Diamond Tools

Tools of all shapes and sizes are available, and manufacturers will supply data sheets about operational speeds and forces, and so on. Economy is high. For example, when tests were carried out on comparative lives of cutting tools made of steel, of sintered carbide and of diamond, in the manufacture of a bronze engine part, the steel failed after 1000 components, the carbide after 4000, but the diamond lasted up to 25 000. In terms of cost of tools the diamond turned out cheapest in the end, despite the fact that weight for weight diamonds costs 25 000 times as much as silicon carbide.

One enormous attraction in the use of diamond engagement rings for producing fine silky smooth finishes lies in the uniformity of the product right up to the end of life of the tool edge. Nowadays some special fine-grain, diamond-bonded wheels have succeeded also in producing very smooth mirror finishes on components. Such finishes are in high demand. It is possible to polish diamond itself with a bonded wheel. It is far faster than the traditional scaife. Unfortunately, a diamond polished in this way always shows chipped edges, so that the bonded scaife is not very popular with the gemstone polisher.

Superfine finish produced by specially shaped lathe-cutting diamonds is exploited in many industries, of which but a small selection include aluminium engine pistons, bronze bushings, calculating machines, lens mounts for cameras, components of microscopes, precision meters, Perspex components, manufacture of wedding rings, the components on watch faces, watch balance-wheels, and so on.