Figured out my problem.

[Rick]

So I think I may have figuered out part of the problem I was having with one of the 1.4 micro fine ceramics. yesterday while working on a blade the ceramic came apart from the “block” as I was using it. Me being me, ADD and all, found this an excelent reasion to take a break and grab a cup of coffee. 😆 Before this, when this ceramic stone was laid on a flat surface it had high points and could be rocked back and forth, as well as a little side to side. So I sat at looked at the ceramic stone sitting on the table and noticed that it was flat. Then I looked at the block. Ah Ha. While the block itself is pretty flat, there were a few areas that the epoxy had built up. So I took the screws out on the mounting area and laid it on the flat surface. “mounting area I am refering to is where the ceramic stone is glued in the frame area to hold it in place”. It as well was flat. I placed the mounting frame on the ceramic and sure enough it was no longer flat. The epoxy build up in several areas is what was causing this. I took apart the other 1.4 micro ceramic (yes I am that kind of goof ball), so that I could look at it and compaire. It seemed to be comeing lose anyway. Sure enough the epoxy lines were much more uniform. I should have taken pics at this point but did not. Any way, I cleaned the epoxy out of the mounting areas using an exacto blade and cleaned them up, Today I am going to re-epoxy them in. Why am I posting this? Well it is something I found intresting and thought that I might share. If some one else new sees this, then hopefuly they wont panic, and will know that it is an easy fix. This is, in my opinion, simply a fluke and by no means a common thing. At least not from what I’v seen. I’m sure I could have called and they would have made it right, but to be honest, A= I took the second one apart on my own, and B= It’s a simple fix for a fluke. It was kind of fun really, to see how these are put together. Like I said Im a goof ball, but its ok,,, my wife thinks I’m special :woohoo:

[Alan]

Now I have to go and check all my stones… Yes I am OCD. 😛

Alan

[tcmeyer]

Interesting. I didn’t know that the ceramic stones were epoxied in place, unlike the diamond stones, which are attached with a few patches of very high bond strength double-faced tape.

I have been reluctant to attempt removing a ceramic stone, as I was afraid of breaking one.

I also wonder about the use of individual patches of tape. I think there’s a chance of having more or less tape compression with one or two of the patches, resulting in an uneven surface. I think there’d be a better chance of having a flat surface if one continuous tape strip was used. I know that I can change the thickness of the assembly by a few thou by clamping it in a vise for a while. But maybe it will eventually rebound.

[Rick]

This image is after scraping most of the glue, and starting the cleaning process for on one of the blocks. I should have taken a pic before hand, but to be honest it didnt occour to me. :blush:

After cleaning the fram area of the block where the ceramic will seat I put ran a couple of lines of epoxy the length of the stone seatting area as well as a couple of drops both top and bottom cornors. ( please pardon spelling). I had cut 4 peices of thick cardboard before hand so that I could place it over the ceramics on both sides of the blocks. After placeing the ceramics back into the framing area with the fresh epoxy I covered both ceramic sides with cardboard, then applyed clamps to hold it in place and allowed them to setup for about 24 hours. Used them today with no problem. They worked great. Oh, the block scraped mostly clean was the one I was having such an issue with, had large gobs under several areas. Simple fix though, and so far so good.

[Rick]

So, the 1.4 micro ceramics have been reglued into place, though I did flip the stones to the unused side, which means a a bit of break in again, but so far they are working really well, and have had no reall problems to speak on. I think the two biggest issues that I have in getting a true mirror polish is taking more time with each progression of stone, and inspecting my work along the way, and two being the jump between the 1k grit to the micro fine ceramics is taking me a really long time. lol. But all things with pratice. lol.

[Author]

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