Another diamond paste question

Re: Dried out paste, grit sizes

Barry Va Beach

>Wendell, I use a mineral spirits based paste that came with an "oil" that you are supposed to use with the paste. When you spread out the paste it is like peanut butter, you thin it down with the oil ( or sometimes I just use mineral spirits) and it works fine. As to sizes of grits, the 30 micron ( IIRC) puts a sheen on the blade within a few strokes. The finer grits leave a more polished surface that is easy to tell form the 30 micron . So while I never rubbed the paste in my fingers, I notice the difference in use, the same way a 150 grit paper would feel different than a 400 grit paper while doing scary sharp. I think that the grit may be sinking in to the MDF, try a harder surface - corian, laminate, acrylic, cast iron, etc. Barry

Re: Another diamond paste question

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Doubtfull that you can feel the difference between your fingers. I usually add a drop of oil to mine on the block to help spread it out evenly.

Re: Another diamond paste question

Joel

>I have a tube of water based that I have been using on and off for several years - no problem with drying out. you could always add a drop of water.

However I think the MDF is the wrong substrate. too soft and water would sink in. I use the paste ona steel plate - works like a charm. I'm not sure if you can tell the grit difference by rubbing between fingers - I try to keep it off me. (why I like water base - so much easier to clean up) but on the plate the difference is obvious.

Re: Another diamond paste question

Todd Stock

>Agree - water based pastes on MDF is not a good idea. That said, the oil-based paste is great on MDF, although as Joel mentioned, might not be to some folk's taste at clear-up time.

Re: Another diamond paste question

Joel

>The original reason why I started using the water base paste was that I'm allegeric to the oil base stuff and the lube would do weird stuff to my skin.

(but since I use hand tools only, and work in solid at the moment I don't have any MDF in my shop anyway.)

Re: Another diamond paste question

Wendell @ Murphy, TX

>Thanks for the responses. It definitely looks like the MDF is causing the problem. I couldn't tell any difference in the cutting action between the 360 mesh and 50,000 mesh on the MDF. I was hoping I could try out the diamond paste without too big an investment, but I may have to spend some more for a better substrate. I think I'll try laminate next. If that doesn't work, then I break down and buy a cast iron lapping plate or two.

Wendell

Re: Another diamond paste question

Dan Donaldson

>I have a broken #6 plane from which I removed all of the hardware and hold upside down in a vise. It works pretty well as a lapping plate, is big enough for most use, and was free;-)

Very clever, Dan, thanks for the idea.

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

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