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[wampidy]

The workmanship leaves something to be desired but I am getting really close to zero spray and may be able to up the speed a bit. Running these pads at less than 1750 rpm just does not cut it at the larger grits.

I put door sealer foam around the rim first then screwed the plexi down gently through the foam. Sealed it up really good.


I was not sure about how wide to make it but it looks like I hit it pretty close to right on the nose by the looks of the spray on the bottom of the plexi.


This was a really easy fix with plexi that I already had. Need to give gorilla tape a shout out for taking care of the gaps. Beats duct tape hands down.
Jim

[GoodEarth]

Nice little home made project there. I gotta give it to those diamond pads. They have changed lapidary forever.

[Itsandbits]

Nice little home made project there. I gotta give it to those diamond pads. They have changed lapidary forever.

I agree, anyone that's not afraid to try them will be amazed what they do after you take the stone up to 3000 on the hard wheels.
good job on the spray control Jim

[sealdaddy]

Diamond impregnated resin discs are the main way I polish.
And Jim is the Master in using them.
I have never been able to duplicate the deep mirror polish he gets with this method.
His stones look like they are coated with glass...a Deep polish.

Good idea, Jim
How much of the "circle" do you use mainly?
My hand is too fat to use the right quadrant, with the stone held in my fingers.
Do you dop, friend?

[wampidy]

Thanks for the compliments.

I dopped when I had a vertical machine but I do not now. I have learned to work the stones one handed except for the real small ones that I avoid like the plague. I have found that the softer stones like malachite do not like the bumps and grooves on the pads so I use the 3000 soft wheel to put a water shine on them. I have to work them pretty hard so maybe it smears the soft stone.

I do the whole process on the pads from 50 grit up to 13000 if needed but I seldom go that high. I used to stop at 3000 on everything and did not use a polish. Now my 8500 (thanks to sealdaddy) is my stopping point on most things.

The opening is 12 inches, the width of the plexi is 3 inches and from the center of the pad to the pan is a little over 6 inches at the closest point so theoretically I could polish a 12 inch slab. The biggest I have polished probably isn't over 6 inches and with the pads it is not possible to get a slab or anything else perfectly flat.

Another great thing about the pads over the metal flat laps is that you can work off the edge of the pad and do inside curves or work the center of something flat that is so hard to get polished on a metal disc. I take an agate or other hard stone slab and work the edge of the pad with the sharp edge of the slab so the pad does not have a sharp corner. On an inside curve you still have to be really light handed to keep it from cutting grooves.

Practice practice practice. lol I have done so much with so little I can now do anything with nothing. Not my quote.
Jim

[sealdaddy]

Right, dopping with the resin pads would be difficult...so, I've never dopped.