Diamnond stones

N

Nebulae

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Aug 24, 2009
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I have a set of DMT Diamond stones, and I was wondering if I could ruin them or wear them out by doing allot of work on a piece of tungsten carbide, if so I can get a couple of cheap ones from harbor freight for like $10, should I do this?

Thanks
 
Personally, I'd probably just use the DMTs. As I understand it, the "wearing out" that a diamond stone does is primarily the grit itself detaching from the base material, not the grit breaking down. A carbide should not cause much pull-out, diamond wheels are what they use to make carbide end mills and soforth. I'm certainly no authority on diamonds, but I've used mine to dress my router bits, and I've never had the slightest bit of trouble with them.
 
I have sharpened (rather poorly) some TC, but here I am going to be using it like a file. Maybe I will stick to the coarse stone, because I dont use it very often.
 
It's normal for SOME of the diamond to scrub off, but excessive damage will be done if too much pressure is used. Keep pressure as light as possible, and I'd also recommend using water for some lubrication. It'll keep the swarf in suspension, so it won't clog the diamond hone. I've used mine to flatten ceramic hones, and a method that's worked for me, is to immerse the diamond hone in enough water to keep the surface covered. I used a Pyrex dish, with a piece of wet/dry sandpaper under the hone, to keep it from sliding around.
 
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You can sharpen ceramic with diamonds so the TC should be okay. The only issue is pressure, because the material is so hard it will feel like the stone is doing nothing and this can lead you to press harder. keep reminding yourself to let the stone do the work and you should be okay.
 
Yes. Chiming in here to wear out the pressure theme. I ruined a course & an x-course using too much pressure reprofiling a cheap knife. They had lasted a decade or so up to that point & sharpened tons of blades. Water & moderate pressure will get good results.
 
according to ben dale there should be less risk of tearing diamonds with something harder than steel. iirc the problem with steel is that it's too soft and "plastic" diamonds dig too much inside and get teared off the plate.

not a reason to bear down on the plate but it should work.
 
yeah, you should be more worried about detachment from too much pressure, TC is not harder than diamond. i've also used DMT as a lapping plate for ceramic stones, and while detachment does occur, it is minimal. the key is pressure. let the tool do the work, don't force it.
 
well I know TC is not going to destroy the diamond, diamond being harder, my concern was that since I will be using it to remove allot of carbide which it was not specifically designed for, I could remove enough grit through tear-out to make a problem.

Pwet that is really interesting, one of those things that makes perfect sense, but you cant really measure easily.

Thanks I'm gonna go for it
 
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