Hello. I’m a complete beginner so apologies for maybe a basic question.
I have 2 BATT laps one for 60k diamond pandemonium and one for 100k diamond pandemonium.
I am able to shape and pre-polish my stones well, but getting to the polishing step is almost impossible! The lap seems to peel itself leaving silver bits on the stone, not to mention the stone does not get polished at all!
I’m loosing all hope here 
Can you explain how you charge the lap. Also how do you pre polish ?
I pre-polish on 3k lap. Then I charge the lap following video from this site: http://www.battlap.com/user-guide.php.Thank you for your help.
I can’t open the link.
if the lap is new it takes a little time before its properly charged. I normally pre polish on the batt with 3000. then I charge the polishing batt lap with 3 strokes and smear it out withtthe lap spinning using a plastic card and the wipe it off. if the lap is new it might be good to use a piece of synthetic corundum and charge it a few times no need to wipe it off after charge to get some diamonds in to the lap before you get going.repeat a few times. it sound to me that its not enough diamonds in the lap to me.
Thank you. I’ve put bit more paste to the lap and it seems to have helped and I get a nice polish on soft stone (mohs 5) however on one sapphire I have it still doesn’t seem to polish at all and what’s worse, the paste seems to get stuck in the inclusion. See picture. Would I be better to learn on already charged lap? I’ve seen d’Lite lightning lap. Do you have experience with these?
It look to me that the pre polish is no where near where it should be.
Here is a link to my Instagram. A pre polished amethyst. That is 3000 diamond on a batt.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3TWeWEnslAvzzcDxTIopl-jWP19mVwQbTRVfA0/?igshid=ji9a595jahke
Regarding the Lighting Laps… my experience is that they work well up to a Mohs hardness of about 8… right along in there they lose much of their cutting and polishing for harder stones. I am using only my BATT for hardnesses of 8 and above.
You really should be prepolishing on a zinc lap with 8k diamond, I usually go from 3k hard lap to the 8k zinc lap then the 60k batt lap for final polish on harder stones.
Thank you for this! I tried to pre-polish on 8k and it worked miracles! Do I need to move from 8k to 14k to 50k or can I do 8k straight to 50k?
Ok. Thank you. I’ll keep it for quartz and below then. I’ve tried it on Apatite but it actually seemed to scratch it rather than polish.
After pre-polish with 8k on zinc lap you can go straight to 60k on Batt lap.