Diamonds are forever

Blog is doing nothing these days.
What's up?
I don't really know. Time flies. I have been sharpening and tuning tools getting ready for the Hutch project. I managed to get the lawnmower back together, but it isn't working quite right. The new belt has a bit more friction to it and the blades still spin a bit even when disengaged. Not real safe. It also is vibrating more than I remember. This either means I unbalanced the blades or am just noticing the vibration more. More time crawling around on the floor this weekend.

And as the title of this blog indicates I have some new bling in the shop.
A big'Ol monocrystaline diamond bench stone from DMT

http://www.dmtsharp.com/index.html
It's big. It's shiny. It is a pain in the but :-(
Diamond sharpening stones are a love-hate item. If you get a good one and take care of it the thing will stay flat and cut for a long time, like decades. If you get a Monday or a Friday stone you will likely want to throw it out the window. I think I ended up with one in the latter catagory. Figures. Mine showed up flat and cut like heck, but the cutting action is so random and unpredictable that it is of little use for lapping.

After working it over for about 20 minutes I threw in the towel. Despite my best efforts the stone was not breaking in evenly. I called customer service. They suggested I clean the stone. Okay, that is reasonable. Maybe metal particles are clogging it up. The next suggestion was a bit funny. He asks if I have a waterstone. Yeah. He suggests using my waterstone to break in the diamond stone. Great.

Well, that did work in breaking in the stone. It now feels about like a 220g stone. But there are still places that scratch deeper. These scratches are so deep that the rest of the stone can't get them out. Grrr. Back on the phone to customer service. Rep says that I likely have a bad stone, send it in and he will get it replaced. Okie-dokie.

I will let you know if the replacement is any better.

In other news:
- I turned 31 on Wednesday (thanks to those who sent in Birthday cards and wishes, the rest of you guys suck) It was an uneventful day, no new toys, just a couple of beers and dinner out.
- My mom is out visiting for the week
- Austin is all set to turn 7 on Saturday (time flies, seems he was crawling just yesterday)
- Obama has approved additional spending on the NASA side of the fence, so looks like job will continue to be stable

That's all I got. Keep the rubber side down and fingers out of any moving machinery.