Shapton Pros+Glass

Gentlemen,

I have been thinking again, usually dangerous and always entertaining...

While at the glass shop to have a piece of plate glass cut for lapping (after which a friend gave me a piece for free, sigh) I also had a couple of 8-1/4 x 2-3/4 x 3/16" pieces cut. These are the dimensions of Shapton hones.

My idea is to glue these pieces to my Shapton Pros, and make a glass stone-like arrangement. I'm not sure it's needed, but many waterstones will warp a little when wet and Shapton did make the Glass Stone line for a reason.

Any reasons not to do it? They will still fit in and on their ventilated boxes with the glass attached. Looks pretty cool too. The biggest headache will be getting everything lined up but I have clamps for that.

Also does anyone have any recommendations for low shrinkage epoxies? I think that if the epoxy shrinks a lot on curing that might defeat the purpose of a stabilizing glass plate. In the second image, the plates aren't glued.

Cheers, Steve

Very Interesting!!:hmmm:

~Richard

I suspect the glass is more helpful for the support of the thin and fragile honing layer of the GlassStones.
Also, I never have noticed any warping in the Pro hones.
Then again, I cannot think of any good reason why you should not go ahead and try it.

I have no idea about an answer to your questions, but I have to say they do look very cool!

I suppose a downside to it would be that you could only ever use one side of your stones :hmmm:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Porl

I have no idea about an answer to your questions, but I have to say they do look very cool!

I suppose a downside to it would be that you could only ever use one side of your stones :hmmm:

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Yes but I could also use them all the way down to the glass!

That two-sided comment is one I've thought about. My SP 8k is a 'modern' one, no graphics and I have both sides lapped. Having both sides usable is kind of nice because if one side checks dished, just use the other. The downside is that when you do lap, you have two sides to lap, not one!

Cheers, Steve

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I suspect the glass is more helpful for the support of the thin and fragile honing layer of the GlassStones.
Also, I never have noticed any warping in the Pro hones.
Then again, I cannot think of any good reason why you should not go ahead and try it.

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This. Unfortunately I can't help with glue/epoxy options, most of the ones I use actually expand and I could see that causing a whole other set of issues.

Don't know about glueing them. However, I use a sheet of 1/2" glass that I apply Strop paste to as final hone before going to the Strop.

I think that Gorilla Glue now makes a clear glue.
Might be worth a look/see.

Pete <:-}

3M Super 77 worked great for me when mounting custom edge pro stones to home made bases. I assume it would work fine for larger stones. It is the product they recommend: Sharpening Stone Blank | Edge Pro Inc.

https://woodworker.com/3m-super-77-s...su-100-676.asp

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkStarNJ

3M Super 77 worked great for me when mounting custom edge pro stones to home made bases. I assume it would work fine for larger stones. It is the product they recommend: Sharpening Stone Blank | Edge Pro Inc.

https://woodworker.com/3m-super-77-s...su-100-676.asp

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I have and use the Super 77, but mostly to mount photos/labels and such. It's designed for lightweight materials but a spray product would be nice as long as I could do some minor re-positioning.

Cheers, Steve

Some folks have been doing this in woodworking. When I used to use shaptons for that, I glued mine to kingwood, but I had kingwood that I found in a bargain bin. It'd have been smarter to save it and use something else, but it made a superb base in a situation where you sometimes get stiction and the mythical flying shapton if you only use the plastic case.

So, go for it. it'll add weight, you can stick little rubber feet to it if you'd like, or a non skid surface of some sort (sandpaper or drawer liner). It won't affect anything but your ability to soak the stone evenly, and I don't think most people soak shaptons (they do work a lot softer/less sticky if you soak them for 15 minutes, and that's an OK thing to do - it's apparently in the japanese instructions to do it).

Side comment - when you put a pro on glass, you actually get a glasstone that provides you with a reasonable price vs. the amount of media that you get. Sure don't get it with the glasstones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaveW

Some folks have been doing this in woodworking. When I used to use shaptons for that, I glued mine to kingwood, but I had kingwood that I found in a bargain bin. It'd have been smarter to save it and use something else, but it made a superb base in a situation where you sometimes get stiction and the mythical flying shapton if you only use the plastic case.

So, go for it. it'll add weight, you can stick little rubber feet to it if you'd like, or a non skid surface of some sort (sandpaper or drawer liner). It won't affect anything but your ability to soak the stone evenly, and I don't think most people soak shaptons (they do work a lot softer/less sticky if you soak them for 15 minutes, and that's an OK thing to do - it's apparently in the japanese instructions to do it).

Side comment - when you put a pro on glass, you actually get a glasstone that provides you with a reasonable price vs. the amount of media that you get. Sure don't get it with the glasstones.

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Kind of my thinking :)

It's really just a modern variation of the wooden stands of yore for jnats, and serves the same purpose.

So far, the best bet for glues seem to be UV curing cements used in optical assemblies. Those have to have good dimensional stability during cure and are repositionable until exposure to UV. I'd like to know what Shapton uses, but that's probably a trade secret. If their glue was widely known, someone like me could do it!

Cheers, Steve

I think a lot of the woodworking folks have been using a marine epoxy because it's fairly stable once cured and we all (woodworkers) generally have some kind of epoxy handy. If you need to scuff the glass to get a good bed, wet and dry sandpaper is a good choice - it's sharp even as it dulls (horrible way to say that, it's friable and maintains smaller and smaller sharp points).

I have had stones separate when soaking (notably, bester 1200), but that was after several years of use and it was as easy as just gluing again.

The one strike against epoxy is that it seems to be like grease - the object and the substrate need to be constrained in at least two dimensions so that you don't find a stone halfway off of a substrate the next day, and glued fast that way.