Diamond plate brand preferences
- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 4 months ago by gvharvey.
-
AuthorPosts
-
Let me introduce myself as a refugee from power-tool woodworking. Too much space required, too much noise, too much dust, too much danger, too much expense for the tools, too many expensive add-on fixtures for far too long.
When I discovered Paul Sellers on YouTube, I realized I had been delivered from darkness.
Having moved to a new, smaller home, I really didn’t have enough space to set up a power-tool woodworking shop. Paul came along just in time.
I began buying used woodworking tools on eBay and refurbishing them — following Paul’s guidance.
One of my first tasks was to refurbish some Stanley and Sargent planes. And Step 1 was to flatten the soles. The first plane just laughed at the stones I had, so I bought the EZE Lap 8″x3″ double-sided X-Coarse/Coarse plate from http://www.knifecenter.com and set to work flattening a #4 plane with the X-Coarse. It worked beautifully.
Then I flipped the plate over and began working on the Coarse plate. But the plate was working only on the middle of the sole. It took a bit of work to learn that the X-Coarse plate was concave, so it put a convex surface on my plane sole. I returned it to Knife Center, and they immediately refunded my money, but were amazed at my complaint.
Then — after much detective work — I located a phone number for EZE-Lap and talked to someone on the technical side of things. I learned that their standard for flatness is 1/1000″ per 4″ of length. That means that an 8″ plate has a 2/1000″ tolerance, which just doesn’t produce acceptable results for me.
I then checked with DMT and found that their plate would be within 5/10,000″ in 8″ of length. I bought their X-Coarse/Coarse double-sided plate and found that they were indeed FLAT. But the X-Coarse did not cut fast enough. So, I dug deeper into my meager funds and bought a single-sided XX-Coarse plate. It is both flat and fast.
I have several Japanese water stones that I can flatten in the blink of an eye using the DMT diamond plate, making the water stones very satisfactory for the later honing and polishing work.
Yes, I paid more for the DMT plates than for the EZE-Lap, and bid adieu to much more money that I had anticipated, but they work beautifully, and I am very much satisfied with my purchases. And the rice-and-beans diet is not all that bad.
I went right back to the Knife Center to buy the DMT plates. They had the best prices, and their service was excellent. The DMT plates are found on this page: http://www2.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_store.html?k=benchstone&brand=291&min_price=0&max_price=500&country=
I hope this will be of some help to other befuddled rookies.
Harvey
22 December 2014 at 3:15 am #122458Well join the club there are a few of us that got tired of the noise dust ect. Its like opening the window for a breath of fresh air.
Welcome
Frankj22 December 2014 at 7:20 pm #122467Hi Harvey
I have three of the DMT 8″ x 3″ plates which I use for sharpening I find it far quicker to use coarse wet and dry paper stuck down to a pice of flat glass for flattening the back of chisel and plane irons and plane soles, by doing this I will extend the sharpening life of my stones.
Just a point I would be very surprised if a flatness tolerance on the EZE Lap of 0.002″ would course any problem if used for flattening soles of planes
EZE-Lap are the stones that Paul uses!!!Frank, that is exactly how I feel. Fresh air!
One of the “woodworking” magazines arrived in the mail today, and it’s nothing but a collection of ads for power tools and ads for power tools that are disguised as woodworking articles. It all feels so foreign now.
Thanks for the welcome.
Harvey
David, thanks for the response, but I’ve been using the abrasive paper method for years and find it rather expensive. Also, it’s not as fast as the XX-Coarse diamond plate. And I think that the cost will — over the next several years — be less for the diamond plate.
And, if you had seen how much of a difference there was between the two diamond faces on the EZE-Lap, you’d understand. The first side was actually counter-productive. The sole was farther out of flat after I used the first stone than when I started.
The 2/1000″ tolerance wouldn’t be fatal for sharpening the cutting edges of planes and chisels or in “flattening” their backs, but it just won’t do for the soles of planes. When we’re producing shavings of 1/1000″, a plane with a curvature of 1/1000″ per 4″ is just not sufferable.
I’m glad that I bought the more expensive, but more accurate, DMT plates.
I love the quote from the great Scottish geologist, Sir Archibald Geikie, “In the first place I would put accuracy.”
Perhaps I have an excessive zeal for accuracy, but that’s the way I was built.
Harvey
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.