Post by rykk on Oct 8, 2011 22:34:21 GMT -5
Ok - First the question: I've read here about not using 60/90 grit on a "jiggle pan" because it's supposed to wear them out a lot sooner. How do you tell if your grind pan is worn out and needs replacement?
My used 20" Lortone came with one pan that the guy said was a polishing pan. It's flat and smooth. I bought a new grind pan from US&J and what came was a pan that was kinda flat but had some random swirls in it that wore down after the first use. So, basically, it is also smooth. I've seen a few pix online of grind pans and those had like a grid etched/milled into the bottoms. Did they maybe send me a polish pan by mistake? (ok, I lied - TWO questions)
It seems to work ok, though it does take 2-5 grinds with 120/200 grit to flatten even the super heavy 10" Kentucky agate I'm trying to do. Royal Sahara Jasper (fair-sized slabs weighted with a good sized rock) takes 4ever, too, even though I try to flatten and take out saw marks as much as I can with a 100grit diamond disk on a spinner lap.
Some things I've learned:
1) Tape Them Eggs! - Cover t-eggs really good with duct tape - especially in the polish phase - because they tend to shed little pieces every now and then that could scratch the rocks.
2) 20" Pan Anti-Splash Guard - For a 20" pan, get a 16" bicycle inner tube, hack-saw the air filler nozzle, and take a pair of scissors and cut a 1/4" strip off the edge all the way around while it lays flat. Then stretch it around the outside of a 20" pan, letting it overhang the rim by an inch or so, and this will stop almost all gritty water splash from coming out of the pan. If it still makes a mess, probably there is too much water in the pan.
Take the maybe half inch wide strip you cut off the edge of the inner tube, cut it in half, poke 4 evenly spaced holes in the inner tube where it is in contact with the outside of the pan maybe a half inch up, an then use the two strips to tie the inner tube to the pan across the bottom. Tie the rubber strips using opposing holes in an "X" pattern. this will keep the tube from riding up and slipping off.
3) Quiet the Pan - Get some 1/4" thick sheet rubber, cut three 3in wide rectangles, and put one over each of the 3 bolt heads in the bottom of a Lortone pan base to quiet things down a LOT. Since water will get in either from splashing or just washing the rig, replace the bolts with stainless steel and put wide, stainless fender washers under the bolt heads to prevent rusting. I also laid down a layer of RTV (some paper thin nylon/mylar would be better) under the fender washers first and then covered everything before sticking down the sheet rubber. On my (VERY used, I reckon) rig, one of the bolts had actually embedded into the pan base, rusted, and was about to break right thru the metal, so that's why the washers.
4) Quiet the Springs - If you use golf-ball sized or other under-sized balls on a Lortone, either because that's all you could find or to get the pan to wiggle more aggressively, stick a piece of sheet rubber to the bottom of the pan base where the springs are to keep them from rattling against the underside if/when the balls start to flatten out.
5) 20" Pan Lid - Here's what I did to make an excellent lid to cover my 20" vibe pans: Go to a hardware store and buy one of those 20" water heater pans that go under the water heater in your house. They're about 3-4in deep. About $10 is all they cost.
Discard - or stow away - the PVC connector that comes with it. Take an X-acto or heavy scissors and cut the pan where the hole for the connector is (doesn't matter where - this just saves 1 1/2" of cutting - lol) from the rim, up the side and to the center of the pan. Mentally divide the pan into thirds and make two more cuts across the pan from the center except on these two cuts, only go to the edge of the pan and not down the side like the first cut did. Like cutting a pie into thirds.
Then, where you made the first cut thru the curled rim and up the side, cut the outside edge of the curl back about 6" or so from the cut that goes up the side. This is so that the cut back part will slide inside the curled rim on the other side of the vertical slice. Now - voila! - The pan will go over the top of the vibe pan and be able to contract like a sort of sphicter (don't laugh - that's what they're really called!) valve so that it can be tight around the pan. Helps a lot to have made the inner tube anti-splash thingie I described, above, as the rubber will keep the lid quiet and give "traction" to keep the hard plastic lid from shifting.
The last step is to get yet another 16" bike tube and either stretch the whole thing around the lid when it's on the pan or - like I did - cut the tube in half lengthwise leaving you two approx. 2" wide bands (save the other for a second pan lid)... and it's a good bit easier to stretch around the pan. The 3 "leaves" of the lid will fold over each other to decrease the diameter of the lid to that of the pan and the cut back part of the rim slides right around inside the rest of the curl. Getting the tube to go around the lid/pan without slipping off like a rubber band takes a little practice to do alone but it isn't too tough. An extra pair of hands helps a lot with this, though.
6) And - even if you DID see some little t-egg pieces on your polish pad the last time you used it, and even if you AREN'T sure you got them all out before stowing your wet pad in a garbage bag - DO NOT shake/snap the wet pad when you get it back out just to be sure there are no bits left!! That's what I just did. Made a heckuva white H2O/tin oxide mess of my face, glasses, shirt... and the sliding glass doors to the back porch that my wife made me clean off with a sponge since, like most women, she "doesn't do windows"...... at least the house is already white, so she didn't notice THAT... LOL
C-ya!
Rick
My used 20" Lortone came with one pan that the guy said was a polishing pan. It's flat and smooth. I bought a new grind pan from US&J and what came was a pan that was kinda flat but had some random swirls in it that wore down after the first use. So, basically, it is also smooth. I've seen a few pix online of grind pans and those had like a grid etched/milled into the bottoms. Did they maybe send me a polish pan by mistake? (ok, I lied - TWO questions)
It seems to work ok, though it does take 2-5 grinds with 120/200 grit to flatten even the super heavy 10" Kentucky agate I'm trying to do. Royal Sahara Jasper (fair-sized slabs weighted with a good sized rock) takes 4ever, too, even though I try to flatten and take out saw marks as much as I can with a 100grit diamond disk on a spinner lap.
Some things I've learned:
1) Tape Them Eggs! - Cover t-eggs really good with duct tape - especially in the polish phase - because they tend to shed little pieces every now and then that could scratch the rocks.
2) 20" Pan Anti-Splash Guard - For a 20" pan, get a 16" bicycle inner tube, hack-saw the air filler nozzle, and take a pair of scissors and cut a 1/4" strip off the edge all the way around while it lays flat. Then stretch it around the outside of a 20" pan, letting it overhang the rim by an inch or so, and this will stop almost all gritty water splash from coming out of the pan. If it still makes a mess, probably there is too much water in the pan.
Take the maybe half inch wide strip you cut off the edge of the inner tube, cut it in half, poke 4 evenly spaced holes in the inner tube where it is in contact with the outside of the pan maybe a half inch up, an then use the two strips to tie the inner tube to the pan across the bottom. Tie the rubber strips using opposing holes in an "X" pattern. this will keep the tube from riding up and slipping off.
3) Quiet the Pan - Get some 1/4" thick sheet rubber, cut three 3in wide rectangles, and put one over each of the 3 bolt heads in the bottom of a Lortone pan base to quiet things down a LOT. Since water will get in either from splashing or just washing the rig, replace the bolts with stainless steel and put wide, stainless fender washers under the bolt heads to prevent rusting. I also laid down a layer of RTV (some paper thin nylon/mylar would be better) under the fender washers first and then covered everything before sticking down the sheet rubber. On my (VERY used, I reckon) rig, one of the bolts had actually embedded into the pan base, rusted, and was about to break right thru the metal, so that's why the washers.
4) Quiet the Springs - If you use golf-ball sized or other under-sized balls on a Lortone, either because that's all you could find or to get the pan to wiggle more aggressively, stick a piece of sheet rubber to the bottom of the pan base where the springs are to keep them from rattling against the underside if/when the balls start to flatten out.
5) 20" Pan Lid - Here's what I did to make an excellent lid to cover my 20" vibe pans: Go to a hardware store and buy one of those 20" water heater pans that go under the water heater in your house. They're about 3-4in deep. About $10 is all they cost.
Discard - or stow away - the PVC connector that comes with it. Take an X-acto or heavy scissors and cut the pan where the hole for the connector is (doesn't matter where - this just saves 1 1/2" of cutting - lol) from the rim, up the side and to the center of the pan. Mentally divide the pan into thirds and make two more cuts across the pan from the center except on these two cuts, only go to the edge of the pan and not down the side like the first cut did. Like cutting a pie into thirds.
Then, where you made the first cut thru the curled rim and up the side, cut the outside edge of the curl back about 6" or so from the cut that goes up the side. This is so that the cut back part will slide inside the curled rim on the other side of the vertical slice. Now - voila! - The pan will go over the top of the vibe pan and be able to contract like a sort of sphicter (don't laugh - that's what they're really called!) valve so that it can be tight around the pan. Helps a lot to have made the inner tube anti-splash thingie I described, above, as the rubber will keep the lid quiet and give "traction" to keep the hard plastic lid from shifting.
The last step is to get yet another 16" bike tube and either stretch the whole thing around the lid when it's on the pan or - like I did - cut the tube in half lengthwise leaving you two approx. 2" wide bands (save the other for a second pan lid)... and it's a good bit easier to stretch around the pan. The 3 "leaves" of the lid will fold over each other to decrease the diameter of the lid to that of the pan and the cut back part of the rim slides right around inside the rest of the curl. Getting the tube to go around the lid/pan without slipping off like a rubber band takes a little practice to do alone but it isn't too tough. An extra pair of hands helps a lot with this, though.
6) And - even if you DID see some little t-egg pieces on your polish pad the last time you used it, and even if you AREN'T sure you got them all out before stowing your wet pad in a garbage bag - DO NOT shake/snap the wet pad when you get it back out just to be sure there are no bits left!! That's what I just did. Made a heckuva white H2O/tin oxide mess of my face, glasses, shirt... and the sliding glass doors to the back porch that my wife made me clean off with a sponge since, like most women, she "doesn't do windows"...... at least the house is already white, so she didn't notice THAT... LOL
C-ya!
Rick