Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Using the 100 or 200 K BLAKSTIK for polish on the center zone, the Diamatrix™ can now be a water-only lap when using the new "WaterPrep™ water-dispersable 3K Prepolish". Not presently for sale. Upon release, of course, it can be used on any appropriate lap, but I have had requests to develop this thing by a couple of Dominatrix™ users who dream of a quartz-fouling-proof fast prepolish. PM or Email for a sample.
Contamination concerns: The outward-flowing water film, as is the case on any "wing" type lap, assures only downstream contamination results. With hundreds upon hundreds of these in use, it is an established principle. in a polar-polar system, with water used on both lap domains, it is even more effective.
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:34 pm
Moderator
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:06 pm Posts: 2267 Location: Chapel Hill, NC / Toronto, ON
Holy crap Jon, you've been insanely productive this year... Now I just need to wait a bit until people come to a new equilibrium on best practice, then I'm going to update.
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:19 am
Moderator: Lapidary Arts and Tools
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Obviously, this can be used with any lap. The response has shown me that I dodged a serious bullet by not making the offer cover the earlier "wing" laps. "Leading Edge" cutters buy the new stuff first, and the hot new game changer is the Dominatrix™. A dismaying amount of free samples are going out this morning, even with the Dominatrix™ restriction. There are at least a couple of thousand Redwings™, Xinquing™, Battwing™, and Greenwing™ laps out there. I imagine what could have happened and break out in a trembling sweat.
They will not cost any more than the regular Diastiks. This is one of the grit sizes I buy by the pound. (US ISO 9000 certified vendors, as always.)
Since buying the dominatrix a few months ago, I have polished everything that I have cut in it. From tanzanite to sapphire. One you use a dual charged lap there is no turning back, unless you you are cutting for the sake of killing time.
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:50 pm
Moderator: Lapidary Diamonds
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:32 pm Posts: 1747 Location: Florida, United States
Precision Gem wrote:
Since buying the dominatrix a few months ago, I have polished everything that I have cut in it. From tanzanite to sapphire. One you use a dual charged lap there is no turning back, unless you you are cutting for the sake of killing time.
Tried out this new polish on two stones so far. The first one was a blue topaz. I had the pavilion pretty much done ready for polishing when this came in, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. My dominatrix has been used a lot, so there is most likely a lot of embedded diamond in the Batt portion. Cleaned it off the best I could, then applied some of the new polish. It did a nice job on pre polish, I would say a bit finer finish than if I were to do my typical heavy charge of 3000 diamond and cutting oil.
I got to thinking about this polish. The only issue I saw was the need to baby sit it with a little water. Normally with the Dominatrix I use 100,000 blakstick on in inner portion, and to moisten it just dip my left index finger in some water and kind of drag it on the spinning lap. Now I had to remember what two fingers, one for 100,000 and one for 8000.
Next I had a small rhodolite garnet on the dop, so I thought to pull out an old friend the Water Wing. This lap was always a bit slow on the pre polish for me, so I spread a bit of this polish on the outside, and it certainly helped bring it up to speed. The lap doesn't hold the diamond as well as the Batt.
My conclusion: Not sure yet. I think on the Dominatrix I will most likely go back to diamond powder and cutting oil so I don't have to think about getting water on the outside of the lap. I don't use a splash pan while polishing, so a water drip is kind of out of the question for me.
I just tried mine on a topaz. I have never been able to move meets this well with 3K diastik. Very aggressive and a fine finish. The best part is, I can see what I'm doing without removing the oil first.
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:12 am
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:51 am Posts: 755 Location: South Africa
Precision Gem wrote:
I don't use a splash pan while polishing.
Why not? If you are concerned about contamination you could wipe the inside of the splash pan to remove any loose material before fitting your polishing lap. I use a fine mister rather than a drip on the inner band of the Waterwing to keep it uniformly damp, but not running wet. With the Waterwing I find a slow drip tends to run off unevenly, despite adding a few drops of household detergent, and patches run dry. A strong drip washes off any oxide I may add as a polishing booster. The mister solves this problem. I run the drip quite strongly on the outer band to avoid dry patches. The outer band is really hard, and won't hold much applied diamond. If you retained your splash pan you could use a drip on the outer band and a mister on the inner, or the mister on both. You might find this preferable to removing the splash pan whenever you want to polish and using your fingers to dampen the lap. What do you think? Duncan
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 6:02 pm
Moderator: Lapidary Arts and Tools
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Some recent feedback suggests these are a little too aggressive for softer materials, and that an 8K version may be better for such. The 3K kicks tail on the harder ones, though.
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:18 pm
Moderator: Lapidary Arts and Tools
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Quote:
The only issue I saw was the need to baby sit it with a little water. Normally with the Dominatrix I use 100,000 blakstick on in inner portion, and to moisten it just dip my left index finger in some water and kind of drag it on the spinning lap. Now I had to remember what two fingers, one for 100,000 and one for 8000.
You could add propylene glycol to the water to avoid the risk of going dry through too-fast evaporation.
Now remembering which finger goes where. A memory aid could be a musical instrument. Practically any of them would work for the training.
Why not? If you are concerned about contamination you could wipe the inside of the splash pan to remove any loose material before fitting your polishing lap. I use a fine mister rather than a drip on the inner band of the Waterwing to keep it uniformly damp, but not running wet. With the Waterwing I find a slow drip tends to run off unevenly, despite adding a few drops of household detergent, and patches run dry. A strong drip washes off any oxide I may add as a polishing booster. The mister solves this problem. I run the drip quite strongly on the outer band to avoid dry patches. The outer band is really hard, and won't hold much applied diamond. If you retained your splash pan you could use a drip on the outer band and a mister on the inner, or the mister on both. You might find this preferable to removing the splash pan whenever you want to polish and using your fingers to dampen the lap. What do you think? Duncan
I clean my splash pan about 3 times a year. Cleaning during each stone would to me seem like too much time spent cleaning.
For me, this polish is too much baby sitting, so I have gone back to cutting oil and diamond powder on the outer band. I find that I can normally polish 2 or more stones with a single charge, and it needs no attention while polishing. I do think this new polish has a place for me beefing up the outer band of the WaterWing lap.
Interesting idea Jon on the fingering. Now I would just need to remember is it D sharp on the 3000 diamond or C flat !
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 4:43 am
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:51 am Posts: 755 Location: South Africa
Yesterday I experimented with Gearloose's new Waterprep 3000# diamond paste. On a cleaned Redwing, the outer copper band with the Waterprep provided a very smooth prepolish on the tables of synthetic ruby and synthetic blue spinel, both previously ground only on a 600# sintered bronze lap. Both polished exceedingly quickly on the inner BA5T band with the water-soluble 100k Blakstik. The lap was lubricated occasionally only with a fine mister whenever it threatened to dry out. Cleaning the stone to inspect the facets between prepolish and polish was very easy with a damp piece of roller towel - no WD40, no alcohol to clean the stone, no smell, no sticky residue. I am converted. This will be my standard process for hard stones. The WD40 is going back into the hardware cupboard in the garage.
Thrilled by this success I tried the tables of three softer stones with the Waterprep and AlOx on a new Dominatrix lap - a previously troublesome pink tourmaline, a Turkish diaspore, and a piece of red glass. The tourmaline developed a fine prepolish on the outer Batt band and polished quickly and evenly on the inner Matrix with AlOx. This was gratifying because the same stone previously had developed polishing grooves on both Greenway and an old tin/lead lap with AlOx. On the diaspore and the glass the 3000# prepolish was very aggressive (even after cleaning the Batt to remove all but the embedded grit) and left a deeply scored surface. These took a long time to remove in polishing on the Matrix with AlOx. For these softer materials I would prefer a finer prepolish - at least 8000#.
In summary, the Waterprep 3000# diamond paste produces a fine prepolish on harder stones but is a bit too aggressive on softer stones. It does move facets. It is easy to clean off and avoids the use of WD40, and alcohol to clean the facets.
Post subject: Re: Free samples for Dominatrix users.
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:55 am
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:51 am Posts: 755 Location: South Africa
You can add Oregon 'sunstone' to the list of successes with the 3000# Waterprep on the Dominatrix - fine, even prepolish on the Batt and very quick polish with AlOx on the Matrix - with a slow water drip on the Batt and a fine mister spray on the Dominatrix only when necessary to keep it damp. I didn't recharge the Batt, so this was with diamond already impregnated by my experiments yesterday. Duncan
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