Resin only on their cab machine? 120 resin after 220 hard?

Yes, typo, I meant 220 Nova.  DP no longer makes them per Ron on Ebay.  He can't get them, special order or otherwise. 

I will try one of those from Johnson Brothers.  I haven't gotten the greatest customer service from them, but I don't see anyone else offering a 220 soft wheel.  

I think maybe I need to spend more time on the 220 hard.  In theory, 220 grit scratches should come out fairly easily on the first soft wheel.  So when they don't, I suppose I am still fighting scratches from the 80 grit.  I have a hard time telling if I've done enough with the 220 hard until I've already wasted a lot of time on the 280 soft.

I have read some of your posts where you discuss your equipment and your desire to speed up the cabbing process, even if that means spending more on wheels and equipment.  I agree.  

My first (unsuccessful) idea was to buy a 30 grit 8" sintered wheel.  I don't need to explain why this was a bad idea.  (Anyone want to buy a lightly used 8" 30 grit sintered wheel?)   

For me, the slowest steps in cabbing are:  1) grinding the preform and the dome with an 80 grit hard wheel, and 2) removing scratches from the 80 wheel; and 3) rounding off the ridges created by hard wheels.  In other words, the first 3 wheels is where I spend 90% of my time.  But if I do those steps right, I can finish the cab, including final polish on rawhide, in 10 minutes or less.  

Here is my plan to speed up the slow steps:

Covington 8" Grinder:

8" sintered 80 grit and 220 grit wheels to finish shaping preform and to grind the dome.  Using this grinder, I can do those steps two or three times faster than on the Genie.  I can press fairly hard on the 220 sintered wheel and actually remove some material without creating deep scratches. 

The Genie:

The 2nd to 6th wheels will be resin grits 220, 280, 600, 1200, and 3000.  I have a spin-on 14,000 when needed, but with agates and jaspers I can usually go right from the 3000 to final polish on rawhide + Linde A AO polish.  Adding in a 220 grit resin should speed up the transition from the hard wheels to the resin wheels.  

That leaves the first wheel on the Genie.  Two options:  a 325 sintered hard or a 140 resin.  I already own the 140 soft, but I will buy a 325 sintered if it is a better option. 

I think the 325 hard would do better to finish removing scratches from the 80 grit that I didn't get all the way out with the 220.  In other words, if get to the soft wheels and realize there is a scratch that I overlooked, I wouldn't have to change machines and go back to the grinder to get it out.  Trying to get any real scratch out with a resin wheel is an utter waste of time.

The advantage of the 140 soft, I think, is that it will quickly smooth the dome and allow me to fly through all of the other resin wheels.  In my experience, the 140 grit resin is lousy at removing scratches but it sands and smooth very quickly.  It's not much better at removing scratches than a 280 resin, but it does sand a lot faster than a 280.  

Any thoughts on this?  Thanks for your help.  

Thanks for the info. 

Maybe I need to try the Top 80 grit.  When you say you replace it when it gets slow, approximately how often does that happen?  Ever 100 cabs?  500 cabs?  6 months?  One year? 

Are you using the regular plated 80, or the textured?  They have a 100 grit textured for sale on Ebay for around $80.  If textured really is more aggressive, that might make a good replacement for the Galaxy 80, which has never cut very fast except when breaking it in.  

Any particular reason why 600 and 1200 are the grits you moved to your 8" machine?   Here's why I ask: I really do find 8" wheels to work faster than 6" ones, at least with my machines (Covington Grinder & Genie).  As a result, my instinct is that the wheels I spend the most time using should be 8" wheels.  For me, that would be 80 grit and 220 grit hard.  A 220 soft on my 8" machine would also be very nice since an 8" x 2" wide wheel would allow me to quickly round off the dome after the hard wheels and remove scratches from the 220 hard.  

I value your opinions on this subject since I have seen the number of good looking cabs you can produce in a day, and we both have a 6" Genie and 8" two-wheel machine in the mix.  

My current top is a textured plastic core 80 grit top. Previous top was a steel core 80 grit top. When I bought the textured, I also bought a steel core textured that I haven't mounted. They gave me a reduced price on one of them. The current textured wheel has been on the arbor for 10 weeks and is still aggressive.

I got my first machine, a 8 inch stardiamond with worn 80 and 220 galaxy. The cabs were finished with a 400 grit lapidary belt sander and tin oxide on leather. I was not happy with some of the results. I bought a Genie. After a while, I thought I could add more wheels to the stardiamond. I removed the everything and bought some spacers. Replaced with 80,220 hard, 220/280 soft, 600, 1200 soft. I used the Genie for prepolishing and diamond paste polishing. Replacing the wheels on the stardiamond is a paint, removing all the bolts and the canvas pad. Removing everything from the arbor in sequence, wheels and spacers and then replacing each wheel with a new one and putting everything back on the arbor and back into the machine. Takes over an hour. I bought new 80 and 220 hard from jadecarver and a 220 soft from JB. The 600 and 1200 were hardly used and I noticed they needed some break in. I developed some arthritis in my thumbs and the cabbing position on the Genie is better. I decided to buy another right hand arbor and the top wheel. Cutting speed with the top was as good as the 8 inch jadecarver, so I didn't bother to replace the other wheels. Speed is the only issue with 80 grit. I like the wider wheels for the 600 and 1200 and they are already mounted.

I think I prefer the textured. More aggressive and seems to maintain it. On the negative, more aggressive but still not chippy. I picked up a 60 grit crystalring cheap some years ago and it was too chippy for me to use. I would be more cautious buying a top quality sintered wheel, but these are inexpensive so no worries.