Grinding wheel Abrasives

[Stefan S]

I'm in the process of restoring an old Diehl 6" bench grinder. I need to order some new grinding wheels but I'm not sure what to get.

I'll be grinding metal and need a setup suitable for general purpose deburring and sharpening. Where should I start?

Thanks so much!!

 

[Provincial]

Read this posting, which is advice on grinding high speed steel (HSS) tool bits. The advice is useful for grinding ordinary steel, which can use a little harder wheel, but is otherwise similar in practice.

http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewtopic.php?t=75985

 

[e-tek]

Try this.

 

[zkling]

I'll be grinding metal and need a setup suitable for general purpose deburring and sharpening. Where should I start?

Thanks so much!!

Not to rip on you, but I hate when people say "metal". Ok, so what do you plan on grinding? Aluminum, brass, steel, stainless, HSS? You really don't want to use a grinding wheel on anything non iron based.

This would be like me saying "I need a tool, what should I buy?" without giving any background info.

Grinding wheels really aren't well suited to deburring.

What will you be sharpening? Drills, HSS lathe bits, carbide lathe bits, tig tungsten, chisels, lawn mower blades? All could require a different wheel, each more suited to a specific task.

 

[Stefan S]

Try this.

This 'Google' you reference is astounding!! To think I was at the library of congress looking through stacks of old newspapers and Popular Mechanics magazines from the '50's just hoping to stumble upon the answer...

Seriously, I know where and how to buy them - I'm more interested in understanding the various grits and other variables as well as the most useful 2 or 3 wheels folks are using in a home shop.

 

[zkling]

Stefan, what do you want to use it for? You are not giving us much to go on here man.

 

[Stefan S]

Not to rip on you, but I hate when people say "metal". Ok, so what do you plan on grinding? Aluminum, brass, steel, stainless, HSS? You really don't want to use a grinding wheel on anything non iron based.

This would be like me saying "I need a tool, what should I buy?" without giving any background info.

Grinding wheels really aren't well suited to deburring.

What will you be sharpening? Drills, HSS lathe bits, carbide lathe bits, tig tungsten, chisels, lawn mower blades? All could require a different wheel, each more suited to a specific task.

good points - I'll be using it on steel, stainless, and aluminum. As far as sharpening - it'll be drill bits, chisels, and lawnmower blades.

Thanks!

 

[zkling]

You really don't want to use a grinding wheel on stainless, and especially not aluminum. Aluminum doesn't grind. It will clog up the wheel pores and create a dangerous situation.

I would go with AO wheels roughly a ~60 grit wheel on one side and a ~120 grit wheel on the other depending on how fast you want to remove stock and the final surface finished acheived. The higher the grit, the slower it will remove material, but the smoother your surface will be. That is all that sharpening is, perfecting a cutting surface, removing the peaks and valleys.

If you are dead set on deburring and aluminum. You may want to look into a wire wheel, flap wheel or other specialized non stone wheel. 3M and norton make a few different specialized deburring wheels.