-
Posts
-
We are polishing Quartz and everyone says use a lot of water. OK but how much are we talking? Do I just turn on the hose and let it run or what.
Is the water cooling the tool or the material or both? Or is it to keep the dust down?
Andy, Depends on what you mean by polishing. Edge polishing is what I am assuming. Now are you polishing in the shop or on site.
The water cools the estone as you will burn it if it gets two hot and it will change color. this is most noticable when doing a corner that is an eased edge.
Not tons of water is needed. Onsite we just take a spray bottle and one guy sprays constantly while the other polishes. If you get a slight color variation due to heat you can usally take a little steel wool and that section. Acitone will also be helpfull.
Also always polish on the lowest speed possible.
Just be carefull.. when the grinder speeds up for no apparent reason there is a good shock that follows. Thats a good indication of too much water or maybe just not paying attention.
Andy if you are edge polishing in the shop you want to have the polisher water turned full bore and slow the speed down to about half so as not to burn the resin in the es. With granite one can actually go wet to dry on the higher grits and get the “bling”, not the case with es.
Kevin, what type of water filtration system are you using? I’m getting of late, a lot of new granite fabricators who when using water out of their city water system, depending what part of the country they’re in, are getting differant mineral contents that are affecting the polish.
In other words, all water is not created equally.
Andy.
Edge finishing on ES is very critical, you do not want to over heat the polyester. Doing it wrong you can burn the poly in 20 sec and turn it into a 30 min or more repair. The polyester will always turn white with too much heat. The only true fix is to sand past the damaged resin and refinish the edge. ES requires a much slower process on edge finishing. More water to cool the Quartz, lighter pressure, and a slower speed to reduce friction generating heat. If the Quartz gets hot you will burn the polyester and drag chunks out. Thermoforming temp for poly is 270° if you get the Quartz over 180° or 200° you are in trouble.
Dani
FEDSAWDAVE wrote
Kevin, what type of water filtration system are you using? I’m getting of late, a lot of new granite fabricators who when using water out of their city water system, depending what part of the country they’re in, are getting differant mineral contents that are affecting the polish.
In other words, all water is not created equally.
Interesting thought and I could concur… high concentrations of alkly and iron might present a problem. We are using normal tap water in the polish arena but recycle on cutting operations.
I appreciate the help. We are using tap water, but real small quantities and it works great. But I am not sure what “great” is although I like the polish I can achieve.
Had a customer in Barbuda that could not get a top to polish out if his life depended on it. Hazing, streaky… Wanted to buy “more expensive” polishing pads. Hes was using the local island tap water. Had him buy purified and the tops came out showroom quality with the same pads. Obviously the water source on an island is probably going to have a heck of a lot of mung in it compared to a US cities water.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.