Diamond polishing pads

[mirkaba]

Howdy......I was wondering if anyone here has used the flat, velcro backed diamond pads that are made for polishing counter tops and such. I have an acquaintance that uses them to polish opal and they work very well for him. I bought a set on Ebay , wet as they sell both wet and dry variaties. I am going to mount them on one of my end laps and give it a try. If it works out I will get a better quality set.  Experimenting is a bugger sometimes (like george says) and I am just wondering if anyone has gone down this road?    Bob

[Taogem]

I would very much be interested in the same.

Glad to hear that we will hear about how this works for you Bob.

I have tried leather with pastes and keep catching myself looking at this selection of Lapidary Polishing Pads from Kinglsey.

Cyrstalite Crystal Pads & Polypads that uses 8,000, 14,000 & 50,000 mesh diamond compound.

Poly-Tex Lapcraft Polishing Pads for the final polish is recommended for diamond 3,000 and finer.

Then combine with a sponge pad.  A 1/8in. Thick sponge disc pressure sensitive adhesive backing. These are used under the diamond smoothing discs, silicon carbide sanding discs etc. The cushion helps remove flat spots from cabochons.

Thinking will take a shot with a combination of these.

My previous attempts of paste on leather with foam backing did not work out. It really makes a lot of sense to have some type of foam backing for sure. 

Any way, looking forward to hearig how your diamond polishing pads work out Bob. You probably have a separate pad for each diamond paste?

[mirkaba]

I too have used the diamond paste on leather with a foam pad underneath. Works pretty good until the leather gets contaminated.  After going through two sets of leather pads and cleaning the stones meticulously between grits keeping the pads in zip-locks. I still end up with contamination. It might work better with a water based paste. I might just be a messy polisher. Just bums me out though.....The fellow that uses the charged pads for opal has been using them for years though and says he has had no problems and he turns out some really classy stones. I made a diamond charged spool polisher for doing opals and it works great for opal and other small stones But again the cleaning between grits is sort of time consuming and I am always worried about contamination. Still working though. I really like the velcro stick on idea for changing pads. If it works I have a double 1/2" shaft motor that would work well to attach them to. Will update when they get here............Bob

[Steel and Stone]

Are you reffering to the following pads? If so yes I have used them and still do from time to time. That is what is on "Ole Faithfull" I started out using the 4" pads. What exactly would you like to know?

In the following picture of "Ole Faithful" I have a turbo grinding wheel on there but if you look at the back wall you will see some of the diamond pads hanging.

[Taogem]

I tried using some home made discs with leather. I mentioned in another thread about how having issue with the different pastes. Some seem to be water soluble and others seems to break down with an extender and not water.

Here is what the set up looked like.



No matter what I did. Either with the paste that seem to break down in water, or with the paste that seem to break down with the extender, the stone would sorta skip. Just was not working out. Even when I did manage to hold the stone just right the results were terrible compared to a simple oxide on leather polish.

I think a lot of a diamond process may be directly related to the type of mineral were trying to polish.

So..... for conversation sake. How about I use something like Chrysocolla as a first example and maybe I can pick it up again with agate, jasper, and others a bit later.

I wonder if the Kingsley polishing pads that Steel and Stone posted are enough. Freeform mentioned a while back about using a combination of paper with diamond is necessary. I believe Seth mentioned the same.

Starting to ramble...

Here is what I imagine using..

Silicon carbide abrasives down to a 600 grit. With Chrysocolla, I have had pretty good luck with oxides, but even when finished the cab still looks like it could be a bit better. As do many cabs I finish !

So I envision using some type of diamond paste on some type of pad.

I think these Poly-Tex Lapcraft Polishing Pads may be what I am missing. Maybe these special pads will eliminate the problems I am having with the stone sticking to the leather I have been using?

Then again.. Still confused about the diamond abrasives pastes and powders.

I am tempted to toss all the diamond that I have in the garbage and start from scratch !

Makes no sense that some of them break down in water and some break down with the extender.

Again..... rambling on.....

I do not want to use diamond in place of what a silicon carbide will accomplish up to the 600 grit.

So what I am looking to do is pick it up from a 600 grit silicon carbide paper and continue on with ......well..... whatever combination of these Cyrstalite Crystal Pads with diamond pastes and extenders that I need to in order to finish the cab.

Whew..... make sense?

So which Crystalite Crystal Pads do I use with which paste and with or without extenders and or water to break it down with.

RPM's might be a good thing to talk about too....

I am going to assume everything should be 4" ? Correct me if I am wrong. I would much rather use 6".

Ok......... enough for now.

I am heading into Spokane for the rest of the day. I hate the city!

[mirkaba]

Yep steelandstone those are the ones.  I make a lot of thin, wider freeform cabs for wire wrapping and would like these to  work for flat and very low dome sanding and polishing above 200 grit...... Will they?  I am planning on affixing them to a lap on my Crown for now. It is running at about 1600 rpm.  Also I am wondering about the velcro backing. Does it need to be cleaned? Does it cause any irregularities that you know of in either the finish on the stone or the way the arbor works  (smoothly or vibration) ?  Since you still use them occaisionally what do you use them for? I like 'Old Faithful' I have a similar setup that I use for odd, assorted jobs. I do not polish with it though as the rpm is too high. George I have not used the crystallite pads yet but have a couple coming. On leather and diamond I use silicon spray in lieu of extender fluid and no water. I am sure mor equestions will come Thanks.....Bob

[Steel and Stone]

Bob,

When I started cabbing that was the only thing I had. It was setup on a n adjustable sawhorse and did not have that cover on it (BOY was that a WET job). It is an adjustable speed Makita, (The same one Granite City Tool sells to do countertops) it does spin a little fast but it works. I use two different backers, I have a soft backer and then a rigid one. I started using 4" wet reins pads and now have a 5" set also. When I bought my GP-6 from barranca it got the one with the pads option because it was good deal. I still use the pads do do flats or really irregular shapes. It take a little longer to get all the scratches out. You also have to be carefull when you pull the edge of your cab across the outer edge of the pads as if you have the cab tilted to much toward it you get very predominant gouges just like if you were to come off the edge of a expando drum with to much pressure. I still have the original set of resin pads and they are still my favorite. They last a very long time. I do not recommend the dual purpose wet/dry or just dry. Go with the wet pads and you should have no problem.

The velcro does not seem to be a problem at all the velcro on the backer will go bad before the velcro on the pad. The only thing to remember is you just try to center the hole in the pad around the center of the backer the best you can it reduces the vibration a ton.

As for Poly-tex pads that is all I use with the diamond paste and extender. I use 8,000, 14,000 and 50,000. I have tried some of the other pads and did not like the results as much.

Hope that awnsered most of your questions if not fire away.

[mirkaba]

Howdy.I am still waiting for the diamond pads to get here. They are the wet ones.  I have an adjustable speed Makita also. So far I have only used it with a wet/dry dyamond blade for trimming up rough and scoring large rocks for splitting. Pretty indispensable for that. I mounted new sponge pads on my end lapping plates on the bench grinder and I think it is ready for the pads I use crystalite belts with 320 and 1200 paste  and am looking around for a few poly belts. I think I noticed some thumbing through the new Kingsly North catalogue. I guess for now I just have 1 more question. How do you clean the stones between diamond paste grits? I have been using a brush, hot water and dawn soap. the  outfit I bought the paste from suggested using Briar pipe cleaner (tobbaco pipe) but I haven't done that yet.

[travelerga]

Hi S & S, not about the pads, LOL
but ,, is that a 4" side grinder clamped with emt conduit clamps? and is it setting in an a/c drain pan with a float switch?
mike LOL

[Taogem]

Bob, I too am expecting my fiber pads for use with paste to be here tomorrow. I went ahead and order padded rubber discs to place them on. In my case I ordered 1/2" shaft type adapters for them.

I ordered two discs and pads expecting to use only a couple of diamond pastes to follow up on a 600 grit silicon carbide abrasive.

I would like to learn the absolute cleaning process between pastes too. Sure sounds like you have been cleaning as best as could be expected.

[seth]

I am very confused here. Why would one use a paste and buy pads that will get contaminated when you can buy diamond impregnated belts that clean off with letting some water run on them after you are done with the mesh you are using. They slip right on a expando drum. I do use diamond paste for final polish at 50,000 for some material. You can but diamond belts that have 50,000 grit.

[Taogem]

For me Seth, it is partially about the expense of the diamond belts.

I really am doing fairly well with the silicon carbide. Finishing up with a 600 grit prior to polishing.

It's just I believe could do a bit better on the final polish. So because I can't afford the diamond belts, I hope to get more use or more cabs polished by either touching up a tin oxide polish that follows the 600 grit silicon carbide belts. Perhaps I may find that with some minerals will by pass the tin oxide completely and go straight into a couple of diamond pastes.

It is really a learning experience that I was just not sure where to start or for that matter how it will all end.

For all I know may well end up switching more of the final silicon carbide sanding process over to diamond. Just don't know.

All I do know is that some of the minerals I am polishing could have a heck of a lot better polish to them. So I am starting with some inexpensive fiber pads, foam backed discs, and some diamond paste.

Will see where that takes me. I may well find myself doing exactly as your suggesting. Diamond belts. If that is the case I foresee likely having to increase the price of some cabs to compensate for the diamond belts.

Trial and error at this point 

[mirkaba]

I am just cheap! Slowly working into diamond wheels.  Also good to know what other media types will do..........Bob

[seth]

I have never tried going from 600 grit into a polish. That must take a while. I would think that would leave a grainy polish on most material.

[Steel and Stone]

I also use the poly tex pads with 8000, 14,000 and 50,000 diamond paste but I take my cabs all the way to 3000 on diamond belts. I was going to switch to all belts up to 50,000 but the company was out of the 8,000 and the 50,000 when I tried to order. So I plan on using up my paste and will most likely switch to all belts. But I have had no problems going to 3000 with the belts and using the poly tex pads.