Re-Surfacing / Leveling Carbide File Guide Faces

J. Keeton

J. Keeton

Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
1,209
Does anyone have a good suggestion / idea on how to tune up a carbide faced file guide? I have a low spot on mine and wanted to get them leveled.

Maybe some diamond compound on a disc grinder?

I figure the best way would be with a solid grinding wheel on a surface grinder... but I don't have one of those.

Cheers,
James
 
AMZ seller has some cheap diamond wheels on the site. If you can figure out how to center them on a larger wheel and then run them at low speeds with some water spritz you should be able to re-face the guide. I use them on a slow-speed grinder for shaping hand-engraving cutters from HSS to carbide.

PS - copy/paste this search string at AMZ:

uxcell 6-inch Grit 500 Diamond Coated Flat Lap Wheel Grinding Sanding Polishing Disc​

 
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I ordered some "carbide scraper blades" from Amazon that I'm gonna retrofit to my file guide... They are really cheap (10 blades for $26) and are the perfect size (.5" x 2"). May want to check into getting some!
 
Easiest way is to use a 12" DMT stone plate and just work it back and forth with soapy water on the plate. I would use coarse followed by medium or fine.

Best way is to lap them flat on a diamond disc/lap. If you know a stone cutter or lapidary, he can do it in a few minutes.
You can do it on a home brew 12" lap base plate (round aluminum or steel disc with 1/2" center hole to mount on an arbor or shaft adapter). and an Amazon 12" 500 grit diamond lapping disc search: ABST25249

 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Easiest way is to use a 12" DMT stone plate and just work it back and forth with soapy water on the plate. I would use coarse followed by medium or fine.

Best way is to lap them flat on a diamond disc/lap. If you know a stone cutter or lapidary, he can do it in a few minutes.
You can do it on a home brew 12" lap base plate (round aluminum or steel disc with 1/2" center hole to mount on an arbor or shaft adapter). and an Amazon 12" 500 grit diamond lapping disc search: ABST25249
Click to expand...

Do you think this would do it with a little elbow grease?

Amazon- DMT-D8C-Dia-Sharp-Continuous-Diamond


325 equivalent mesh DMT 8'' stone for 57$

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Bruce Bump will re-surface them for around 50$ after shipping. I figured if I go with the stone above, I can fix it up again in the future and maybe use the stone for other tasks around the shop.
 
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Yes, that will work.

. We are not supposed to use links to non-Bladeforums suppliers anymore, so I changed your post.
 
I did a home made file guide with carbide strips and used the cheapy harbor freight 4 sided diamond block to get mine pretty flat. They aren't perfect, but work pretty well for me!
 
I epoxied my strips to the metal and had to even them out. Cheap diamond plates work.
 
Well that worked! The above mentioned DMT diamond stone got these leveled out in about 45 min of vigorous lapping!

Process:







Results:




Bonus question... Is this discoloration normal on diamond stones? Also it looks like mine may have a pit right in the middle! (I noticed it there from the start)



Note all I used was some water during use then cleaned it with dawn afterwards.
 
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You might be able to do it by lapping on some silicon carbide wet-dry paper, or by sticking the paper to your disc grinder. Not sure how many sheets you'd go through before you'd get it flat though.
 
Diamonds work the quickest. Final grit often doesn't matter, SIC is nice at higher grits. I just use the cheap diamond stones!
 
Maybe you could use diamond micron belts, along with your surface grinder attachment?

Also love the videos. I'm always commenting on them under the same name I have here.
 
J. Keeton said:
Well that worked! The above mentioned DMT diamond stone got these leveled out in about 45 min of vigorous lapping!

Process:







Results:




Bonus question... Is this discoloration normal on diamond stones? Also it looks like mine may have a pit right in the middle! (I noticed it there from the start)



Note all I used was some water during use then cleaned it with dawn afterwards.
Click to expand...
Its pretty normal in my experience with diamond plates as they wear. It looks likes its about time for you to get a replacement plate (or blade although when I bought new ones for my atoma it didnt save me much money compared to just buying a whole new one). That's the main drawback of the plates compared to something like resin bonded diamond stones, or vitrified diamond (if you can afford them [I can't:( , but the resin bonded ones are good enough for my uses anyway]) is the diamonds will get worn off and/or dulled after a while, then you're just left with a smooth section in the middle.

Edit: sorry I'm reading from the bottom up.

I mainly have experience with atoma plates, and the interrupted surface dmt plates. They both wear with use in my experience, but since that's a new one you may have gotten a bit unlucky with that particular product.

Although it's hard to tell from just a picture.
 
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I know carbide is pretty hard, but is it really impossible to lap it on your surface grinder attachment on the 2x72? I've sanded a broken carbide drill bit into a chisel to make a tagane hammer. Maybe it would sacrifice a couple of ceramic belts to do a larger surface, but it seems significantly easier than lapping by hand. They have 2x72 diamond belts on Tru-Grit which might work even better.
 
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