Alistair Witt
03-07-2019, 4:42 PM
Hi, (first post)
I thought I’d share a cheap and flat diamond sharpening plate I put together, with a replaceable top; it may come in handy for someone else.
I acquired some plane blades with the bevel angle way off, so I was looking for a very coarse diamond plate to quickly get the bevel right. Unfortunately, they’re around $100 in my area for one large enough to handle large plane blades using a honing guide, so I looked for a cheaper option.
I found some cheap diamond plates on eBay for $8 each which come in grits ranging from 150 to 3000 mesh. However, these are just some thin (1mm) sheet steel with diamond coating on one side, and are therefore not stable or flat. My solution was to grab some 75x10mm (3x3/8”) mild (hot rolled) steel and cut it into lengths to suit ($20 got me four pieces and some left over). I then took these to a local machine shop and had them mill one face on each piece flat (they charged $15 each). Next, I glued the diamond plates to the top of the machined steel surface and now have four diamond sharpening plates with replaceable tops (of whatever grit I choose) for a similar price as one plate from the shops. It should also be quite flat. Photo attached.
A final detail: I drilled and tapped an M4 hole near one corner on each, so that I can thread a bolt through and lift the corner of the diamond plate in order to help remove it when needed.
Another thought was to use some machined blocks of aluminium and glue in a handful of rare earth magnets in the top to make it even quicker to change. Might try this someday.
Hope this is useful for someone!
Cheers,
Alistair
405206
I thought I’d share a cheap and flat diamond sharpening plate I put together, with a replaceable top; it may come in handy for someone else.
I acquired some plane blades with the bevel angle way off, so I was looking for a very coarse diamond plate to quickly get the bevel right. Unfortunately, they’re around $100 in my area for one large enough to handle large plane blades using a honing guide, so I looked for a cheaper option.
I found some cheap diamond plates on eBay for $8 each which come in grits ranging from 150 to 3000 mesh. However, these are just some thin (1mm) sheet steel with diamond coating on one side, and are therefore not stable or flat. My solution was to grab some 75x10mm (3x3/8”) mild (hot rolled) steel and cut it into lengths to suit ($20 got me four pieces and some left over). I then took these to a local machine shop and had them mill one face on each piece flat (they charged $15 each). Next, I glued the diamond plates to the top of the machined steel surface and now have four diamond sharpening plates with replaceable tops (of whatever grit I choose) for a similar price as one plate from the shops. It should also be quite flat. Photo attached.
A final detail: I drilled and tapped an M4 hole near one corner on each, so that I can thread a bolt through and lift the corner of the diamond plate in order to help remove it when needed.
Another thought was to use some machined blocks of aluminium and glue in a handful of rare earth magnets in the top to make it even quicker to change. Might try this someday.
Hope this is useful for someone!
Cheers,
Alistair
405206