Recommendation? Cleaning/restoring EDM polishing stones

Here is a picture.
 

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Bill DeShivs said:
I have a clear squirt bottle that I filled with WD 40 maybe 10 years ago. The carrier evaporated pretty rapidly, and all that is left is some light mineral oil. I'm sure I can find a picture if you want.
I have been using WD 40 for various things for over 15 years. I put it on my guitar strings. I wouldn't do that if it gummed up. I have used it as a steam/refrigeration engineer, a jeweler, a cutler, and a musician.
I have never seen it gum anything up.
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There is lots and lots of information out there about how WD-40 gums things up, especially guns.

 
Yeah, I saw that video. They don't know what they are talking about.
Why, after using it all these years, has it never gummed anything up for me?
BTW- I forgot to list gunsmith and engraver in my previous post.
 
Someone here was nice enough to send me some of the Gesswein stones to give a try a while back.

So far Im finding i like the silicon carbide ones, more than the orange, aluminum oxide stones.

Ive mostly been using them with 3-in-1 oil so far, with pretty good results. I think i tried water, windex, and wd-40 when i first got them, and they all seemed to work pretty similar. So ive just been using whatever i have on hand, closest to me, and make the least mess. So ive been using the 3 in 1.

I think i want to give some of the higher grit stones a shot eventually to at least get me up to around the 600 range, where i can switch to sandpaper for the final pass.

One thing i noticed, and this could have just been technique, was when i tried to switch from the 220 stone, to 320 3m pro grade, the edm stones scratches were pretty deep compared to the sandpaper. I ended up needing to drop down to 180, then go back up to 320.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Yeah, I saw that video. They don't know what they are talking about.
Why, after using it all these years, has it never gummed anything up for me?
BTW- I forgot to list gunsmith and engraver in my previous post.
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Just a theory bit I think the WD-40 isn't really the issue. I think the smoke, soot, dust, etc from the guns is mixing with the WD-40 and making it gum up. This however makes me think any oil would gum up a gun so idk. But it's also similar to how they say not to use any liquid in locks, only dry graphite, the reason being oil mixed with dirt and grime on the key will gum the lock up. The contamination doing the gumming not really the oil itself.
 
Good thread, I might just give stones a try again. I also noticed what appeared to be deeper scratches with the stones than with similar grit sandpaper.
 
Skiller is a very insightful guy-and he is absolutely correct.
 
PEU said:
I use Boride CS-M stones, with WD40, tried detergent water, but I like the wd40 better, dunno, the slurry looks better.

Pablo
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You should try their cs-hd sometime... They work really fast even on steels like magnacut
 
REK Knives said:
You should try their cs-hd sometime... They work really fast even on steels like magnacut
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are they harder or softer? You use them prewetted or dry? oil or detergent water? Thanks for the recomendation

Pablo
 
I am now a HUGE proponent of stones for finishing. I usually take high carbide content steels to 3000 grit PRE-heat treat and has worked well for me in the past with S110V. I did a few blades in S90V that I took to 800 grit before heat treat, but did not get all the deeper scratches out from the 220 grit pass (rookie mistake). Got them back from Peters' and had a few deep lengthwise scratches that I had not seen before.

After reading up on EDM stones for finishing, I ordered a sample pack from Falcon, N-series stones 320-400-600-900-1200. Found that WD-40 worked okay, but windex seems to work more aggressively. Made short work of the scratches and overall finishing process on S90V at 61-62 RC. Call me impressed.
 
PEU said:
are they harder or softer? You use them prewetted or dry? oil or detergent water? Thanks for the recomendation

Pablo
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They are soft and break down nicely. I use them with the cutting oil boride makes, that's what they recommended.
 
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