my experience is limited to resin bonded diamond sawblades, which are spun much faster than laps. When a resin bonded diamond tool fails, it fails somewhat explosively. I use resin bonded blades for cutting glass and quartz, and after a high pressure water spray to clean up, followed by a brief ultrasonic cleaning, the glass can be put into a kiln for a 15 minute soak at 1100°F. At this point it is ready to flame polish. Flame polishing from 220 grit is not possible with sintered tools, as the sintered tools tend to smear tin across the cut. I've not had luck getting optically clean fire polishes even with 3000 grit sintered tools. I've been purchasing 220 grit saw blades from Radiac Abrasives of Oswego, IL. They make them to order, 6 week lead time. I suspect this is due to the phenolic resin not being infinitely shelf stable. I've had no problems with a 2-3 year old tool, fresh out of the box- but i've had 5 year old blades fail and explode apart repeatedly. At about $200 per blade, those were some very expensive lessons learned.
So what about sintered laps? I learned faceting using a 1200 sintered metal lap and was thinking about getting one. Would you recommend not getting it in favour of one (or both) of the dreamer 800 or HE 500? Also, you mentioned that you needed to do something to the surface of the HE 3000. Was it the same procedure as in your video of flattening the dreamer laps or did you do something else?
I've never used metal sintered laps. At this point, I'm enamored of the resin-tech laps, in part because of their ease of care (flattening). I resurfaced the HE 3k using carborundum wet-type sandpaper 220, followed by a scrubbing with Lava soap.
I use the 1200 Sintered lap and absolutely love it. I go from 600 - 1200 - polish. Keep it clean and uncontaminated and the 1200 will leave a finish you can go straight to polish. Haven’t found anything as easy to maintain and use.
I tried the address for Hyper-edge and although their website comes up, I can't seem to get a response from them. Ed Perry doesn't seem to want to respond.
Ed Perry doesn't answer to me. Ed Perry is a one-man shop. This is the nature of MANY of the best tools of any technically sophisticated art form: The makers of the best and most unique tools are one-man shops or small mom-and-pop shops. By their nature, these enterprises are not going to respond the way a large-scale purveyor of mass-produced crap might.
You can order one here: facetingacademy.com/product/dreamer-lap/ You can also send an email with any questions you have. If you send your digits, I'll even call you.
Excellent information, thank you!
my experience is limited to resin bonded diamond sawblades, which are spun much faster than laps. When a resin bonded diamond tool fails, it fails somewhat explosively.
I use resin bonded blades for cutting glass and quartz, and after a high pressure water spray to clean up, followed by a brief ultrasonic cleaning, the glass can be put into a kiln for a 15 minute soak at 1100°F. At this point it is ready to flame polish. Flame polishing from 220 grit is not possible with sintered tools, as the sintered tools tend to smear tin across the cut. I've not had luck getting optically clean fire polishes even with 3000 grit sintered tools.
I've been purchasing 220 grit saw blades from Radiac Abrasives of Oswego, IL. They make them to order, 6 week lead time. I suspect this is due to the phenolic resin not being infinitely shelf stable. I've had no problems with a 2-3 year old tool, fresh out of the box- but i've had 5 year old blades fail and explode apart repeatedly. At about $200 per blade, those were some very expensive lessons learned.
Hi John. Have you tried the 25k or 50k polishing Hyper Edge?
I have not. Let me know what you find out!
So what about sintered laps? I learned faceting using a 1200 sintered metal lap and was thinking about getting one. Would you recommend not getting it in favour of one (or both) of the dreamer 800 or HE 500?
Also, you mentioned that you needed to do something to the surface of the HE 3000. Was it the same procedure as in your video of flattening the dreamer laps or did you do something else?
I've never used metal sintered laps.
At this point, I'm enamored of the resin-tech laps, in part because of their ease of care (flattening).
I resurfaced the HE 3k using carborundum wet-type sandpaper 220, followed by a scrubbing with Lava soap.
I use the 1200 Sintered lap and absolutely love it. I go from 600 - 1200 - polish. Keep it clean and uncontaminated and the 1200 will leave a finish you can go straight to polish. Haven’t found anything as easy to maintain and use.
I tried the address for Hyper-edge and although their website comes up, I can't seem to get a response from them. Ed Perry doesn't seem to want to respond.
Ed Perry doesn't answer to me.
Ed Perry is a one-man shop.
This is the nature of MANY of the best tools of any technically sophisticated art form: The makers of the best and most unique tools are one-man shops or small mom-and-pop shops. By their nature, these enterprises are not going to respond the way a large-scale purveyor of mass-produced crap might.
i'd like to buy a HE 500 ..
You can order one here:
facetingacademy.com/product/dreamer-lap/
You can also send an email with any questions you have. If you send your digits, I'll even call you.