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Emery Cloth: Graded Grit Between a Make Coat and a Size Coat
Emery cloth is a coated abrasive: grains of emery, a natural abrasive used for polishing metal, glued to one face of a cloth backing. Cloth is chosen over paper where durability matters. The grit is graded to one size, glued down with a make coat, and locked in with a second size coat. Hide glue is the traditional adhesive; it does not stand the heat of machine sanding and is not waterproof, so resin is used where that matters. Closed-coat cloth has 90–95% of its face covered with grain, open-coat 50–70%, which clogs less on soft materials.
Intermediate
Factory process
Instructions
1
1
Crush and grade the grit
Crush and grade the grit
Crush the emery, then sort it to one size: pass coarse grit through successively finer sieves, separate medium grit by air classification, and the finest by water classification, letting particles settle in a tank by how fast they sink.
Materials for this step:
Emery Rock1 as requiredTools needed:
Rock Crusher
Sieve Set (Graded Mesh)
Air Classifier
Settling Tank2
2
Make coat
Make coat
Run the long ribbon of cloth backing through the coating line and coat one face with adhesive, the make coat that will bind the grit to the cloth.
Materials for this step:
Cotton Cloth1 as required
Hide Glue1 as requiredTools needed:
Abrasive Coating Line3
3
Coat with grit
Coat with grit
Drop the graded grit on to the wet make coat (gravity coating), or pass backing and grit through an electric field so the charged grit is drawn on to the backing (electrostatic coating), which holds it more strongly. Cover 90–95% of the surface for closed coat or 50–70% for open coat.
Tools needed:
Abrasive Coating Line4
4
Size coat
Size coat
Apply a second layer of adhesive, the size coat, over the grit to fix it in place.
Materials for this step:
Hide Glue1 as requiredTools needed:
Abrasive Coating LineMaterials
3- 1 as requiredPlaceholder
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- 1 as requiredPlaceholder
Tools Required
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