How are diamond grinding wheels made?

I've never given that much thought, but remember that diamonds are conductive (they're carbon, right?), so they could easily be plated.

Harold

Diamonds are excellent insulators, unless doped with something to free up electrons. See

for one reference. All the electrons are tied up in carbon-carbon bonds, so there are no free electrons to participate in electrical conduction. It is almost a rule that anything clear is going to be an insulator, and anything black is likely to be a conductor.

Jon

Actually semi-conductors IIRC, I suspect they are 'pressed' in and then plated over. Then as you use the cutter, it wears the plating and the diamonds start cutting.

I used large diamond laps for sapphire and other exotic stones. Used diamond saws to slice through both rock and mineral.

Martin p.s. IC's are made in processes that contain SOS - Silicon on Sapphire and SOD on diamond. Diamond is a fantastic heat conductor Sapphire is next. Being a substrate, it conducts the heat to the metal header (metal content) and on to the outside world.

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot"s Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.

Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:

Heh! That likely explains why I made the statement I did. I own a diamond testing device-----much like a tiny soldering iron. I was thinking it was gauging conductivity--but it actually must be gauging heat transfer. Next time I'll try to let people that really understand what's happening answer instead of jumping to conclusions. Still----I think I learned something here.

Harold

eric one of the very talented guys in my model engineers club has done this. you get industrial diamond dust, which surprisingly isnt that expensive. you plop it into an electroplating bath and electroplate on to the wheel or tool piece. (he was making little diamond files) the diamond particles just get caught in the electroplating and get electroplated around. they dont actually bond.

this neednt be a big setup. one diamond file electroplater he used was made from a 35mm film canister and used a 1.5volt aa battery.

if he wore out a particularly useful file he would just reverse current, strip off the electroplating, then re do it.

you will need access to a kindly electroplater for some of the soup.

he did a wheel by rotating it slowly through an electroplating bath. that way it only diamond coated the working edge.

Stealth Pilot

Now you got us all wanting details. Can you get your buddy to post something or give you the details so you can let us know?

Thanks,

Wes S

Thanks for that answer. I'll bet your friend agitated the plating solution to keep the diamond dust suspended. I have an electroless nickel plating setup. I think I'll give it a try. Are you sure the metal doesn't bond to the diamond? The plated wheels I use don't lose diamond very easily. Eric