lapping water stones with atoma plates

[mrdeus]

I've seen the Atoma 140 recommended a lot of times for lapping coarse water stones. I'm wondering where the cut-off point is where one should switch to the Atoma 400 for finer grit stones. Or do you always use the 140 and finish the lapping using a finer conditioning stone?

I've previously only used loose SiC grit on a glass plate, but it's kind of messy so I don't do it very often.

 

[BluntCut MetalWorks]

I flatten my stones 220-16K with dull/worn out DMT 8XXC or 8XC or CKTG 120 grit diamond plate. Lapping in X pattern (intersect ~30 degrees left & right lines). No worry about wear on diamond plate. Others might worry about stone surface finish, not me - since I get same result. Of course, you can use nagura to smooth the surface.

 

[Jason B.]

The 140 works good down to about 300 grit, below that and you risk damaging the plate.

I used my 140 Atoma to lap all my stones up to 10,000 grit then use a nagura to condition the surface of stones beyond 2000 grit.

For lapping very coarse stones of 220 grit and less I would still recommend the SiC powder or other stone laps. The Large Naniwa lapping plate comes to mind.

 

[mrdeus]

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful! I guess I could settle for the Atoma 140 for now and use SiC powder for my coarser stones and nagura for high grit stones. I've been holding off getting Atomas because of the price, but I can definitely afford one plate. I actually came to think of getting a diamond plate again after watching your latest video, Jason. It looked so convenient.