The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

CVD diamond blanks are actually quite cheap. I think the most I've paid is about USD$15.00 a piece including taxes and shipping, and I have bought some much cheaper than that too.

Definitely some surface noise. What was the separation like? I don't know much about how DMM heads work so not sure I could offer any advice. I recall reading a theory that they utilised a 60khz carrier frequency to assist with cutting, though I think this was not the case but rather the head assemb...

I believe this machine utilises metal bonded diamond grinding discs rotated at a very high speed. These discs are very expensive so I don't think I'll be going down that path as this is only a hobby for me. Looks like a good option if you are doing it commercially though. When I looked into these gr...

I think part of the reason this head may have struggled is the connection of the torque tube to the back of the body. Screenshot 2025-04-03 at 8.42.01 PM.png All that glue will be restricting the torque tube from moving the way it should. I'd bet this is more a problem than the moving mass. Look for...

That is a very intriguing looking head. Is this your design or have you purchased it?

Been meaning to post this for a while. This is my somewhat crude jig for mounting diamonds into the shank. IMG_7448.JPEG It's just a piece of aluminium with a hole for mounting the shank. The grub screw in the side locks the shank in and positions the index in line with the horizontal line scribed i...

Front polishing is the most dangerous process. As Im using a coburn diamond spindle and turbo scaife supported by a 20mm thick steel bench(should be 40mm). Ive micro balance and ultra flattened my scaife then polished it. If you dont have these in place you need to choose from the 4 ends of the sty...

Yes, but if your only polishing for yourself,its lnot realy nessacary. As a maker and seller Im required to do stylus at a very perfect leval. Thanks for that. I do find that the quality of the face polishing can vary so I would like to be able to do this. Do you have a special tool you use to grip...

@ stylus maker, are you polishing the mirror face of you diamonds? I'm relying on the factory polishing from the diamond supplier but I think this is not as good as it could be. If so how are you holding the diamond to do this?

I did find a source of sapphire rod which is here https://www.swissjewel.com/product/sapphire-ruby-rods-tubes/rods/sp-11a/ I haven't purchased any as I have a few old sapphires at home I can play with. Looks like they can provide blanks at an almost reasonable price. Mounting into the shank is somet...

Thanks for sharing that. What do you mean by running ring?

That looks great. I assume you are getting good results cutting. Is the dull section on the outer edge of the scaife a courser grit of diamond? What size grit are you using here?

Stylus Maker wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 20, 2025 7:55 pm

I use Indian made excellent make handpieces from HDPL $150 to $180 USD. You can get motors benches and discs there as well.

Is there a particular type of tang that works best for this? They HDPL do look like good quality

Cool, thanks for sharing that juba bc. I use the milling attachment from my Emco lathe to flatten my discs as seen in this photo

Hi, I did this experiment using a car brake disc, it's not as flat as I imagined and it was necessary to make some corrections, but it worked, I made some points successfully, I still can't get a perfect sharpening without any noise but I believe that more dedication is needed, and I hardly have ti...

For finishing polishing, use a rubber disc with a 0.1 micron diamond paste, you can get it from a jeweler who cuts diamonds. A rubber disc? I've not come across this before. I'm familiar with Vinylium's work. In fact, my method is based on his earlier work and instructions. He has since moved on to...

I was surprised at the times you were quoting with diamonds. Diamonds do take a bit of time, well using my method at least. I think CVD takes longer than natural diamond, though I think I've only had one natural diamond stylus and that was a while ago. I'm fine wth this for now but it would be grea...

've played with making carbide and sapphire cutting styli with a home made template faceter with some limited success. Template faceting is very inexpensive, but not very precise. Hi Mark, I wasn't sure what you meant by template faceting so I looked it up. I think this could actually work for sapp...

I was thinking what would be the most appropriate regular machining gear that could be adapted for this use ? Surely the cheap diamond polishing machines available on aliexpress are far from suitable for this work ? Would adapting a lathe spindle horizontally make sense for this ? There are better ...

You only have to screw in the one wood screw at the front . I'm pretty sure that wood screw was serving a very important function at one point ;) Thanks for sharing your work jjwharris. I'm very keen to pursue the iron lap option. I think this is probably the way to go in the long run, for the fina...