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Techniques for CollectorsGrinding wheel grit progression

14th May 2016 07:20 UTCMatthew House

Hello. I recently purchased an older Beacon Star 6" in lapidary grinder that has 3 silicon carbide wheels, an expanding drum, and a polishing pad. I replaced the roughest carbide wheel with an 80 grit hard diamond wheel. I want to replace the other 2 wheels but I am unsure of what grit progression I should go with. I was thinking 220 and 400. Is this a good idea, or is there a better choice? Thanks.

14th May 2016 11:50 UTCWayne Corwin

If you have only 2 choices, I would go with 220 & 600

14th May 2016 16:20 UTCTravis Hetsler

If you have three hard wheels then use (80#, 220#, 400#) and you can get 600# and higher belts for the expandable drum to fine out the different materials you will be working with. You can also get belts without grit for the expandable drum to use your own diamond pastes/powders with.


Happy Cutting!!!

14th May 2016 16:38 UTCMatthew House

I have 600 grit carbide belts for the expanding drum which is why I was thinking I would get a 400 or 320 wheel. The belts seem to wear fast but I think it's due to not enough steps in the sanding before that stage. I was also thinking of getting a 1200 got diamond belt for the last stage before polishing. Is this fine enough as a final sanding stage? Thanks.

Matt

14th May 2016 17:35 UTCMatthew House

Thanks for the help!

Matt

14th May 2016 18:41 UTCTravis Hetsler

Matt,


Carbide belts are cheap but wear very fast, so this is normal but you are correct in assuming that skipping grit steps increases wear on belts further down the line and may not give a superior polish. My typical progression is: 60-80#, 180-220# (hard diamond wheels); 400#, 600#, 1200# (diamond resin belts) leaving a nice prepolish for most stones. I have resin belts that continue on up to 3000#, 8000#, 14000#, and finish with resin bonded cerium oxide or a cloth belt using 50k# diamond paste (up to 100k# depending upon the stone and finish I am working towards).


The 400# resin belt will wear more slowly if you go from a 220# hard to a 400# hard to a 400# resin belt.


Happy cutting!

15th May 2016 14:01 UTCMatthew House

Thanks again! This was very helpful.

Matt
 
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