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Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

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  #1  
Old 2011-06-24, 10:53am
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Default Trouble getting lapped beads smooth

Hello, I'm looking for some help from those of you who do lapped beads. I have an inland 8 in swap top and I cant seem to get rid of the scratches befor the final polishing step. I have spent about an hour on 2 beads trying to remove the scratches. Ive gone back to the beginning and started the beads again. My 1200 grit seems to reintroduce scratches. I've heard that this is not too hard of a technique. After spending the money and time, I'm getting pretty frustrated. Any suggestions? Am I pressing down too hard? Not spending enough time? HELP!!
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Shelly
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  #2  
Old 2011-06-24, 10:57am
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It sounds like you might have a larger grit contaminant on your 1200.

Robert
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  #3  
Old 2011-06-24, 11:17am
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This is a brand new set. How did I contaminate it and will a thorough rinsing solve the problem?
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  #4  
Old 2011-06-24, 2:43pm
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This article may help. There are many more of them on the HIS site. You may need a dressing stick if you can't find the proud diamond. (there is an article on that too) I've had those and they suck. Very frustrating!
http://www.hisglassworks.com/faq/idx.php/0/005/article/
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  #5  
Old 2011-06-25, 12:12pm
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What Rebecca said.

In addition to that, new diamond discs are especially susceptible to scratching until they are worn in a bit, particularly the finer grits, and 1200 is a VERY fine grit. I did a lot of polishing in the past and never really liked diamonds for it. They are great for grinding, but for polishing it seemed they would often scratch a piece just before I had it finished. But if you only want to maintain one wheel, they are the only practical way to go.

Based on my own experience, here are a few suggestions that might help. One, as was already mentioned, if the scratch is occurring in the same place on the wheel you probably have a high diamond. So try to either stay away from that spot for now, or find the offending diamond and knock it down.

Two, take a decent size piece of scrap glass and use it to wear in the diamonds on your new wheels. This should help knock down any high ones.

Three, try going straight from 600 grit to polish and see how it works. On something as small as a bead you might be surprised at how well it does. As your wheels wear it will work better and better.

Four, be very careful to clean both the beads and your hands when going from a coarse wheel to a finer one. You don't want to transfer anything except your beads from wheel to wheel. Along these same lines, make sure you clean the bead release from the beads before polishing, not after.

Last, and this is something that helped a lot when I was having problems with scratching, clean each wheel immediately after use. Use a stiff bristled scrub brush, water, and liquid dish soap to scrub down the wheel before it dries out. This helps remove any glass residue and keeps it from drying out and building up on your wheels. Once it dries it sets up like concrete and becomes much harder to remove. Doing this is especially important on the finest grits because it doesn't take much residue to cause problems. Since your wheels are new, this isn't likely to be causing your present problem, but it may help prevent new ones in the future.

I hope this info helps.

Brad
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  #6  
Old 2011-06-25, 12:35pm
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One thing you may not be spending enough time with each grit wheel if you donot get all the scratches out from a your rough grits they will show up when you get to your fine grits and you will wonder where they are coming from. Try turning your bead 90 degrees when you change to a new grit this will help you see the scratches from the previous grit. Polish change grit turn bead 90 degrees polish change grit turn bead 90 deg. continue untill finished.Hope this helps
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  #7  
Old 2011-06-25, 5:19pm
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what everone said and maybe more water and keep turning the bead on the pad,otherwords , don't stay in one place.
What compound are you using on you rpolish pad, cerium oxide is the best and hardly any water with that pad.

Mike
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  #8  
Old 2011-06-25, 5:25pm
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I had some frusteration when I first got my flat lap. It sounds like we were having the same problem. I had most of it looking smooth but still a few scratched usually on one side.

I wasn't spending enough time on each disc. I would lap it until it looked like it was done, but sometimes it's hard to tell. Someone on here suggested I color the face of the bead with a permanent market before lapping, so you can tell if you got the entire surface. That tip rocked my world

Hope it helps
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  #9  
Old 2011-06-25, 6:33pm
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That tip with the marker is a very good advice it will fill in the deep scratches and when the marks go away your deep scratches will also be gone good idea booga119
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  #10  
Old 2011-06-25, 6:42pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lizard13i24 View Post
That tip with the marker is a very good advice it will fill in the deep scratches and when the marks go away your deep scratches will also be gone good idea booga119
I wish I could claim that tip. Someone else on here told me, but I don't remember who.
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  #11  
Old 2011-10-23, 8:25am
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OK. After months of boycotting my lap, I went back. The main culprit seems to be the 1200 grit disk. I've tried to knock off the high diamonds, but still have much more scratches than going from 600 to polish. I may get another 1200 disk (but am frustrated that I would have to spend that additional 50 bucks) to fix the problem.
My new question is what type of polishing compound do you use? My machine came with 14000 diamond paste. Is there something better? Thanks for all the suggestions. I feel like I'm almost there.
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  #12  
Old 2011-10-23, 9:49am
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You could keep a backup supply of silicone carbide in the grits you mentioned. I like to pour mine out on an old mirrored surface, mix a slurry with a little water, and run the glass in small circles. It does NOT take long with grits over 800. It would be a lot cheaper than buying a new disc. However, the manufacturer should stand behind that disc as it obviously is not accurate to its standards of 1200.

Barbara
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Old 2011-10-23, 10:08am
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Shelly:

Are you trying soft glass or boro? The nice thing about boro is you can actually do the final polishing step in the flame by reheating your bead in the kiln and then grabbing it with tweezers and bringing into a torch flame.

I've never tried it with soft glass, but I believe that Michael Mangiafico one told me he does something similar with soft glass blown beads after he cuts them.
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