Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Not surprising, but the Matrix(es) is an oddity, itself, in that so far it appears nothing has failed to work on it. I would expect Skyway to be very fast on it because of its aggressive nature. Were you able to move facets with the combination?
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:32 pm Posts: 1747 Location: Florida, United States
Gearloose wrote:
Not surprising, but the Matrix(es) is an oddity, itself, in that so far it appears nothing has failed to work on it. I would expect Skyway to be very fast on it because of its aggressive nature. Were you able to move facets with the combination?
I am able to move the facets a bit with oxides in general on the Matrix, but when I polish with oxides, that is never my goal. Recently, my student polished a Apatite on the Matrix, which we have not recommended because of the softness factor.
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:32 pm Posts: 1747 Location: Florida, United States
Precision Gem wrote:
Is the skyway a faster polish on Quartz than the cream way?
No. Crystalline and amorphous silica reacts readily with Zirconium Oxide, but less so with the oxides in the Skyway, even though the Skyway material is harder.
The new Dominatrix lap, with the Diamatrix interior arrived today, very fast shipping. I figure Jon must have a buddy in the post office.
Anyway, I was anxious to give it a go. I just happened to have a small sapphire in the transfer fixture so I real quick cut the crown with a 600 lap, then used the new lap to polish it. The stone is 6.5 mm, so not too small, but not too big.
Now I love a dual charge lap, and encourage anyone who hasn't tried one, to get one. Not only does it speed up polishing greatly, but also you eliminate the chance of a miss index when doing the final polish.
I have the lap my normal charge.... 8000 on the outside. I don't burnish the diamond in or use a bearing or anything, just smear a little oil on with my right hand index finger, then smear some 800 diamond on and rub it in with the finger.
Did the same on the inside, but this time with 100,000 BLAKSTICK and my left index finger and a touch of water.
Went right to town with the 8000 pre polish. Just a few quick swipes, a wipe with a paper napkin and a few swipes on the 100,000 and a very nice polish. Finished up the crown, stoping half way through to give the lap another charge since it was brand new. A real joy to work with, simple, no issues. Most likely this will be my go to lap for 90% of what I cut.
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Quote:
Not only does it speed up polishing greatly, but also you eliminate the chance of a miss index when doing the final polish.
Another overlooked benefit is the stone, from prepolish to polish, is in perfect register with the lap, because they are polished on the same exact plane as the prepolish. No machine is perfect, and the majority of them in use are no longer new and tight. This means, that unlike after swapping laps, and readjusting height, the facet to be polished does not start polishing on the heel or toe, or trailing or leading edge. The result is perfect flat-to-flat contact with no needless material removal before the entire facet starts polishing.
Been a while... Getting back into it... ^ that sounds amazing.
So with the dual laps, I always assumed one would pre-polish all the facets, then polish them all, but is standard practice to pre-polish then polish each facet? Wouldn't that contribute to cross-contamination or is it not a big concern?
_________________ Maine Tourmaline! Second to none.
[quote="MaineGemCutter" So with the dual laps, I always assumed one would pre-polish all the facets, then polish them all, but is standard practice to pre-polish then polish each facet? Wouldn't that contribute to cross-contamination or is it not a big concern?[/quote]
You want to pre-polish and polish on the same tier without moving any angles, index etc.... this is the whole reason behind dual laps. Yes, you do need to clean the stone between pre-polish and polish to avoid contamination.
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am Posts: 1322 Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
I have been using my diatwist for a few stones and am very pleased. I have some optical glass and using ircon for the polish and it is doing great. One minor problem, there is not much color difference between the twistor and the daimatrix is so close it is hard to tell where one stops and one starts. I clean it off once in a while and put on a market to help delineate it. at least with the twistor being a matrix there is very little chance of contamination if I drift into the polish zone. (other than grit)
One question on wear pf the twistor toward the outside edge. generally do not run my stones to the edge of the lap, to much chance of slopping off and crud tends to collect there. But I lost concentration on the stone and noticed I was building up a little bit of a lip on the outside edge. I assume that this may be some initial break in or crud builup. Id it a good idea to sweep all the way to the edge of the lap, on on something bug like the table to sweep over the edge keep everything level?
My thought it that I may be building up a small ridge at the end of the lap. If I am will that round the stones at the end of my normal sweep if hit the ledge? I am more concerned of this on my charged batt laps I use for cutting.
I just finished the pavilion of a lab aquamarine using my new Diamatrix + 100K Battstik. Prior to this, I had pretty much switched to polishing *everything* on a Matrix with 60K.
I am amazed at how fast, and how flat, this beast polishes. <8 seconds per facet on a 12mm aquamarine.
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
It seems that when people get a Diamatrix, they then reserve the Matrix for oxide use. The higher fractal dimension of the Matrix loves to retain oxides. The Chemistry is better for oxides, too. For example, I doubt anything could beat Matrix/Chrome Oxide for sunstone.
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