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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 11:14 pm 
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i like Tom's idea for lap disposal, but i normally have my brother tossing it while i hold my 1972 Harrington & Richardson 12 gauge turkey gun :mrgreen: seems to work every time for proper disposal!

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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 6:21 am 
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If is a worn out plated topper then there is no futher use for it. If it is a Crystalite-type plated lap with either a solid steel or ribbed aluminium base it has potential use. Heating it gently on a stove plate or over gas will loosen the top, which can be removed cleanly to leave you with a nice flat base for a topper, or for making a cabochon lap with good quality auto-paper glued onto a dense sponge rubber base.

To answer the original question, dispose of a plated lap when all recommended ways of cleaning it have failed and it is impeding your progress. I recommend avoiding plated laps altogether and charging zinc, copper or Batt laps with diamond if you can't afford sintered bronze laps. You can enjoy controlled, predictable cutting and prepolishing with rechargable laps.


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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 9:06 am 
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You're correct in that sintered laps are expensive at $500 ea. But in comparison suppose that a plated lap, say a 600-grit lap costing $100 lasts 8 months. Forty months later you would have spent $500 on 5 plated laps. If you then decided to sell your equipment those plated laps would be worthless of course. But you should be able to sell a sintered lap for at least 75% of its cost. On the other hand, if faceting becomes a lifelong hobby, then you've made a great investment. The difficult decision is whether to buy a 600 or a 1200 grit sintered lap. The experts here like xenolithos and adamas et. al. can give you advice from decades of experience.


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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:01 am 
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You must be doing a lot of cutting to wear out a lap in 8 months. I have a 600 Crystalite solid steel lap that is over 10 years old, and has seen over well 1000 stones on it. Still cutting strong.
I also have a 1200 sintered lap that has some diamond spitting issues in places that forces me to only use about 30% of the lap.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:06 pm 
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I've owned two 600 Crystalite solid-steel disks. One lasted a year and the other 6 months, and I'm a light cutter. I'll never own another plated disk. I also have a 1200 Inland sintered lap. It developed a void, which I removed by dressing the disk.


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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:41 pm 
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I have an old Crystalite Solid Steel which has aged gracefully. That is, the cutting has slowed but it does not throw loose diamonds. That is the point where the lap MUST be discarded.
My very old lap predates the time we had to outsource all the nickel plating because of the EPA and DEQE regulations. Crystalite denies outsourcing, but others say nothing.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 7:40 pm 
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Jon, are you saying that the new laps are not the same as our older ones? It seems strange to wear one out in 6 months of light cutting. Maybe quartz? I know quartz can make a lap feel like it is worn out. I have never cut quartz with my lap, but a lot of sapphire.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 9:01 pm 
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There have been reports on here over the last 5 years of "Bad Batch" or "Bad Luck" things that have conflicted with our favorable experience.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:34 pm 
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I guess a bit of background to my question is due at this point.

I first asked this question because I was confused at the performance of my 180 grit topper. I had cut a few quartz practice pieces on it and it had begun to significantly degrade in cutting speed. I attributed that to the second hand condition they were in.

While waiting for my cheap Chinese replacements to come in, being impatient, I decided to give the 180 topper a second try thinking that even if it was slow, at least i could cut. To my surprise after maybe 5 mins of roughing the speed of the cutter had improved drastically and I was flying through the roughing process.

I guess most of this could be attributed to the fouling of the plates (something I really didn't understand until I went through this thread). CZ dose not seem to foul anything. It might even be a good candidate for cleaning plates instead of dressing bars as it is a much more consistent material that doesn't consist of extremely particles sintered together but is still harder than quartz and most other stones that seem to foul.

I've found that CZ won't even foul a 3k plate either, it leaves a white trail but you can clean it with just your finger. In fact, my 3k plate seems to be in better condition now than when I first got it. before the outer edge was so "worn" it wouldn't cut or prepolish anything, now it works just fine (in terms of cutting action, it's still concave and wreaking havoc on my pieces).

xenolithos, thanks for the info. I wasn't sure what kind of adhesive they used but if it can be heated and removed that lap would make a wonderful base for a topper.

Precision Gem, that's an excellent reference point to have. I suspected a quality plated lap would last a very long time but was never sure how long. My lap probably hasn't seen 1k stones yet so I should have a ways to go, that's reassuring.


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 Post subject: Re: How do I know when to dispose of a plated lap?
PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 7:29 pm 
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I might have been one of the unlucky ones. Plated 1200 laps didn't last very well for me, and as for the 3000... ugh. Worthless. 600 did better, but once I'd worn out about 3 plateds I decided to go sintered (and BATT for 3K when it came around). Glad I made the change. I think I got an Inland 600 one month, liked it so well I got a 1200 the next month. Copper or other lap you charge yourself should be fine as well. Note I was cutting more sapphire and chrysoberyl than anything else. My last plated had surface issues and would only scratch, from new. After dressing, it still scratched. Worthless... That annoyed me enough to buy my first sintered. It was mostly broken in with just one stone. I haven't bought a plated one in years, but I do think they went downhill. My first one lasted twice as long and worked better. It's nice that the sintereds stay more consistent over time, not like plated laps. The plateds would go from rough to fairly nice for a while to slow for a while to annoyingly slow, to the trash. As for BATT and others that you charge, well, when it slows down, charge it!

Gerald


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