FAQ
Do you ship internationally?
Yes - Canada ($30) and Europe ($50) for a flat rate, buyer responsible for relevant duty and import taxes.
Are these ready to use straight out of the box?
The laps should be simply dressed before initial usage for best results.
How often should the laps be dressed, and how is that done?
See the Care and Maintenance guide, linked above.
Do these have a steel or aluminum baseplate?
The baseplate of these are aluminum to keep them at a comfortable weight and easy to care for.
Should I expect these to arrive flat and balanced?
My goal is to deliver products that are exceptionally flat and balanced.
Is an Impulse hybrid bond lap a sintered lap?
Sintered definition - the process of turning a powdered material into a solid or porous mass through heat without turning it into a liquid.
Yes these are sintered per the process definition, but instead of with 100% metal content like traditional metal sintered laps or 100% resin content these leverage the best aspects of both types with significant metal and resin content in the bond.
How do hybrid bond laps differ from typical metal sintered or resin bond laps?
At similar grit size and relative diamond concentration, you should expect hybrid bond laps to cut faster and with a smoother finish than metal sintered laps. Against similar diamond content resin bond laps, you should expect significantly longer form holding and slower wear.
What materials are hybrid bond laps intended for?
The 500grit hybrid bond lap was developed intentionally for an ideal sapphire cutting lap, exceptionally fast and smooth cutting without ever reaching the glassy, work hardened, orange-peeled state that can happen with too fine a lap and materials with significant directional hardness. That said, it works great in most materials tested so far, including quartz through moissanite - the metal content holds the form against the harder materials and the resin content keeps the finish smooth and fast on all.
I want to completely resurface my laps, how do I do that?
All hybrid bond laps can be flat lapped at home against a cast iron or glass lapping plate (or against themselves) with silicon carbide powder, details of that process in the Care and Maintenance guide.
I offer factory resurfacing service to bring the laps back to ideal flatness and parallelism. Please reach out if you are interested in that service.
Where are these made?
These are formed and balanced at a diamond tools manufacturer in Zhengzhou, China, and finished lapped for flatness here in Washington.
How do I reach out if I have issues?
Please contact me using the contact form on the website or reach out directly to garretts@impulsegems.com through email and I will get back to you as soon as I can.