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Meet the Couple Photos: Elements of Our Wedding: Outline Logistics: Registry |
Grinding the Sides Smooth An aluminum platen was laid down on the grinder. It is important that this platen be as smooth as possible, because any scratches in the platen will become scratches in your piece:  It was desired to lose as little gold as possible, so a fine grit sandpaper (320 grit) was used to smooth the sides:  This sandpaper has an adhesive backing, making installation easy:  The platen was then sput at 120 RPM, and water flowed over it to both wash away extra dust and act as a lubricant:  The sides of the billet were then ground smooth, and at right angles (or as close to 90 degrees as possible). First 320 grit sandpaper was used, then 600 grit:  It took longer to use the fine grit paper, but it saved much more material in the end. Even so, some gold will inevitably be lost during grinding: 
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