RockingRuralMo
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2022
Posts: 138
|
Post by RockingRuralMo on Jun 5, 2023 10:40:35 GMT -5
I was here a week or so asking questions because I spend WAY too much time on the 280 soft wheel when I'm working with hard stuff like agates.
I've only got one cabber, and its wheels are pretty new (January) so I'm not going to change anything out right away, and don't have any worn out wheels to rotate into new positions (yet.)
I DO, however, have a flat lap. Would it make sense to add a hard disk of a lower grit to the flat lap and process my harder stuff there between the 220 and the 280 soft?
If I was going to add a disk to the flat lap to speed up that transition, what grit should it be? I was almost thinking about a 300 hard. It's finer than the first polishing wheel on my cabking, but maybe it would still speed up the process. Or maybe a 280 hard and then go from that to 280 soft?
When I do get to a point where my wheels are ready to rotate I can make a more permanent solution, but for now a cheap lap disk seems like it could help me make more of my limited cabbing time.
What do you experienced cabbers think?
|
|
|
|
Post by Rockoonz on Jun 5, 2023 11:21:02 GMT -5
If it takes forever to remove the 220 scratches and your 280 isn't worn out, then I see 2 possibilities.
Either there are still 80 grit scratches or there are flat spots on the dome. I suppose there could also be issues from too much pressure on the soft wheels causing them to skip over parts of a low dome, but that has never been a problem for anyone I have worked with.
I have a textured 80 grit JB wheel on a 1 wheel cabmate with fresh water for most of my shaping, if needed I use the smooth 80 on the genie, but then I put a lot of time into the 220 hard until even the smallest flat spots are gone. For non porous rocks drawing an asterisk ✳️ over the face and sanding till it's gone is a good exercise to get the process down.
|
|
|
|
Post by stardiamond on Jun 5, 2023 12:26:05 GMT -5
You will have arrived when you treat the 280 like the 600. I use a textured Lithuanian TOP 80 for shaping a worn DP 80 to remove scratches. HP had a sale on wheels so I bought a 140 soft and mounted instead of the 220 hard. Maybe by 220 is worn out but it wasn't doing much.
|
|
|
|
Post by Starguy on Jun 5, 2023 12:34:31 GMT -5
RockingRuralMo You could try a 600 grit diamond hard wheel. They do a good job of removing 220 scratches. They leave some flats and high spots which are easily removed by 280 soft. The 600 hard wheel cuts faster than you would think too.
|
|
