Thanks, guys. I really appreciate all the help. I have tried again a couple different times since I last posted. I went ahead and tried the WD-40 to see if that made any difference and started fresh on a girdle facet. I also polished at the very edge of the lap where I hadn’t made any grooves yet. Things look a lot better, but I can still see quite a few fine scratches ( though not nearly as nasty as what was happening on the pavilion facets) so I am not sure much polishing is happening. I am wondering if I have some subsurface damage from contamination on my cutting laps that is showing up. I will try to take some more pics in the next few days for a comparison. Things have picked up with my job recently so I haven’t had as much time to try to figure this out. @gregoryhays, I have watched Jon’s video on charging. I am using a diastick, but he sent me a video using that too. The side of the BATT with the scratches is the side without the sticker. I am tempted to flip it over and start fresh, but am afraid I will ruin that side too. I think you are right and there is a chance that the lap isn’t sitting flat on my machine. If I have the stone just touching down at center but sweep to the right the stone no longer touches the lap. There is a decent chance my machine is out of alignment, it is a really old Mark II ultratec. I have had luck polishing on it before with a cerium oxide ultra lap, but this was about ten years ago and before a move. Someone was kind enough to direct me to a page on this site that gives steps to check the alignment, but I have not been brave enough to attempt that yet. It has also been suggested that maybe my facet wasn’t flat when I started to polish, I think this was probably accurate, and I have been pretty careful since about checking to make sure all parts of the facet are touching evenly. Another thing, If I run my machine clockwise at lower speeds it is pretty rough sounding and doesn’t necessarily change speeds consistently as I turn the nob. Usually I have to start higher and slow it down to get the change. I am really not sure the speed it says it is running at is accurate. It runs much more smoothly counterclockwise. Does it matter which direction I use?
I feel kind of like a hopeless cause right now, there are so many obstacles. Not sure the best way to proceed, but I don’t want to give up either.