Diamond lapping films

[Steven N. Bolin]

Yesterday I used some 2k & 3k grit Edge Pro lapping film. It had to be cut to fit the aluminum blanks, but actually worked pretty well transitioning from the 1k grit diamonds and 5um strops as I finished up polishing an old Schrade 498. I’ll post some pics later on if anyone is interested?

[Mr.Wizard]

So your progression was 1K diamond plate > 5um strop > Edge Pro “2K” > Edge Pro “3K”? The 2K tape is (sold as) 9 micron, and probably has less grit recession than a strop, therefore it likely cuts far more coarsely than the 5 micron strop. Have you tried instead: 1K diamond > Edge Pro “2K” > Edge Pro “3K”? The 5 micron strop may be about the same as the 3K tape; you’ll have to try it before and after to see how they compare.

[tcmeyer]

Cliff:

I just bought my first micrometer from Grizzly. It cost $13 and has so far impressed the heck out of me. It has a vernier scale on it to read out to the tenth of a thou accuracy.

Until now, I’ve only used calipers. I have four now. Two are 8″ digitals from Grizzly. One is dying, hence the extra one on hand, one is a Mitutoyo dial 6″ and the fourth is a digitial 6″ plastic caliper that reads out to only ten thou accuracy. 0.01″. Ooops, I forgot I also have a very old plastic vernier caliper I bought many years ago for field use out on the bench rest target line.

Buy the Grizzly W2504 mike. At $12.95, you can’t go wrong. But note that it won’t measure your block thicknesses, which are over the one inch limit. They do have a 3-piece set (0-1, 1-2 & 2-3) for $41.55.

[Mr.Wizard]

Is the benefit of the micrometer in precision alone or do you find it superior in other ways as well?

According Grizzly.com the W2504 measures to the thou, not one tenth thou. If there are not other advantages to the mechanical micrometer I would probably choose instead the H7978 caliper with rated 1/2 thou resolution and a 0″-6″ range, over the micrometer set you mentioned. What do you think?

[Steven N. Bolin]

So your progression was 1K diamond plate > 5um strop > Edge Pro “2K” > Edge Pro “3K”? The 2K tape is (sold as) 9 micron, and probably has less grit recession than a strop, therefore it likely cuts far more coarsely than the 5 micron strop. Have you tried instead: 1K diamond > Edge Pro “2K” > Edge Pro “3K”? The 5 micron strop may be about the same as the 3K tape; you’ll have to try it before and after to see how they compare.

Yeah, I don’t think it would make much sense using a strop prior to a film on a blank.

My progression was…
1k diamond > 2k EP film > 3k EP film > 5um strop.

[Mr.Wizard]

That makes more sense; thanks. Did the 5 micron strop noticeably improve the polish from the 3K EP tape?

[CliffCurry]

Thanks for the link Tom…I like how so far this hobby keeps offering new things to discover and new tools to get better as I go. Lots to explore, lots to learn, lots to check out, and lots of better results to enjoy!

For instance what Stephen is doing now was my first break through. I was using the p3000 wet/dry sandpaper strips and found I could almost jump the gap to 5um/3.5um paste. To answer Mr. Wizard, my experience was it took it from a fine satin finish sheen to a mirror polish. It is a noticeable improvement.

I havent been back in the shop since my initial results with the new alum oxide film strips but to me they are a winning ticket. Still not sure how many of the steps from 9,5,3,1, .3um are really necessary….but the results are almost effortless and quick to progress through.

One thing that may be working in my favor….since Im taping all my strips onto the same 1000 grit paddles, there is minimal difference in the angles. If I make a set of custom glass plattens I will have one adustment when switching off the 100 grit to glass. Im hoping this is a repeatable micro adjustment….like I said, more to try out and see!!! 🙂

[Steven N. Bolin]

That makes more sense; thanks. Did the 5 micron strop noticeably improve the polish from the 3K EP tape?

Yes! Just a handful of passes with the 5um strops and I noticed a big difference right away… I was surprised… And extremely satisfied by the results all the way down to .5um.

[wickededge]

TC, just off hand do you or anybody know the thickness of the stock diamond plates used on wicked edge paddles? Hoping to get glass of similiar thickness…Thanks in advance 🙂

Hey Cliff,

The diamond plates are 3mm thick + the size of the diamonds, so that the coarser plates are a little thicker, varying within the range of particle size of the girt. On a lazy Sunday morning, I’m not able to give the exact ranges and sizes for each grit, but a rough example is that the 100/200 set would have an additional thickness of 191.5 microns or 0.191 mm (122 microns for the 100# and 69.5 microns for the 200#) and the 800/1000 set would have additional thickness of 19 microns or 0.017 mm (12 microns for the 800# and 7 microns for the 1000#). At any rate, 1/8″ glass should be just about right as 1/8″=3.175 mm vs the 3 mm plates + the thickness of the diamonds.

100# Plate (steel stock plus diamonds) = 3.122 mm
200# Plate (steel stock plus diamonds) = 3.069 mm
400# Plate (steel stock plus diamonds) = 3.022 mm
600# Plate (steel stock plus diamonds) = 3.016 mm
800# Plate (steel stock plus diamonds) = 3.012 mm
1000# Plate (steel stock plus diamonds) = 3.007 mm

-Clay

[wickededge]

I have a suggestion. We need the lapping films to come in a assorted set instead of having to buy 10 strips of the same grit. Is that possible?

That’s a good idea. They come the way we have them directly from 3M since they are cutting them for us, so we can’t mix sheets and 10 strips would still be the minimum I think though we’ll work on the idea and see what comes up. Maybe we can find a method to mix the sheets without compromising the stickiness.

-Clay

[wickededge]

And in bulk

Also a good idea. Do you have any thoughts on quantities?

-Clay

[tcmeyer]

Clay: Have you thought about buying the film in 8- or 12-strip sheets, so you could cut them down to 4- or 6- strip quantities? This would be a more reasonable cost to someone who just wants to try them out.

[Mr.Wizard]

Does anyone have a photo of all the diamond films together? I would like a relative color reference based on the actual product. (Rather than synthetically colorized copies of the same image, as on the product pages.)

[wickededge]

Does anyone have a photo of all the diamond films together? I would like a relative color reference based on the actual product. (Rather than synthetically colorized copies of the same image, as on the product pages.)

We’ll get a photo snapped and posted today.

-Clay

[wickededge]

Here they are individually:

Attachments:

• 6-micron-film.jpg
• 3-micron-film.jpg
• 1-micron-film.jpg

-Clay

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