Grinding wheel material

[AJWParticipant @ajw]

I need to replace the wheels on my double ended grinder and was curious to know if aluminium oxide wheels would be better than the carborundum ones I have been using.
M/C is used for general tool grinding of hss, carbon steel and drills etc (not carbide)

Alan

[AJWParticipant @ajw]

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

In my experience carborundum is the most suitable abrasive for off-hand grinding as it is better at resisting heavy use Aluminium oxide is best for precision grinding so unless you intend to use a precision attachment I recommend continuing use of carborundum. Colin

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

As a general rule most wheels are Aluminium Oxide, good for HSS / MS / carbon steel. they can be identified by the blotter marking… A-C followed by – Grain -Grade-structure- bond.

​A – Usually grey/ white, can be pink, – Hard

​C – Carbide, usually green – soft – for carbide tooling, tig welding tips, but has other uses too.

George.

Edited By mechman48 on 16/02/2017 17:50:03

[AJWParticipant @ajw]

Thanks for the info, most useful!
Occasionally I do put on my green grit wheel to have a session of sharpening masonry drills.
I have only ever experienced carborundum wheels and the one I have on now seems quite soft so requires dressing to clean it up and as a consequence of this the diameter reduces, which makes it worse!

Alan

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I run one general grey carborundum wheel for general grinding and roughing and one soft white wheel for finishing up on tools.

These are 8" wheels on a 8" grinder but on the side of the white wheel i have a blotter and a thin diamond face wheel that I use for grinding carbide cutters, face only as you can only get to it face on but it's main use is to shorten damaged carbide end mills before they go on the end mill grinder to speed the job up.

Edited By John Stevenson on 17/02/2017 01:17:16

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