Fast and cheap slab polisher,but very wet

Seriously creative, I like it.
Larry

Shazam!!!


A seriously cool and inexpensive solution, James!

By the way, most people use way too much water. On the BD wet polisher you need only enough water to keep pads damp and rock dust down.

I use the 5" pads for all my grinding and polishing of cabs and small slabs. I bought the 5/8" backer and switch out the pads. I run 15 or 20 cabs at a time so I do not have to switch the pads very often. I am set up in a room in the house and use a swamp cooler pump to supply the water which is recycled back to the bucket via a tub and drain under the pad. The grinding pads (50 and 100) wear out pretty fast because I work them pretty hard. I get a really nice shine at 3000 on everything, especially the nephrite.

I can see that your system would be pretty fast, especially if you can skip the lower grits. If you clamp a washer between two nuts then tack it to one nut you will get a fairly square fit. It is even better if you use a coupler nut because the short nuts can be off a little.

I'll bet that even in Georgia it gets a little chilly in winter. I love home made ingenuity. Great job.
Jim

Awesome!! Have enjoyed seeing pics of your lapidary equipment, James, and thanks for sharing!! "Wear a bathing suit" LOL! Got this one bookmarked!

John, If water is just directed at the edge it slings the water off and the center stays dry. I use the copper tube but I have it pulled around so it is spraying the center. The pads are used for polishing granite counter tops and they use a center water feed on a hand polisher that is made for that purpose. The copper works real good but to keep it from spraying water from a distance far enough for a slab to slide under it it is necessary to pinch the end of the 1/4" tube down so it is spraying and not running out. If you do not squeeze it down it takes a butt load of water to shoot that far and there will be water everywhere.

As you can see I had to be very creative to keep the water from spraying everywhere.



This is also my 10" trim saw and when I am using it I attach a 1/4" plastic hose with a 5/16" hose for a coupler. There is no pressure so the plastic hose holds tight with just friction. I have another !/4" tube that sprays water on the other side of the blade. I bought a five inch backer and as my four inch pads wear out I am switching to five inch pads. Every cab that I have posted has been ground and polished on this machine.

Free grinder base, free blade, salvaged copper tubing, couple of bucks for plastic tube, four to five dollars for pads 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 grits, four old motors at a garage sale for fifteen bucks, four or five bucks for the tub, swamp cooler pump salvaged, wood salvaged, belt salvaged and the drain for the tub came out of the tub on my tile saw Two or three of those grits could be skipped. I ground with 100 for a long time but I wanted more muscle so the 100 can not be skipped because the 50 leaves some pretty good chicken scratching. Some stone the 200 or 400 but not both can be skipped. If the 400 is skipped the 800 has to be used. If the 800 is used the 1000 can be skipped. The 1500 is pretty important for me because the polish is starting and it will show scratches from all the way back and if I clean it up real good at 1500 I can jump to 3000. On the really hard stone I use all of them. If you are not totally confused I have not done my job. DO NOT USE THE PVC VALVES LIKE I DID. REAL CHEAP BUT IMPOSSIBLE TO FINE TUNE. I have replaced the valves with some other cheap brass valves that work a little better but if I was to do it again I would spring for the metering valves.



James, I hope you do not mind me adding to your thread.

I hope everyone got a kick out of it like I did yours.

Everyone has to be good at something and I am good at confusing people. If anyone is interested I will rewrite that when I have not been up all night. I think that if you write it down in a vertical line it might help. OR you can just use all of them like I do most of the time. But I doubt that a bunch of people are going to hurry up and copy my machine. My explanation was way over kill and I wasn't even on drugs.
Jim

am flattered that you added to the thread.You have built a much higher skill level machine.Since you have a saw blade in the equation i assume you are running a lot less than 3600 RPM like my grinders.I do not like my high speeds because it's a bit dangerous and it slings the pads off the velcro backing forcing me to glue the pads.But,glueing the pads forced me to make 6 stations with no pad change.And it cuts fast at that speed.
Your description of the grits is a carbon copy of my experience.50 grit does too deep of scratches.100 can too.And less water is fine.At the high speed i will burn rubber at times due to water sling(3600 too fast).1500 and 3000 polishes great.10000 does not make a difference.
I never could figure a way to stay dry,again the 3600 rpm.And extra water required due to sling factor.The rig is set up in a greenhouse making it swim suit freindly.It gets to 85 F at high sun in the winter... thanks for tips photos and sharing