Pixie
Pixie
The compact Diamond Pacific cabbing machine that introduced a generation of hobbyists to lapidary work
The Pixie is a compact horizontal-shaft cabochon-cutting machine manufactured by Diamond Pacific, a Californian lapidary equipment manufacturer founded in 1969 and still operating in the same niche. The Pixie occupies the small-studio and serious hobbyist tier of the cabbing market: it is more capable than the entry-level beginner machines that dominate the bottom of the market and less elaborate than the multi-station cabbing units used in production cutting houses. Within that niche the machine has been a mainstay since the 1980s, and Pixies in working condition continue to circulate in the secondary market alongside the current production model.
Layout and capability
The Pixie is built around a horizontal motor shaft that accepts an interchangeable set of grinding, sanding, and polishing wheels. The standard wheel configuration runs from a coarse silicon-carbide grinding wheel through a series of progressively finer diamond-impregnated sanding wheels and finishing belts to a final felt or leather polishing wheel charged with cerium oxide, tin oxide, or diamond compound. The cutter moves a dopped stone across the wheel set sequentially, working the cabochon's outline, profile, and surface from coarse-shape to final polish in a continuous sequence.
Water cooling is provided by a drip-feed reservoir that wets the wheels during cutting, both to prevent thermal damage to the stone and to suppress the dust that dry cutting would generate. A splash guard around the wheels contains the cooling water and the slurry of removed material. The footprint of the machine — typically about half a metre wide by a quarter of a metre deep — fits comfortably on a workbench, and the noise and water tolerance of the unit are compatible with workshop or basement-studio installation rather than requiring a dedicated lapidary room.
Materials and limitations
The Pixie is well suited to softer-to-medium-hardness lapidary materials: chalcedony and the agate-jasper-petrified wood family, malachite, lapis lazuli, turquoise, jade in commercial grades, and similar materials in the four-to-seven Mohs hardness range. It will work harder material — beryl, corundum, topaz — but the harder species cut more slowly and demand more attention to wheel selection and cooling than is comfortable on a single-station unit. Production cutting of corundum, in particular, is better served by a multi-station machine with dedicated diamond wheels at each grit.
The machine's principal limitation is its single working axis. A multi-arbor unit allows the cutter to switch quickly between coarse and fine wheels without re-dopping; the Pixie's interchangeable single-axis design requires either wheel changes or a deliberate sequence through the existing wheel set, both of which add time per cabochon. For the hobbyist or small-studio output volume, the trade-off is worthwhile; for production cutting, the time penalty becomes meaningful.
The Pixie in lapidary education
The machine has been used widely in the lapidary teaching context, including in the curricula of the Gemological Institute of America's lapidary courses and in the workshops of the major rock-and-mineral clubs across North America and Australia. The machine's manageable size, intuitive layout, and forgiving operating envelope make it suitable for first-time learners while remaining capable enough that an experienced cutter can produce show-quality cabochons on it with care. Many cutters retain a Pixie as a workshop unit even after acquiring more elaborate equipment for production work.
In the trade
For the small jeweller maintaining the capacity to cut occasional cabochons in-house — for one-off commissions, restoration work, or experimental design — a Pixie remains a sensible single-machine choice. The current production unit is still made by Diamond Pacific, and used Pixies in working condition trade in the secondary market at meaningful discounts to new. Spare parts, replacement wheels, and the polishing compounds the machine uses remain widely available through the lapidary supply trade. The machine's longevity in production and its substantial installed base have made it one of the de facto reference points against which other small-studio cabbing units are measured.