Charging a New Metal Lap.
NEW CHARGING VIDEO, BELOW. 12-26-2007!
THINGS WE LEARNED OVER TIME: Faster easier charging, for polish or prepolish grits:
Wipe lightly with a WD-40 dampened tissue.
Wipe nearly dry.
Rub on with a clean fingertip a thin 'monolayer' of your chosen diamond powder, such as 50K for polish or 3K for prepolish.
Use a test piece of corundum to set the diamond powder...OR just start polishing.
When polish rate slows down, wipe off swarf and "Black Stuff" and repeat previous steps.
SWARF IS YOUR ENEMY! IT CAUSES DRAG, SCRATCHING, and HEATING!-Especially on CZ and garnets!
(Remember, ALWAYS sweep the lap)
As you use the lap, less and less charge will be needed. This is neater and faster than the method shown in the video and produces an amazingly FAST polish!!!
Try it on a 3000 prepolish lap and watch what happens!
Too much lubricant prevents Work from being put into the stone, and causes hydroplaning and "Jetting" which transfers machining marks to the facet.
They are not appropriate for these tin alloy laps, however, because the laps so readily take up diamond that the agglomerates do not recieve enough shearing to fully break up. I found this out recently with a 60K product.
I suppose everyone has heard about it by now, but some adventurous souls have been charging BATT™ laps with coarser diamond and using them for CUTTING. Because the charges are renewable, quartz fowling is no longer a nuisance. Grits from #325 to #600 and #1200 have been used. Water coolant quickly turns white like milk because of the material removal rate loading the water with rock dust.
I myself intended the laps to be used for polishing and prepolishing, which proves the Manufacturer does not know EVERYTHING about the product's uses!
This CZ was sawn, and then ground to a #600 finish.
The camera original runtime was 1:45 seconds.
Yes, 1:45 seconds to charge the new lap and 3K prepolish a piece of CZ. I edited it down to the essentials so it is only about 3Megs.