Problem Name: Lack of Stone Adhesion to blank
Short Description: Stones - the actual diamond coated metal plates - are all falling off the plastic holders (blanks).
Scope of Problem: All diamond grades, ultra-coarse excepted. The microfine ceramics. All glass platens used for lapping film. NOTE: scope might be larger. For example, I do not own the super fine ceramics, the ultracoarse diamonds, any of the water stones (Chosera, Shapton), nor any of the curved stones.
Long Description & Details: I had experienced a glass platen loosening up and falling off within a couple days of getting my WEPS. I didn’t say anything then, figuring it was probably just that one particular item. So, I glued it back together using a gap-filling, medium dry rate (15-25 sec) CA. Then I had a diamond stone fall off; then another glass platen; then all my glass platens, and finally all my stones. There seems to be a bond degradation devil at play with this: the platens do not suddenly and spontaneously fall off in the same way that the garage burned suddenly and spontaneously when I was a little kid playing out back (honest, it just started to burn), but rather I am feeling the platens get “loose” and “wiggly” in the plastic mounts. I then pay close attention to them, and so far have always stopped using them in time and just pulled them off the plastic, no tools required.
Potential Causative Factors: Might be related to my use of Simple Green. I have not experimented directly with this, yet - however, I am going to sub in Dawn Liquid for the Simple Green today, and continue using the Dawn. I’m sure that there are at least some platens which have not fallen off at this time; so I’ll see what happens. I realize that this is not a great test, because the bond degradation might have started already and may continue / be revived by any water.
Notes: I used the Simple Green while sharpening, much as Wayne Goddard recommends in his book on knives. The idea is twofold: one, the SG has some lubrication properties that carries away some of the metal dust and prevents wear to the stones - I don’t know whether this is true, but I can feel a huge difference between dry stones and stones with SG applied. Secondly, using a little bit of SG during sharpening keeps the stones clean.
I’ve tried applying the SG via a spray bottle, and spritzing the stone, then shaking off the excess. I’ve also tried keeping a clean piece of cloth, getting it wet with the SG solution, and painting the stone. This latter approach was designed to minimize overuse of the liquid. It didn’t help.
I have to wonder, however, if the Simple Green solution gets under the edge of the metal / glass, and starts to degrade the bond; as the bond degrades from the outer edge, more of a gap is created, so the next time SG is applied, even more gets under the platen…until finally the platen falls off.
I was just thinking that I’m pretty lucky I haven’t had a diamond stone fall off with no warning while I really going fast and hard. That could not only damage the blade, but it could cause my fingers to drop, hard, onto the sharp edge. Anyhow, I will stop using the SG.