These newly developed diamond pads are the most important advancement in glass polishing in the last 20 years. They are much faster than cork or synthetic wheels for two reasons. First, they run at the same high speed as a diamond disc. Secondly, the fine finish they produce means less time spent on final polish.

The pad is composed of fine diamonds embedded in a resin basemounted on a flexible backing. A pressure-sensitive adhesive is applied to the backing. When the pad is worn, peel it off the mounting disc and replace with a new one. These resin diamond pads do not last as long as nickel bonded diamonds, however, they are considerably less expensive. The pad can be applied to the bottom side of a diamond disc and then turned upside down to polish. This allowsthose who only do straight edges or outside curves (convex surfaces), such as hot glass workers, to use their flat lapping plates for polishing. They can also be applied to a magnetic pad and then mounted on a steel plate for rapid changes. Water or coolant must be used on the pads. They come without a mounting hole. Any special diameter can be ordered. The recommended RPM in the table can easily be varied plus or minus 30%.

Diamond Resin Wheels

These diamond resin wheels represent what may be one of the most important advancements in glass polishing in the last 20 years.

These wheels are much faster than cork or synthetic wheels because they run at the same speed as diamond wheels. The fine finish they produce means that you spend less time on the final polish.

The resin material is composed of fine diamonds suspended in resin base, mounted on strips. Contact cement is applied to the strips and applied to a blank wheel.

When the resin strip becomes worn, just peel the strip off, clean the blank wheel thoroughly and mount a new resin strip. These innovative resin wheels are easy to install. Replacement strips are available in sets of 2.

Horsehair Felt

This material holds more pumice per application and is slightly more aggressive. It is also less expensive. Only one size is available 12" x 3". It has a 1" mounting hole and should run at 500 RPM. This type of wheel is used by Steuben Glass at Corning for prepolish.

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