Precision Lapping 101 

Tom's videos show us a side of machining we rarely see. Part of his job is to explore the best techniques for specialized machining jobs. From seeing the techniques he can share, it make us all a lot wiser.

I know who the robot is. Dale Derry. Guy doesn't blink at all in most of his videos.

hey, i passed the turing test on only my third try!

Инженер that sounds like a great setup, could you do a video on it?

That sounds very interesting. I have never heard of lapping done this way but it appears to have all the ingredients with the exception of grooves in the lapping plate. Film thickness would have to be controlled well to get good results. Thanks for the comment and suggestion. Cheers, Tom

Yes, grooves do a lot of good job with worn-out abrasive particles, foil method has this disadvantage. Classical flat-lapping machine uses interchangeable disks with grooves, but they are big, heavy and rather expensive. Thank you again for all your videos, it's a pleasure to watch!

Why not, will try to do a short clip.. If you agree to deal with my horrible "russian english")

Ай промис ту дил виз ё хоррибл рашн инглиш, соу вэйтинг фо ё видео игэрли.

Lol. At least won't need an optical flat to find the belly button.

I do rotate the laps as I use them. Just didn't happen to show in the video. Good point as a reminder.

Hey Bill, That makes for pretty flat ground surfaces. There is another technique called spot grinding but its not for the faint of heart. Probably not a good thing to show in video form. Thanks for the comment. Cheers, Tom

That sounds pretty similar to what Don Baily shows in this video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CsTbWAu0k-o.html

the same here :) have asses to a milling machine and Lathe both Manuel in a Makerspace also others hand tools, but only a pin-welder no TIG or MIG

Hey Forrest, You can count on lots more controlled rubbing. That little pile of heat treat I showed contains many examples of the types of fancy rubbing you mention. All the best, Tom

Logical. Don't be a superspy. It's dangerous, you get tortured a lot, your ass gets whupped a lot, and and there is no way that you can top that, and I don't say that admiringly. It's better just to live an ordinary life, that way when you start living an ordinary life, it's not a disappointment.

It's not about the look. You completely missed the message.

Actually I didnt miss anything...I have seen all Tom's lapping and optical flat's videos. I was admiring the finish on the heated treated parts done in vacuum. I dont chase millionths but its interesting stuff

Have you quantified your wet sanded surfaces for accuracy? In my experience adding water generally promotes greater edge rolling degradation than dry sanding with frequent cleanings. If you then polish to produce high luster you are smearing the material at the microscopic level and not producing accurate geometry. Lapping is all about the geometry not the finish.

Yeah i agree... It depends what your going for though, ultimate flatness or some level of compromise... some parts require polishing. In my experience wet has been far more predictable and edge rolling is largely due to technique and holding. Also, the way you introduce water... Avoiding floating of your part. Building a personal technique is crucial, eventually you can feel as the surface comes into flatness while your surfacing.

Kid, you have a lot to learn. You are just shining up your parts, nothing to do with accuracy. For now, you just "don't get it" (what's this all about with lapping, polishing, and so on). Bow down to the older folks. PS Having CNC doesn't make you "innovative".

wow classic ignorance... I might not be old but I'm 35 with 2 kids. I've worked in laser optics (spectral beam combining) and aviation components for years, i have the experience... Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to judge... Plus I said I agreed with what he said....I cringe at dry sanding like most do with nails on a chalk board... You have nothing pertinent to offer to the conversation, troll on somewhere else...

Having a CNC definitely does make you 100x more productive. Too stupid to learn a CAD program? Can't 3D model? Then fuck off gramps into the hell your generation brought US manufacturing into in the very early 90s. The only place left for you is machinery repair so enjoy it while you can still lift a steel bar into your manual lathe with worn out slideways and atrocious backlash. The young elite of CAD/CAM today are thousands times more valuable than an army of old bums who spent years in front of manual turret lathes and mills with all kinds of lame jigs. Sure there are a lot of young CNC bums having problems with some of the basics of metalworking but in the end they still spit out more complicated parts in more volume than the old generation who can't even work with a goddamn digital read out (my experience). Once an older slightly above average machinist meets a younger engineer who also has CAD/CNC experience they usually piss and shit their pants and can only talk about how in the older days he was the best in his team. Bow down to older folks my ass you US manufacturing destroyers!! To be good today you need to know metrology, basic physics of metal removal and machine stiffness, advanced design and great CAD skills - doing well optimized CNC programs will only come naturally to you. In my experience the elite of the elite are about 40 years old college educated engineers - the education and time they had to soak up makes them not only the best machine designers (semiconductor, sattelites, particle physics detectors) but remarkable machinists who can do their own CNC programs that on certain projects can be in the tolerance of nanometers. It's not an rarity to meet today a PhD person who not only designs parts, electronics, writes code, does simulations and also is a goddamn crazy good CNC dude. Just a week ago I've met this guy who already in college worked on nanometer tolerance projects and now works for ASML - pretty much the top semiconductor company of the last 10 years and the tips and tricks he shared were out of this world.

That immediately made me think of a glitter covered T shirt over a pair of boobs, but that's just the way I think most of the time.

Re-runs! I watched the first showings.

2020 calling. Where's muh shirt? :)

Final cleaning of industrial laser lenses is done by just dragging the lens paper, as well. I think it's a common practice with optics in general?

Yes it is indeed.... the ol' drop'n drag. (never dry!)

afn29129 David You do know that extremely OCD people insist that it's "CDO" - must be in alphabetical order don't you know.

In my case, the die making created the OCD due to it's nature. Now I'm OCD on anything I work on, and I let the big pile of clothes in front of the hamper get noticed by the lady of the house's OCD. 😊

I have both ocd and add/hd. It's a wonderful attribute in the prototyping/small specialty parts business, but doesn't mesh very well if you're in a production environment.

​@@keefjunior4061 Too true.

​@@keefjunior4061 thanks for saying that. I have been struggling for about 15 years to find a suitable work/job where my adhd and asberger/autism fit in. In other words: there is hope for me too.

True enough. When you get into parabola's it gets tricky quickly. The only reason it works is they have some good feedback mechanisms to check the progress.