Question: Ceramic wheel

Arnaud Van Tilburgh · Feb 13, 2009

I wonder when I have to clean the GRS ceramic wheel. I have put it two times in the Ultrasonic cleaner, but not al the "black" is removed. I also used a brush to clean it, but probably I want to clean to much.
And will the ceramic wheel have grooves when not regular cleaned?

arnaud

Haraga.com · Feb 13, 2009

Clean it with the diamond spray and no you will not develop grooves.

fegarex · Feb 13, 2009

Go the GRS web site.
There is good info on them.
Click herehttp://www.grstools.com/resourcelibrary/hints/

Arnaud Van Tilburgh · Feb 13, 2009

Thank you both for the tips.

arnaud

airamp · Feb 13, 2009

Charging and cleaning laps

Hi,

Here is the authority on cleaning and charging laps. These are used primarily in faceting machines and have to be even more accurate than we would ever need.

Here is the link: There are more on the subject but this is the best overview.

http://www.usfacetersguild.org/articles/glenn_klein/charging_and_scoring_laps/

I use a faceting machine for sharpening gravers and it works great.

AirAmp

Tim Wells · Feb 13, 2009

Scotchbrite pad, Barkeepers Friend, and water. Well, maybe just a little elbow grease too. Barkeepers Friend is really fine scouring powder for lack of a better term and can be found at the supermarket on the same isle as the Comet and BonAmi. It is finer that either of those other two I mentioned.

Not to be contradictory but diamond spray is not cheap and isn't made for cleaning anything so it would be better to save that for polishing your gravers.

Haraga.com · Feb 13, 2009

I hear what you are saying Tim. It is too expensive. Like any type of polishing, I try not to put anything on the ceramic other than the diamond spray that is already on there. You always run the risk of contaminating the wheel. I realize that this is pretty picky but for bright cut engraving you need the polish gods on your side.

Powderhorn · Feb 13, 2009

Arnaud:
There is an article in the tip's section of of the forum, on how to clean your laps. Here is the link. http://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=777

airamp · Feb 13, 2009

New old way to sharpen heel

Hi,

Well Cleaning a ceramic lap from diamond is a problem. The other problem with ceramic laps is if there is too much diamond on it you will not get a bright cut. Stateing the obvious.

After cleaning ceramic laps messing with diamond poweder, paste and spray I purchased a extra fine Translucent pocket arkensas stone on ebay.

when I want to put the heel on i place the pocket stone on the ceramic lap and add a little mineral oil to the stone and done. You will get a great polished heel and it will cut brighter than any 50k grit diamond on ceramic. (no power ever with a ceramic and diamond, just galls the heel)

The extra fine translucent arkensas stones are 8,000 to 10,000 grit. That is why the old time engravers always used these for putting on heels.

Give it a try for yourself. Translucent pocket stones are about $ 6.00 for a 1x4x1/2 and come in a leather case. Black hard extra fines are more rare so they are about $ 15.00.

If you are worried about grooving the stone with carbide gravers don't. the stone works great and when does get grooves (a lot of heels polished) use your 2000 grit diamond on the power hone and grind it flat again.

I will never go back to using a ceramic for heels or anything else but to keep the translucent stone flat to the angle grinding head.

AirAmp

Marrinan · Feb 13, 2009

AirAmp,
It's funny you should mention that. I us a 1 inch wide 4 inch long ulta fine ceramic stone placed right on top on my 1200 grit diamond wheel. it is about a quater of an inch thick and I rubber cemmented a refigurator magnet to the off side to both protect the diamond lap and to hold it on the rear side of the power hone right under the lap so it is easy to locate and doesn't vibrate off. All the other ceramic laping activities are simply done this way-most people don't turn the hone on whe using the diamond anyway-$198 is a little stiff for me, Fred

richard hall · Feb 13, 2009

I bought a Spyderco ceramic stone some time back, the instructions said for cleaning the black stuff off you talked about, just use dish liquid like [ dawn] or the like, will bring it back to normal.

airamp · Feb 14, 2009

Marrinan,

That is a great idea with the magnet.

I use a faceting machine to sharpen.

A 8" ceramic is $300.00!!!

I do have two and some corian laps, tin, copper, and diamonds laps, but the extra fine Arkansas stone beats anything just unbelievable.

This is where I got mine on ebay a while ago but Bryan Bridges (master engraver/diemaker) and Tim Hancock (master knife maker) wanted them once they saw what they could do, so I picked them each up one.

Here is the most recent one I picked up see total about $6.00 delivered. Great deal…

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=370153065465

Try it you will like it.

AirAmp

Arnaud Van Tilburgh · Feb 14, 2009

Well, that is a lot of information.

I have the Ceramic cleaned now. I found in the tips of GRS that less diamond spray is better.

But they don't mention when to put new spray on the wheel, probably when the polishing does not work well any more. But I suppose that I don't have to clean the wheel first every time I put new diamond spray on it, only when the lap becomes to black perhaps?

So do you all put diamond spray on the lap, every time you use it, or just when the polishing don't work so well?
It is not so that my engravers aren't polished but I just think my Ceramic Lap needs to be cleaned often if I see the tips of GRS.

arnaud

canadian · Feb 14, 2009

Arnaud,

Being a gem cutter I have to clean my laps frequently.

I found that "Lava" soap does a a very nice job of cleaning most laps.

You should be able to purchase it. I am not sure if it is available where you are. If you can't get let me know and I will get you some in Canada. This is where it is made.

To use it, run your lap at normal speed. I have a water drip which I set on a rather liberal amount. Then press the corner of the soap bar against the lap surface and slowly move it back and forth across the lap maintaining the contact. Do it for a couple of minutes and that will remove much of the gunk and dirt from the lap.
If you do not have water drip you can do it under running water in a sink. Make sure to rinse the lap well after cleaning.

This is the best way to clean your laps that I know off short of machining them.

As to spraying diamond on your lap -use only 1-2 squirts. That is all you need. Less is always more with laps.

By the way, I am not sure if most people know that in order to properly use a ceramic lap if needs to be broken in first. That what we faceters do. To do that, get a piece of synthetic corundum and under water drip run the corundum with some pressure across the lap. This can take up to 8 hours. You will notice big difference in its sharpening performance.
For more tips on that please get in touch with me.

Hope this helps.

canadian

Peter E · Feb 14, 2009

airamp said:
Hi,

when I want to put the heel on i place the pocket stone on the ceramic lap and add a little mineral oil to the stone and done. You will get a great polished heel and it will cut brighter than any 50k grit diamond on ceramic. (no power ever with a ceramic and diamond, just galls the heel)

The extra fine translucent arkensas stones are 8,000 to 10,000 grit. That is why the old time engravers always used these for putting on heels.

Give it a try for yourself. Translucent pocket stones are about $ 6.00 for a 1x4x1/2 and come in a leather case. Black hard extra fines are more rare so they are about $ 15.00.

AirAmp

Thanks for the suggestions Airamp. I have many stones that i've used for sharpening tools and knives, but I didn't think of using them for heel polishing! I even have a little black stone that is almost as smooth as glass.
I'll have to give it a try

Peter

airamp · Feb 14, 2009

Hi Peter E.,

Use a little mineral oil on it..

Let us know what you think of the bright cuts.

AirAmp

Question: Ceramic wheel

Arnaud Van Tilburgh

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Haraga.com

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fegarex

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Arnaud Van Tilburgh

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Tim Wells

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