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I doubt those pads would do much for you. All the flap laps I have seen use silicon carbide grit on them. I use 180 grit on my 30 inch with water. have separate machine to polish.
Woodman that sounds like what I have! A 18 inch plate in a pan that turns with a motor under it. It has a drain in the pan. So you just put the grit right on the steel plate and drip water on it?
Nice looking lap for a home built. Looks like you could fit a 24" plate on it if you wanted to.
Those pads in your link are basically Scotch Brite pads. No good for polishing rocks. Probably a Chinese knockoff.
As already mentioned, just grit and a water drip on a rotating lap. They're more labor intensive, but you get results much quicker than with a vibrating lap. Be sure to clean up real good when changing to a finer grit.
I can't imagine holding a rock for a couple hours to smooth it down. Probably kinda noisy in that area.
Figure that one does all the rocks they can on each stage before moving on, as the lap must need to be cleaned up to change grits?
I Only lap with 180 grit and then use a bull wheel to sand prior to polishing. 100 grit belt then 220 then 400. Some flat lap have a sweep that moves the rock around a bit. mine does not. I block them and every so often move them a bit. Saw marks come pretty fast of chips can take longer. putting weight on slabs really helps alot.
Plate & rocks must both be cleaned between grit changes.
Depending on how smooth your cut was, it can take as little as a couple of minutes in each grit. The course stage is usually the slowest stage. And it does help if you have a bunch of stones to lap.
Noise isn't all that bad. Just sort of a slight grinding noise if you're using enough water. (But not enough to keep washing the grit off of the plate.
It helps to work from the outside of the plate towards the center as it pushes the grit back towards the center & saves needing to recharge as often.
Keep the piece being ground moving across the plate at all times, to put even wear on the plate. If you just grind in one plate you'll wear low spots in the plate.
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Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!