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[wampidy]

Sorry Frank, but better late than never. I always have excuses or reasons.

This is where I got my last and probably other polishing pads in the past. I have a tendency to go with which ever bookmark I find first.

http://www.toolocity.com/5-jx-shine-wet-diamond-polishing-pads.aspx

This must be the cheapest I have found recently because it is the only bookmark I can find with the pads.

I just figured out something by accident. I was letting the machine spin to dry out the 1500 grit pad and picked up a piece of jade that I was working on without any luck. So I stuck it on the dry pad to see what would happen and about fell off my stool when I looked at the stone. At least 100 times better than when the water was on. These pads are only supposed to be run wet but holly crap what a difference a little water makes.

I still have a lot of experimenting to do as far as down pressure and how hot it can get before it burns my fingers or the pad but this is a real break through for me. I am not sure what is happening on the surface of the pad but I have gotten into the habit of dressing the pad with the very edge of the next higher grit pad and it seems to work pretty good.

They make pads that can be used dry and if I dig deep enough I am sure I have a couple somewhere but I am not sure what grit they are.

I will try to get some pics of a piece of jade worked with water on one side and dry on the other because the difference is very easy to see. the surface that looks splotchy or under cut goes to completely smooth with a dry pad. I have only used the 1000 and 1500 so far but the 1500 is putting on quite a shine.

I just remembered where the other book marks are (new computer, different place) so I will check and see if they are cheaper somewhere else. These are 12 or 13 bucks each for the five inch. Don't buy the four inch because there is no room to work on them.

Hope this helps
Jim

[lithicbeads]

Thanks. That looks good. The dry sanding with jade is amazingly effective. A slightly wet pad used until it is dry can work as well and keep the pad a bit cooler. I got back to cutting a bit and tomorrow my shop will be empty of Gergis and I will try to finish something and post  and will post  a really cool strand of bead preforms.

[GoodEarth]

Jim- I really like the way that you have adapted these pads. I have been a big fan of the 4" wet polisher for years except that it gets you soaking wet. Perhaps it's time that I set up a drill press and expanded my usage of this tool.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[wampidy]

Thanks earth. The thing that I like most about using these in the horizontal configuration is that I can do almost all shapes with one hand. On the wheels I can not do that.

The money side of it is not bad either. I wear out the 50 and 100s pretty fast but I have some upper grit pads that I started with several years ago.

There is a learning curve but it is possible to do inside curves with these also. I use a pad one step up from each pad and round the edge of the pads so it is a little easier. Here is a beautiful white agate with an inside curve that I am going to put an opal on. Softer stones take a really light hand on the inside curve though so you do not end up with a bumpy stone. Sometimes you have to hold your mouth just right and really pay attention or the words like s..t get tossed around quite liberally.
Jim

[sealdaddy]

Yes, near dry is the ticket, Jim

http://richontools.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_95
This is where I get mine.  For $8.90 each Shipping is $5 Airmail from China, with delivery in 5 to 15 days.

[sealdaddy]

Good idea about rounding the edges of disks.
I get ridges on the inside of curves with the edges as they are.
Thanks~!!

[Itsandbits]

After I got tired of buying my 4" locally for $17 ea. I bought 5 sets of 5" at $59 a set; delivered to my door from China, because I thought I'd be wearing them out so fast, two years later and I'm still using the first set LOL
There are a couple of the higher grits that will put material on the stone and glaze over with burnt resin if they get too hot but wet the pad and it takes it off when you start over.
I also thought that a higher speed would get a better finish but now wish my lap had an even lower speed than 600

[lithicbeads]

It is nice we have enough experience with these pads to have a conversation. Nice stones. That color opal looks very nice with white  and the biomorphic curvy shape.

[Itsandbits]

I cut this old one using just the diamond resin pads; "blue G" from H2M mining. By the time I got round to doing it the edges of my pads were well rounded off as I practised doing inside curves with them on hard stone but have found that if you don't apply too much pressure the resin has enough give to do this even on fresh pads

[lithicbeads]

Nice job and very nice stone. I used flat lap pads in a similar way by putting a 8 inch pad on a 6 inch backing plate with two foam pads under it. I ran it slowly on a faceting machine and could easily get to the bottom of grooves on carvings . It beats buying special phenolic wheels and I think these techniques do a better job.

[Itsandbits]

The things we do to get around buying "the right" thing EH!!! Sometimes the tools just aren't right and modifications/adaptations are in order :) I've been trying to get one of the manufacturers to mold the diamond/resin pads with smaller grooves so they aren't so bumpy; there's no need for the large ones there now for our applications and one of them "says" they are looking into it but I don't hold out much hope.

[wampidy]

I just figured out that the 1500 works good dry but the 3000 gave off what its is talking about pretty fast and it gave me orange peel after that. I dug through my stash and found the dry use pad but it is only 400. Sooooo, since I have a love affair with jade I ordered a 1500 and a 3000 dry use pad yesterday to see how they work. They have hex or octo spots on them instead of the regular grooves we are used to so I have high hopes. They can be seen at the same place as the others I listed above.

Damn contanimation has been driving me crazy here lately. On one pad I was getting bad scratches and I tried everything I could think of to get whatever was doing it off and finally gave up. Later I had one more idea and it worked. An industrial strength pair of dikes (side cutters) drug across if a few times and it was smooth as silk. I have been working a bit of common opal lately and the slightest bad spot will scratch the hell out of it. I am back in business (except for the jade) and finished up about ten cabs yesterday which is a record for me in the last couple of years.

Slabbing the last of a hunk of white dendritic opal/agate that Russ found (and gave to me) on our last trip out and it is super nice stuff. I can not remember if I posted a photo of it here but I will get that taken care of soon.

I do not come here often because I still have to wait what seems like forever (30 seconds to a minute) for some things to load. Sometimes If I click the link a second time after 15 to 20 seconds it will pop up immediately and other times I have to click stop then click the link again which may or may not work. Not sure why this is the only place on the net that does this every time I come here. If there is a lot of new stuff to check out I usually end up leaving before I have finished.

I will let you know how the new pads work as soon as I find out.
Jim

[lithicbeads]

 Orange peel is very common at all finer grades. With worn nova wheels for example the 1200 dry wheel gives a great  pre-polish  on jade and the worn 3000 dry gives a great polish but if you continue up the grits you usually get orangepeel after that point.