BATT™ BRIEFS!

Latest Hints and Tricks!


October 19, 2008

I have not been keeping up with this page because there was not a lot of news in 2007, other then the disasterous tin prices runup.

Here are two nice items:

1) A new affordable lap has been developed to address the metals price gouging that occurred from late 2007 to recently. Reviews have been very good.

The new "DARKSIDE™" is easier to use, and does not require skills at charging. I may have another BATT™ on my hands.

NEW POLYMERIC LAP!!

The "DARKSIDE": $85.00 with Free Shipping.

2) Tin prices have started dropping. China was frantically building infrastructure, like Printed Circuit plants and solder foundries. But with the economies cooling this is projected to slow down. Another aspect is that while we watch our Real Estate and Retirement Plans turn into pocket change, a Commodities Bubble is also collapsing. Speculation was another factor in driving up tin and other metals prices. One can hope these speculators are taking the 1929 approach and being gentlemen enough to hurl themselves out of windows. The metals prices have given me, my dealers, and my Customers a horrible year.

I will be watching my next couple of refiner shipments, and expect to be able to roll back prices for my tin-based laps at some point.

September, 2007: Improved BATT™ Alloy released.

Over the ten years that BATT™ have been produced there have been many adjustments made to the alloy as more was learned, and user experience was studied. This has been an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary one.

The acceptance and enthusiasm generated by the BA5T™ lap, (marketed to professional high volume cutters) showed there was a need for a harder, finer-grained alloy. BA5T had some very expensive alloying additions, and this priced it out of the range of many people.

The following requirements for a "perfect" lap alloy made the development of the 2007 BATT™ challenging:

1: It must be nearly pure tin, for lubricity and diamond uptake.

2: No toxic alloying ingredients could be used, no lead, tellurium, selenium, indium (Its oxide is an irritant), cadmium, etc.

3: It must retain the cored structure and grown grains of the successful BATT™ alloy series.

4: It must retain the specific casting properties to accomplish the above.

5: It must have a higher Brinell Hardness Number, so as to reduce contamination and and resist damage.

..And it must do all this with lower alloying percentages in order to keep the tin content as high as possible!

THINGS WE LEARNED OVER TIME:

Faster easier charging, for polish or prepolish grits:

Take a clean dry BATT™ or BA5T lap.

Wipe lightly with a WD-40 dampened tissue.

Wipe nearly dry.

Rub on with a clean fingertip a thin 'monolayer' of your chosen diamond powder, such as 50K for polish or 3K for prepolish.

Use a test piece of corundum to set the diamond powder...OR just start polishing.

When polish rate slows down, wipe off swarf and "Black Stuff" and repeat previous steps.

SWARF IS YOUR ENEMY! IT CAUSES DRAG, SCRATCHING, and HEATING!-Especially on CZ and garnets!

(Remember, ALWAYS sweep the lap)

As you use the lap, less and less charge will be needed. This is neater and faster than the method shown in the video and produces an amazingly FAST polish!!!

Try it on a 3000 prepolish lap and watch what happens!

Too much lubricant prevents Work from being put into the stone, and causes hydroplaning and "Jetting" which transfers machining marks to the facet.

FRIABLE DIAMOND COMPOUNDS marketed for ceramic lap users do wonders for speed on ceramic laps because they break down the way cerium oxide does, giving superior speed, and ending with a beautiful polish.

They are not appropriate for these tin alloy laps, however, because the laps so readily take up diamond that the agglomerates do not recieve enough shearing to fully break up. I found this out recently with a 60K product.

BATT™ for CUTTING!

I suppose everyone has heard about it by now, but some adventurous souls have been charging BATT™ laps with coarser diamond and using them for CUTTING. Because the charges are renewable, quartz fowling is no longer a nuisance. Grits from #325 to #600 and #1200 have been used. Water coolant quickly turns white like milk because of the material removal rate loading the water with rock dust.

I myself intended the laps to be used for polishing and prepolishing, which proves the Manufacturer does not know EVERYTHING about the product's uses!

Color Code your laps.

With a tool in the facet head, or even (carefully) a piece of hacksaw blade, machine a groove on the outer rim of your BATT™ laps. Fill with a paint or colored epoxy that matches the color code of your diamond compound. 3,000 (Yellow) and 50,000 (Grey) are shown here:

How to charge a new lap.

Back to the BATT Page.
"BATT™ and BA5T™ are Trademarks used to describe proprietary alloys, principally of tin, which contains alloying metals of low or no toxicity which harden and deoxidize the alloy and establish certain grain structures which are developed by Trade Secret annealing and quenching processes.