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Advice sought: abrasives/stones/emery

I?ve got by so far on a hotchpotch of ?sandpaper?, an old sharpening stone of dubious heritage and other bits and bobs. I notice that J&L industries are having a ?30% off abrasives? sale and I thought I?d treat myself to some better supplies and kit.

I?m currently building an ME beam engine and will probably progress to a 3.5/5? steam loco next. Kit is a Myford S7/Fobco pillar drill, so normal kit, normal projects. With this in mind:

1) What does the group recommend in terms of sandpaper: emery cloth, wet and dry (is there a difference?)

2) What grades would cover most work

3) What width rolls?

4) I?d like some slip and sharpening stones and have been recommended Norton brand medium and fine Indian stone ? is that the reddish/brown type?

5) I remember a discussion about diamond hones a few months back ? any new thoughts

6) Any brands recommended/to be avoided?

Help much appreciated

Cheers

Reply to
Myford Matt
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Emery cloth is emery (aluminium oxide/iron oxide) on a cloth backing, wet-n-dry is silicon carbide on paper. Cloth is more flexible (for deburring, de-rusting, wrapping around stuff), while wet-n-dry is better used flat.

A bit of plate glass on a wooden block makes a cheap surface plate for rubbing flat surfaces and sharpening wide blades; paper abrasive will stick to the glass with some spit.

A roll of 60 or 80 grit cloth, paper in grit 120, 240, 400, 600, 800,

1000 & 1200 and some brass polishing fluid pretty much covers everything. Non-embedding lapping compound (not diamond stuff) is handy for finishing bores.

Yes.

IMHO only good for touching up edges on carbide cutters as they clog so easily, but I'm sure other people feel differently :)

Dunno... cheap-n-nasty grey sharpening stones can be good, as they wear fast hence cut quickly.

HTH Guy

Reply to
Guy Griffin

FWIW, would just add that to sharpen woodworking tools (chisels, plane blades etc.) there is IMO nothing to tough Japanese water stones. A medium/coarse stone and a fine one will put a superb edge on a chisel in a couple of minutes, and they cut so fast that you don't even need to use a double bevel angle on the blade, you can cut it all at the final angle.

They would probably also work on metal cutting tools, but I find they are a bit too soft - the small size of a tool means you will dig holes in t he stone, whereas with a WW blade it's much easier to spread the wear over the whole surface of the stone.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

Thanks for the advice!

Mat

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Myford Matt

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