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 Post subject: Charging and Caring for a Tin Lap with Oil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:07 am 
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Location: Cary, NC
To all,

Looking for some advice and guidance on charging and caring for a Tin Lap with Diamond and Oil. Now, to date, I've always used water and per Jon and others "diamond loves oil". I'm planning on an 8K for prepolish and then 60K and then 60K for final. So. her are my primary questions:

1) Using the diamond sticks, is it similar to the old powders/BattSticks of swirling the stick around and them embedding them using a piece of sapphire or something else? Also, if the lap is charged and used, does having oil on it interfere with recharging due to the now slippery oil layer?

2) When do you introduce the oil? Spread the diamond stick and then a couple of drops of oil spread out with a finger? Put a few drops of oil on and then spread the stick?

3) How often do you add more diamond and/or more oil? Just feel for when you think you feel things slowing down or the stone 'sticks' due to lack of oil?

4) How do you clean swarf from the lap? Just use a (as much as possible), lint free paper towel and then wipe it down?

5) And finally, if you have a Tin+ with a polishing zone (dual band lap), is storing the lap in a vertical position fraught with danger due to anything 'dripping' into the center/polish band or is there so little oil actually on the lap that migration is not a problem.

Thanks for any help, moving from water to oil and starting to cut much more often since retirement is fully kicking in :)

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Bob Hodges

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 Post subject: Re: Charging and Caring for a Tin Lap with Oil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:10 am 
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Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 am
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Bob,
That is a lot of questions. PM me and we can set up a Zoom meeting and I will go over all f questions 1 by one with live demos too.

I also have a gift for you. I have a new lubrication misting machine I designed. I will also demo that, then send you one.

I will never forget your kind donation to the students.

Steve


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 Post subject: Re: Charging and Caring for a Tin Lap with Oil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:30 pm 
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Location: South Africa
Bob, as this is an educational forum I will try to answer your questions here, as it may help others too.

I have used Gearloose's oil-based Diastiks for many years. My 8K prepolish is on copper or Batt, depending on the dual lap in use. I dampen a piece of folded paper towel with a small squirt of WD40 and wipe the slowly rotating lap, from the center to the periphery. Then I expose perhaps half a millimeter of diamond paste from its tube and hold that vertically on the outer band of the lap, to coat it lightly with the paste. Then I grind away with the stone. No other embedding required. When the prepolish band gets black and messy I wipe it off with a piece of dampened paper towel. When the prepolishing slows, just add another touch of diamond paste. It's dead simple. (I follow the same procedure when using water-based diamond paste, except using a light spritz of water rather than WD40.) Obviously, you need to clean all the paste and swarf off the stone before proceeding to polishing. Some alcohol on a piece of paper towel does this neatly.

Diamond polishing I usually do on BA5T or sometimes one of Jon Rolfe's specialist compound laps. Again, I dampen the lap with the required lubricant, then rub a tiny amount of 100k paste on a clean finger tip and apply that to a slowly rotating lap. Then I wipe the rotating lap with a clean, dry piece of paper towel to removal almost all of the applied paste. You need a vanishingly small amount of paste, which should not even be visible on the lap. Too much paste and the stone will just slide over the surface and not polish. When a metal lap produces black swarf, clean it off with fresh lubricant, apply a tiny bit more paste, wipe off most of it, and proceed. With a compound lap like Diamatrix it is more difficult to know when to clean off the lap and apply fresh paste, but it is the remedy to frustration if things are not going as well as expected.

I store my laps horizontally, but as they are virtually dry anyway, there would be no risk of lubricant 'running' over the inner polishing band if they were stored vertically but I would be concerned about the risk of the charged surfaces rubbing against any side walls unless the lap were cleaned thoroughly before storage. Incidentally, I have found no trouble with overheating any stone while prepolishing or polishing. Metal laps act as a heat sink anyway, and if the condition of the surface is right the process is very quick.

It would be interesting to read other people's experience too.

Duncan


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 Post subject: Re: Charging and Caring for a Tin Lap with Oil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:43 pm 
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I am very fussy about keeping my polishing laps contaminant free. I also store my laps in cases. I bought some old movie roll cases. I then made some modifications.

On the bottom, I drill some small breather holes. Some of my laps have iron bases so I don't want to create a sealed rust machine.

I then built custom standoffs from bolts and washers. This keeps the laps from touch any surface to or bottom during storage or travel. No chance for contamination. This is especially important on multi zone laps. The standoffs just use the 1/2" arbor holes.

If I am using oil as a lubricant, I take my catch basin off the machine when polishing, and always wipe the platen, and machine before putting a polishing lap on the machine.

I know this sound a bit OCD, but in all the years I have been cutting I have never had a polishing lap start scratching stones due to contamination.


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 Post subject: Re: Charging and Caring for a Tin Lap with Oil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:57 pm 
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1) yes, no, pre-charging is a choice on a new lap, charging or embedding diamond occurrs with use anyway and further use between new applications. No the oil has no bearing on new applications. Remember the diamond in the sticks is already suspended in a lubrication base. Also LESS is more when reapplying.

2) oil first then diamond. Oil dampened paper towel(PT) to one remove swarf and will leave a layer of oil or new PT with a light clean oil layer Less is more again.

3) Experience gained will give you the cues to when it is time to reapply. They say size(stone) doesn't matter, but here it does and the lubrication type and the gem type.

4) Lint (forget about it). Clean square PT with clean oil swipe from inner to outer on a single zone lap and the same for two zone except for limit it to the zones. Although I find no harm in pulling finer meshes across the outer band. If your looking to use water on this lap just use an alcohol to clean the surface of the oil.

5) I keep all my laps in the original boxes they came in Gearloose and similar boxes can be purchased at Uline. Sandwiched between PT's and however stacked or between bookend type holders, I do not see how that matters, I guess if they are openly exposed to the environment which I wonder why you would.
Treat your dual band laps like any other, care for each zone separately. There shouldn't be anything dripping.

The vast majority of my polishing is done with a Batt 3k/8k powder & oil, BA5T/ dual zone 8k powder/oil & 60kPCD WB water or a Tin+/Creamway for stones of less hardness.
I used to be extremely paranoid about all this, but over time it came apparent that it was just that, we all have different methods in achieving the end game of a decent polish, and we will all have a different opinion on what that is. Are you happy with it then that is your end goal if not keep striving with slight changes to get better. Every individual gem may react different to some extent and you have no control in that fact.

I have two Tin+ laps one for propolish and one for final, I care for them the same as any other metal lap. Sames as Batt laps. Gearloose has a very instructive article at gearloose.com on Batt laps.

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 Post subject: Re: Charging and Caring for a Tin Lap with Oil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 6:19 pm 
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Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:15 am
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Location: Cary, NC
To all,

My thanks for the help and my apologies for such a late reply. Small emergency kept me away from the computer for a few.

Jon's laps, sticks and oils have arrived so I'm unpacking and getting ready to try tin+, oil and diamond on some Zircon and I'll let you know how it goes.

Once again, I can't thank you all enough for all your help, insights and experience

Bob

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