Even though it is new, my diamond flattening plate seems to be out of flat. What do I do? — Anton H.
Congratulations! If you can tell your Atoma is acting funky, you have achieved a level of sensitivity that many Japanese tool users haven’t yet achieved. I offer my condolences, as well. You can never unsee what you have now noticed: That most diamond plates, as delivered, are not that flat.
First off, flatness is relative and plenty of people get their work done without extreme flatness. I was at the Minka conference in Aichi, when a fellow apprentice started lapping his stones with his old diamond plate. He could tell it was warped because of all the inconsistency in how it moved on his stones when rotated. I handed him the one made from a flatter diamond plate, and his problems quickly went away.
Many people use an Atoma or similar brand diamond plate straight out of the box, expecting perfection. What few people realize is that —flat being relative—the factory 10mm aluminum plate is often pretty far out of spec. And, they have a tendency to bend even more with aggressive use. Most usually when lapped with force when the plate’s effectiveness is nearing the end of its life.
First off, once you adhere a diamond sticker to an aluminum plate, or get one from the factory already installed, it is not possible to flatten that plate without destroying the sticker in the removal process.
Because of this, I no longer buy diamond plates with the sticker and back plate already installed.
To solve this issue, more discerning users have developed a method of setting up a diamond plate by taking a replacement diamond sticker, and adhering it to an aftermarket back plate that they have flattened manually.
Here's a video of the process:
