Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Flattening the flattening stones
Alan Womack
>I bought a pair of Ice Bear flattening stones.. They are in need of serious flattening themselves.
This seems like sloppy manufacutring to not flatten your flattening stones.
Best method a lapping plate kit like was discussed on the list a while back?
Alan
The combat method is pretty good
Wiley Horne--Glendora CA
>Hi Alan,
Odate in his book talks about how, many decades ago, he flattened stones on an ordinary concrete block, and that this was common practice among Japanese carpenters. Using a concrete block doesn't seem to have any currency amongst us, for whatever reason.
But I have a concrete block that I sometimes use for flattening. Ordinary block. Just the next one off the pile at Home Depot, 11-5/8" on each side and 7-1/2" high. When I saw your post, I went and got my 8000 Shapton, which had a considerable hollow in it, watered down the concrete block, and lapped the Shapton 8000 on one of the sides. The concrete block is fast cutting--every bit as fast as a 220g diamond plate, for example.
In less than a minute, the Shapton was showing scratches everywhere. I took it back into the shop and checked it against a bevel-edge Shapton square. In readings taken along the length, it was high in the middle by about 1 thou, and in readings taken across the width, it was on the money everywhere. So I lapped it a few more strokes, applying pressure in the middle of the stone, rechecked, and it was on the money everywhere. No light under the square.
I really think people ought to give concrete blocks a fair try. I like em because they're so fast cutting--I mean, it is an industrial strength way to get a stone flat. And you can always check with a straight edge until you're satisfied it works.
Wiley
Re: Flattening the flattening stones
Jim in Burlington Ontario
>Are those stones not made of ceramics? I'd use a purple zirconia sander belt glued down to a large plate of glass.
Re: Flattening the flattening stones
joel
>find a concrete sidewalk nice long strokes will average out any uneveness in the concrete.
combat II
John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)
>As Joel mentions below, the nearest sidewalk was the other surface mentioned in the book. Rather than walk the extra 20 steps, I found a flat spot on my garage floor. Before this spot started to go concave, I moved over a foot or so.
Neat effect as the stones of aggregate gets exposed and polished; in a few years, the next owners of the house will probably be wondering why I stopped when I was only half done.
/jvs