Making Diamond Lapping Abrasive

Thanks! (though you probably want to substitute something else for benzene!)

Hmm. 'I bequeth a diamond hone, made from an artificial diamond formed from my ashes, to ..."

"Your ashes" implies cremation, which tends to involve removal (conversion to CO and CO2) of carbon, which is what diamonds are. So that ain't gonna happen...

There are going to be some carbonates left, unless you hold the temp

They want half a pound of ash, to make a carat of diamond, you only need what, .1% by weight to be carbon, to make it work. Of course, you could check that they really do do it, by sending in two lots of ashes of significantly different ages, and radiocarbon dating the resultant diamond.

Would smashing up an old CBN wheel work for making a lapping compound?

Wes S

Benzine - Benzene. I do not know the origin of the writer but what is called Benzine in some countries is Gasoline in the USA. Benzene is another thing and if it is the same as Benzol is indeed a nasty thing.

Mauro

The authors of the article quoted in my original post above are American, pre 1955.

Nowadays one might use laquer thinner or varsol to rinse the diamond powder.

Wolfgang

MG wrote:

Bear in mind that benzene was used by quite a lot of people into the mid seventies as a solvent and degreaser. Most of them didn't die from it.

Mark Rand RTFM

Despite the name, I bet it was actually benzine, not benzene, if for no other reason than cost.

There is Benzene (C6H6 ring, ) and Benzine (distilled from crude oil, , and they are *not* the same, although the names are often used interchangeably.

Benzene causes all manner of health problems, like liver cancer, while benzine is no more dangerous than cigarette lighter fluid.

When I was in college, I worked as a handyman in the school library. I needed some solvent, and ordered Benzine. But I got Benzene. Oops. A little more than I bargined for there. The university procurement dept was used to ordering all manner of chemicals, and it didn't strike them as odd when the library ordered benzene. Sent it back unopened, got the right stuff. Sure didn't want a bottle of benzene floating around the library, as they were not going to understand the danger.

Joe Gwinn

Unfortunately you'd lose the bet on that one. I have done work for watch repairers who were using it as a solvent and both the spelling on the bottles and the smell of the stuff is distinctive.

Mark Rand RTFM

Unh. OK. Do you know why they used benzene?

Joe Gwinn

Rank stupidity, as far as I could tell at the time. I did mention the danger to one (the father of one of my friends) and he said that that was what he used, end of story.

Mark Rand RTFM

Ya gotta love the philosophy of "what was good enough for pop (or grand pop) is good enough for me!

Wolfgang

Mark Rand wrote:

Wes,

It probably would work very well. Question is, is it economically worthwhile? I can't answer that; but I do lots of things that may not be economically justified, "just for the heck of it".

The problem I see is grading the CBN particles after pounding to dust. I suppose if the density of the CBN particles is not too different from diamond particles then the same settling times may be used.

Why not suck it and see and let us know about your results?

Wolfgang

Nowadays, you could buy a syringe of properly graded diamond dust in the correct carrier for $5 or $10 and avoid the whole time consuming thing. I know my time's worth more than that for the 10 or more hours you need for settling the fines. In 1955, I don't believe cheap synthetic diamond dust was on the market. Not to mention where you're going to find 25 carats of industrial bort outside a diamond district. That's kind of hard back-of-beyond, where the brown buggy goes just about anywhere. If you want to pay extra, you could order today and be lapping tomorrow.

Stan

It's very good at absorbing moisture, when a watch has been dropped in water. If treated within 24 hours or less, there will be no rust.

Steve R.

Ok, that works for me. Possibly something like acetone would have removed the paint from the dials or similar.

Mark Rand RTFM