zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Nov 2, 2011 15:04:11 GMT -5
I'm about to buy a sintered 8" hard diamond wheel. It's recommended that you buy a wheel one grit coarser than what you're used to. I use an 80 grit plated wheel, so that would mean I should buy a 60 grit sintered.
Does the 60 sintered wheel chip the stone easily? My current 80 plated wheel chips the edges so I have to use my 220 plated to remove those chips & finalize the outline of the cab.
Does anyone have experience with the sintered wheels from lapidarytool.com? Their wheel is less than half the price of the Inland wheel. Lynn
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Post by johnjsgems on Nov 2, 2011 17:43:46 GMT -5
Any sintered wheel in 60 or finer should cut pretty smooth as the diamonds are in a matrix rather than surface plated. Most of the lower cost sintered wheels are mixed grit (60/80, 80/100, etc.). I think they say use one grit coarser so it "feels the same". If you don't like the 80 plated maybe try an 80 sintered instead. It would feel like a 100 plated.
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Post by Rockoonz on Nov 2, 2011 21:04:13 GMT -5
Lynn, I got plated 8x2 wheels from lapidarytool.com along with diamond belts saw blades and flat laps for myself, the clubs lap shop and some machines I was setting up. The wheels at the club shop survived many hours of hard use and are still in use. They are plated though, not sintered, but I would expect even more life out of sintered. Have you got a shipping cost from them yet? Even with a large order shipping was spendy.
Lee
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Nov 3, 2011 1:09:15 GMT -5
Lee, with a mix of hard diamond wheels & diamond belts the shipping came to 25% of the price of the product. Lynn
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Post by stoner on Nov 18, 2011 3:13:37 GMT -5
I bought a 60 grit 8" wheel in June 2007 after coming home from our first Woodward Ranch trip. I was wearing out my 80 grit plated wheel really fast with those agates. I forget who I got it from, but it was here in the USA, when they were still making the wheels with 5mm of diamond. I paid $435 plus shipping. And after about 4 1/2 years, I still have about 3mm of diamond left. I've replaced my 220 plated wheel 5 times since I bought my sintered wheel. So, now that I'm doing a rebuild on my old Barranca Diamond 8" machine, I ordered both, a 60 grit and a 180 grit from Lapidarytool, and with shipping, which is high, I got both wheels for the same price as the single wheel I got in 2007. These wheels have 5mm of diamond whereas the wheels sold here in the USA these days are only 3mm of diamond. My advice is bit the bullet and pay the high shipping, it's worth it. I ordered them on Thursday nite at 11 pm PST and they were here on my doorstep by Monday! To answer your question, yes, the coarser wheels do chip the backs, but they are easy to fix on the 220 wheel.
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Nov 19, 2011 23:02:04 GMT -5
Stoner, Thanks for your input. I hope these Chinese wheels are as good as what you had before. I ordered my wheels on Nov 2nd. I got an email on Nov 18th that they'd shipped. I always seem to order something that they don't have in stock & have to wait. I thought the sintered wheels might have been holding up the shipment, but if yours arrived so quickly, I guess not. Lynn
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Post by stoner on Nov 21, 2011 16:13:47 GMT -5
I just heard from a local club member who ordered 2 sintered wheels from them on the 18th of Nov, and they are on the UPS truck today, the 21st, to be delivered! They do make the wheels in their factory, so it's possible you had to wait for a run of them to be made. I've been using the 180 sintered wheel and it hasn't shown any wear, so I think they're okay.
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Nov 23, 2011 1:23:27 GMT -5
The sintered wheels arrived yesterday Nov 21st. Wow, those puppies are heavy! I haven't built the arbor they're going on, so I can't report on their quality yet.
Lynn
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
|
Post by zarguy on Feb 6, 2012 1:23:21 GMT -5
I recently finished my new 8" arbor & put the 60 grit sintered wheel on it. Man, I love this wheel. It eats rock just a little less aggressively than my supergrinder, but with much less chipping. It even chips less than my old 80 grit diamond plated wheel.
I highly recommend a sintered wheel for anyone who thinks they'll go through a couple of plated diamond wheels. Like Ed says, it'll last for years. I got mine from lapidarytool.com in China. With shipping & combined with other products, it came out to $215 for the 8" version. The total price will depend on the other items in your order. Lynn
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Post by stoner on Feb 8, 2012 23:16:19 GMT -5
Cool! I knew you would like the sintered wheel. It will cut like this down to the metal, so you've years of wear on it. I'm not easy on mine and this june will be 5 years, and I still have another couple of years left on it! Thanks for the report.
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