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I have a very inexpensive wet grinding machine builded by myself. It works easy and very quick.
I grind and polish nearly all my enamelwork, from small earrings up to wall-plates of 10 x 10 inch, to a silky gloss.
If I make cloisonné work, I overfill all cells. That means the frame and all wires are covered with a thin layer of enamel. The last layer is mostly a soft flux.
Jewellery grinding I start with diamond-wheels of 400 grit. I grind only so long, that the wires and the frame are free from enamel and the most of the enamel-surface is flat. If nescessary I fill the pits and pores, dry and fire again.
The new grinding I start mostly with diamond-wheel grit 400 or 600, if o. k. I change over to 800 followed by 1000 - 1200 grit.
After that I polish with a hard felt-wheel and Cer-oxide. (You get it in lapidary-shops.) If it looks so as I want, I clean the workpiece under runing water, rub it with a white candle-rest and polish the surface with the palm of my hand. The enamel-surface get a beautiful silk-like gloss.
Edmund
thank you Edmund, I think probably I got 2 diamond wheels with a too-fine cut of abrasive. Not sure now where I read my grain numbers on this...but If your 400 size corresponds with our 'wet-dry' 400 sandpaper, then I need coarser grit to start. I suspected as much when my fine resin bond diamond lapidary wheels did nothing to the surface of a test 'stone'. Shiny as ever. Then the enamel I wanted to flatten was same, just as high and shiny.
Yes Terry, it corresponds.
If the grains are finer than 2000 grit, it is more a polishing material than a grinding material. I think in enamel-grinding you don't need such extra, extra fine grit. It is more interesting for the gem-cutter/lapidary-people. The mesurement for the grits is "Grit per square inch". (More correct is "Mesh per square inch"). The higher the number of the grits, the finer is it.
Edmund
Sorry, I made a mistake. The messurement of the sive is mesh per inch and not mesh per square inch.
Edmund
thanks, I will be getting a different couple wheels soon. Got new planches and trivets in shipment today. yay!
you might consider getting an expanding drum, and using silicon carbide belts on it. that's what i use. the belts are very inexpensive and i personally prefer silicon carbide to diamond. best source i've found for the belts is minnesota lapidary, which you can find online.
or, if you want a hands on lesson, you can come to my marietta, ga studio for a weekend workshop, which will include a lesson on grinding/polishing with my equipment!
wow, thanks for the invite, but I can't quite come up with the financing for it. I am doing one piece equipment at a time for my studio, and hoping to retire healthy enough to use it well. Do the SiCarbide belts last long, or need replacing often? since my first couple are going to be polishers, I still can opt for the expanding drum. BTW, what does your workshop run? website to see the answer? going to look at Minn Lap right now.
my two day workshops cost $260. silicon carbide belts can last a long time, and are very inexpensive. under $2 a belt at minn lap. pam east came over to my studio, saw and tried my set up, and quickly realized how simple and easy it is. i use silicon carbide for everything; grinding the enamel surface and polishing after my enamel layers/wirework is level.
Thanks, am looking at the pages from Minn Lap catalog. Do you also have the end plates on the arbor? I bought the 4 wheel 6" st steel Lortone, it's tapped on ends for a flat plate/disc. Your workshop sounds very attractive. Cost of travel from OH and lodging are the big cost. Someday I hope to. Was on your site, browsing. Love your work. I have always used wet-dry paper to smooth the enamels, but now old achy hands are protesting. So nice to find the alternative.
Many, many years ago, I wrote an article about "Enamel grinding" in Glass On Metal. Because the Lapidary-machine I described there is very expensive, and because I collected a lot of experience, I wrote im Mai 2010 a new Article. It describes a low cost grinding and polishing machine which you can building by yourself. You find a copy of the GOM-article here as a PDF-file.
discussions/1-1000/974-bqhQjhHtJe4UmNAPVohHOP0o7tHUXlCR8C0Mig6YL...
Edmund
great info, Edmund. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Ricky very much.
I am astonished, that so many people still grind and polish by hand. It is so hard and boring! Such a simple wet-grinding-machine is easy to reproduce and the price is, without the diamond-belts, well below 100 US$.
But I know from my many enamel-courses, that, especially the ladies are afraid against the machine. They fear to ruin their work. In doing it is really simple if you consider some rules.
1) Let the machine not to quick run,
2) Use a lot of running water.
3) Starting with a diamond-belt which not coarser than 400 grit.
4) Overfill the cloisonné-cells a bit.
Nearly all my enamel-jewellery I make from 0,7 mm thick Fine-Silver sheet, of course also enamelled from the back, and always with a soldered rim. My Wires and the frame are 0,7 - 0,8 mm in height. I fill the cells with enamels brimful. Then I sieve-on a thin shift of extra clear flux, for example "Finition Flux" produced by the Christallery St. Paul, France. After firing and cooling I start grinding with a 400 grit-belt but only until all wires and the frame are just free from enamel. Then I control the enamel surface with a magnifier for pits and holes. Are there any, I refill, fire again and start grinding with 600 grit followed by 800 until 1200 grit. After that I polish the surface with Cer-oxide onto a felt-wheel. Mostly I let the work piece for 2-4 hours with stainless-steel-balls, water and curd soap run in a tumbler. The last step is polishing the surface with a white candle -leftover and the palm of my hand.
Edmund
thanks so much for your instructions... I am a lady not afraid of power tools, been using them all my life. Just not liking spending money on the wrong tools! appreciate your tips for automating my stoning enamels. terry
Hallo Terry,
Thank you very much for your reply.
I am far from discriminating against the women. But in my many courses önly 2 or 3 ladies used the machine. The others asked me to grind it for her.
If you copy the machine, and you have collected a bit experience, it would be nice, if you would share your knowledge in this forum.
Edmund
Thanks to Edmund and Ricky, generous souls. I have ordered what lower grit belts and the 2 expanding drums recommended, good info I believe from Minnesota Lapidary. They called me the day after I emailed to clarify my questions. Nice folk. Have ordered 240, 400, 600, and 800 silicon carbide belts. He says that after the 800, I will be holding a sheen thats ready to polish on my finer diamond wheels.
Looking forward to not standing at the sink, with work resting on wet wood block, my hands doing the grinding. Standing a bit more upright, drippy still but way less time to do it! Kudos for my DH who found me an ebay 1/3 hp motor and helped mount it for low $$. Am electronic tech myself, and I can say if ladies approach it with caution, and knowledge, the machine is not going to bite! At least if you follow all the safety steps, and don't try to do it tired, rushed or distracted. that's when stuff happens. Respect it but don't fear it, you take control of it.
Hi -
This is probably a stupid question, but I am very, very new to enameling, and have not quite figured out the whole grinding/polishing issue. If I was to make this grinder, how do you hold down the trigger on the drill to make it run and also hold the piece to be polished steady at the same time? Also, if you are grinding/polishing something small like a pin or earring, how can you hold it tight so it doesn't fly out of your hand? Again - I apologize if my questions are elementary.
HI Denise, no question is dumb in a new venture. I am old enamelist, after 30 yr hiatus. Coming back, I am learning the machine method. As I mentioned above, I tried setup of Battery op. drill, but needed to swap too many wheels to make it convenient. I found a pair of wire-ties with a spring clamp made a y-type harness to hold the trigger on. Some batt op drills may be out there with a trigger lock, but my cheapo did not. The flange with a hose clamp on Edmund's photo looked doable, but the weight of my drill battery made me try a wood box construction to hold it. I also made a drip/spash guard of a kitty-litter /birdseed lidded square bucket to enclose the wheel.
To hold small items, there's stuff called dop wax that lapidary shops carry that's a hard wax/shellac mix, I am guessing. You heat it up a bit (not way hot, more like the temp of hot-glue pot (what I found worked from a craft store). Heat the item to be held about the same, put a stick in the dop sized to hold it on the end and put the warm enamel on the wax end of stick, let cool, and it is a temporary 'clamp' for the item/stone. Pulls off if you are lucky, no residue after put in freezer to shrink it off. Be careful about sudden temp. changes on enamel = glass. Allow no shock cool or heating. Water drips continuously on wheel for cooling, but dropping hot dopped item in cold water could crack it. Follow the directions for dop wax, and be more cautious because it's glass, not stones you are working on the wheel. I have yet to do the wheel so am learning like you.
Hallo Denise,
To fixing the actuator knob, I use a so called "screw cap opener". It is build up with a grab-handle, a flexible steel-band and at the end of the handle a screw. With this screw, you can open and close the steel-band. If you wind the steel-band so around the handle of the of the cordless screwdriver that the steel-band lay over the actuator-knob and then close the screw at the end of the cap opener, you can lock of the knob. And you can adjust the speed of the screwdriver.
You can buy such a screw cap opener in USA by Zyliss. Here the address of their homepage:
http://usa.zyliss.com/our-products/ProductDetails.aspx?Id=249&C...
Zyliss opener / USA. It looks a bit different from mine , but the principle is the same.
Self evident, my construction manual shown here:
discussions/1-1000/968-bqhQjhHtJe4UmNAPVohHOP0o7tHUXlCR8C0Mig6YL...
can only act as a suggestion, because all screw-driver are different.
To hold small items during grinding and polishing, I fasten the backside of the work piece onto a wooden handle. Instead of the shellac/wax mix which Terry advised I use a double-faced adhesive tape. In Germany it is called "Spiegelband", that means "mirror-band"
Edmund
Thank you to Edmund and Terry for your advice. I think I get it now - and am going to have my husband make this for me. I have been using the alundum stones and wet/dry papers and with Rheumatoid Arthitis is makes it difficult to sand for long periods. Also,the arbors are so expensive so thank you again!
edmund, thanks, never saw this type jar-opener. Looks very useful for many things! I don't think I have used a double-face tape in US that's something I think suitable to hold enamel...under running water drip? wow. Then releases clean? will have to look for it. but not hopeful.
ok, found it by google and translate: 3M mirror mounting tape, # 4032, close-cell foam with adhesive. I have seen it for permanent mounting of placard signs in our halls at work. Will have to find it on grainger.com maybe. yes, search in adhesives by the number, see several widths. Not called mirror mount, but same application type. some are on clearance.
Hi, this is for Pam East, enamelist extraordinaire, if she is out there..
I just set up an arbor with diamond wheels, and was playing at the end of the long day. Do you have, or know of an online tut for correct use of the way to grind then polish the enamels on it. My finances don't allow for a trip to a class, but did get the wheels, tried the electric drill setup but not my thing. Finally got my arbor, a lortone 4 wheel capacity and I have yet just 3 wheels.
Guess I bought the wheels with someone's advice on an online site, and have 6" # 8000 diamond resin, # 14000, and a smaller diam 4" of 50,000 grit. Microns.
I tried it on an already polished piece of hematite since directions say to 'break-in' the resin wheels with a stone to knock off the high spots. So far, I saw no effect on that stone. Then tried on an enamel domed with bumps of enamel...no effect. SO do I need to buy much lower grit wheels, and more $? I can use the ones I have now to polish I think, but still gotta hand stone to knock down the surface. My old hands are sore, and don't allow that much now.
Thanks for any pointers.
It would be very nice to get a tut, or vid on you tube..
Terry