Grinding Wheel Selection

[TomG]

There was a discussion on grinding wheel types pirating SnailPowered's project build thread so I thought I'd move it over here.

Most grinding wheels found in the shop are aluminum oxide grit. The white and pink ones are very soft (friable) and work best on the surface grinder for grinding hardened steels. The hardness of these will be something like "F", "G", or "H". Bonds this soft don't work well for freehand grinding because they break down so quickly. A better option would be a medium hard bond like "I", "J", or "K". The grey colored wheels (also aluminum oxide) are much harder and are better suited for general purpose use on a bench grinder for low to high carbon steels (like SnailPowered's 3/8" cold rolled). The hardness of these will be "L", "M", or "O". Silicon carbide wheels are meant for grinding non-ferrous metals (black) or carbides (green).

This would probably be a good topic for a video, so I'll add it to the list.

Tom

[SnailPowered]

This is some excellent information Tom! Thanks for sharing and I will certainly have to pay attention when I wear out the HF wheels on the grinder I got lol. So far they are doing well and the cold rolled is actually making decent tooling for working the aluminum. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to do it without your videos!

[TomG]

(03-02-2014, 01:42 AM)SnailPowered Wrote: This is some excellent information Tom! Thanks for sharing and I will certainly have to pay attention when I wear out the HF wheels on the grinder I got lol. So far they are doing well and the cold rolled is actually making decent tooling for working the aluminum. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to do it without your videos!

Thanks.

You know the cold rolled is just to practice your grinding techniques, not for actual cutting. Even aluminum will quickly remove the sharp edge of a soft steel tool bit. You'll get MUCH better results with high speed steel tooling.

Tom