|
The Darkside™ was created to address the rising metals prices and to create an affordable easy-to-charge and use
lap. They immediately became popular with people who always had trouble charging a metal lap. But there were surprises in store: The Darkside outperformed expectations and has been adopted by many professional production cutters. In particular, they are the "Magic Bullet" for quartzes when used with Cerium Oxide. Suppose we took the ease of a Corian-type lap, coupled with the speed of a composite lap, but reduced wearing and heating? Now add polar and nonpolar domains to allow the use of the whole range of diamond and oxide polishes. The lap quickly breaks in on the first stone, without the charging process needed for metal laps, making it user-friendly for beginners. The feedback from testers has been so enthusiastic, it was released it October 14 . The 8" lap sells for $85.00 Postpaid to US addreses.
I have moved the reviews and comments to the next page.
STOCKING DEALERS
OR
|
Using the DARKSIDE.Be stingy with the polish! For use with diamond polish, you can use a tiny bit of spray compound, or a THIN SPARSE amount of the regular compound, or, with a tissue wipe on a thin film of WD40 or any common oil type extender, then wipe dry. Wipe on a THIN film of diamond powder. Wipe clean once in a while to remove stone dust buildup, and repeat as needed to maintain polishing speed. Slower speeds are used than with a BATT™. Try 200-400 RPM until you get the feel of the lap. For oxide use, either use it right out of the box with a THIN, dilute slurry of the oxide polish, or, if changing from diamond to oxide for that pesky quartz, wash the lap with a little detergent (409 or Fantastik work well), rinse, and begin polishing. After oxide use, if you want to go back to diamond, rinse the lap, and prepare as above with the oily tissue to "polarize" the lap for diamond. You are going to find from the following entries that Cerium Oxide on a Darkside Lap is the Magic Bullet for the quartzes. Some of the work presented by Professional cutters was done on a CeO/Darkside DIRECTLY from a #600 lap. Yes, a two-lap stone. This was done by experienced people who learned how to "listen to the lap". Generally, the fastest, easiest polishing always is preceded by a completed 3K prepolish.
When changing polishes from diamond to oxides or back, This does NOT mean you can break
the rules about grit sizes . This is a polishing lap, designed for submicron particles
in the typical polshing grit sizes: Any oxides, or diamond in the usual polishing sizes from 50-200K.
(That said, people will do it anyway, and have. It's a bad habit to form. Don't do it. It never ends well.) The DARKSIDE™ is a lightweight lap, made of the specially developed material coated onto an aluminum baseplate, then machined both sides for flatness. For its thickness it is surprisingly rigid. Because of the two-ply construction, these laps require twice the labor operations to manufacture, but it least it finally gets away from those horrible tin prices. The Darkside™ is a RESURFACABLE LAP. Within reason, if a lap jam does not destroy the lap, you get another chance or two. If A stone fractures and chips embed, the Darkside can be resurfaced. Once production started, I increased the thicknesses of both the metal backing and the polymer composite layer to allow this, as well as to give the lap a stiffer "feel" and quiter running. I can resurface your Darkside, or any local machine shop can. Carbide tooling is required. Single point or PCD diamond is strongly suggested for best finish. WHAT IT ISN'T: It is not an off-the-shelf commercial material. Like BATT™ and BA5T™, it was designed for this specific application, Made Here, and has no other readily apparant commercial uses. It contains no reactive species, nor are its precursors listed carcinogens. (I want to survive making the stuff! Just as with my metal alloys, since I have to make and handle thousands of them, you can BET I watch toxicity issues! Any such issues will get me first.) It is not a BATT™. It is designed for polishing, though it has been tested successfully with 3K as a prepolish, which it does quickly and aggressively. While I never designed the tin alloy BATT for cutting, people love cutting with it...but you will NOT be able to do this with the DARKSIDE™. Why it works: Like all Gearloose laps, the polishing mechanism relies on surface complexity for polish retention, and lubricity for reduced heating and higher polishing efficiency. Some users have gotten three pavilions done before needing to add more diamond. Because the composite contains carbon, it has a natural affinity for diamond, but the hydrophilic domains GREEDILY accept oxide polishes-Use them SPARINGLY. Commercial Cutters' Results:This Just In: Lawrence, in Australia, on the Aussie Sapphire forum:4.55ct Lilac Garnet Tanga Region - Tanzania Atlas (Jeff Graham Design) A very clean and perplexing stone. In some lights, it sparkles from the big facets on the crown. In other lights the stone glows from the brilliant pavilion. This photo shows a bit of a mix. Cut on 600 Solid Steel Crystalite Prepolished with 3000 Loose Grit on BATT Polished with 50000 Spray on Darkside Table polished with 50000 Loose Grit on BATT   QUARTZ: 80.70cts. 26.5x26.5mm.
 Barion Oval Quartz 51.25mm.x34.1mm. 1.6oz. @ 46grams @ 227carats +/- my scale only measures to 100cts. Faceted with XS3, Polished with Gearloose "Darkside™" lap with Cerium Oxide (From cutting on #600 Plated lap DIRECT to CeO Polish on Darkside™)
Tourmaline in process.
Spessartines.
(By Permisson, Gem-Obsession.) MORE TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE™!The GEMOLOGY ONLINE THREAD ABOUT THE DARKSIDE™Users' experiences, problems, solutions, triumphs, and examples.ABOUT THE NAME:
I showed my wife the prototypes, and she said, "Looks nice. Which side does the polishing?" "The dark side." "Nice name!". Page Background: DARKSIDE'S Surface complexity plotted as Fractal Dimension Contour. |
|
"DARKSIDE™" is a Trademark used to describe a proprietary advanced composite polymer that has been engineered to produce low coefficients of Friction and thereby run cooler than other polymeric laps, and high surface complexity for polish particle retention. It has domains which are lyophilic and hydrophilic, allowing use of any polish medium.
|