the flat-end face of said body of thermoplastic material applied or to be applied thereto.

9. A method of applying a stone to be ground or polished to the ends of a dop stick comprising the steps of: providing a dop stick having a handle to be grasped by the user and a head portion at one end of said handle, said head portion including a body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material to which the heated stone would adhere when the heated stone is applied to the softened thermoplastic material and the thermoplastic material allowed to cool, providing a wafer of said room temperature hard thermoplastic material, placing a stone upon a heated surface and placing the wafer upon the stone, and when said wager begins to soften applying the end of said body of thermoplastic material on the head portion of the dop stick upon said softened wafer on the stone and pushing down thereupon.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said body of room-temperature-hard thermoplastic material has incorporated therein one or more heat-sink-forming members extending generally transversely to the end of said body of thermoplastic material which members will draw heat away from the outer end of the body of thermoplastic material to avoid softening thereof when the stone is being ground or polished, the ends of said heat-sink-forming members when said head portion is pushed down on said softened wafer spread the wafer material thinly over the stone to bring the ends of the heat sink-forming members near or against the stone.