Surface Grind 101

Janderso

Jeff Anderson
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Mar 26, 2018
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Hi,
Can someone direct me to an easy to understand way of determining the best surface grinding wheels?
I went into Norton's web site to find I needed to choose between the following;
Wheel type,
Diameter,
Thickness,
Arbor size,
Surface Texture,
Grit,
Abrasive Material,
Norton Style,
Abrasive grade,
Bond,

Once you choose a category, there are sub-sections within each.
The first few are easy but when it gets into the details I get lost.
Thanks for the help.
Just trying to get educated.
 
I’ve found it’s like inserts. So many different flavors for different materials and purposes. When I watch videos or reading I write down notes when I come across information. I’m in the same scenario and information is all over the place depending on what’s being done.
I’d say a 7” wheel 1/2” thick is most common. My grinder can take a 8” and I have two 8” wheels but majority is 7’s. I have good luck at auctions as for wheels. Every time when I go the wall of grinding wheels never sell. So twice I’ve asked what you want for some wheels and one time he said 20 bucks take what you want. And the last time he said you want them take em. Now I have about 100 wheels majority never used and a handful that have radius and angles formed in them. Cut-off wheels,cupped wheels for face grinding, diamond wheels.
All I can suggest is watch some videos of some repeatable people and keep your ears open. One thing I remember is hard stuff= soft wheel and soft stuff= harder wheel. Meaning the glues used for making wheels. And fine grit wheels don’t mean fine finish always. You can get a nice fine finish with a 46 grit wheel. Heat is your enemy. I’m just as curious so I’m listening.
 
Hi,
Can someone direct me to an easy to understand way of determining the best surface grinding wheels?
I went into Norton's web site to find I needed to choose between the following;
Wheel type,
Diameter,
Thickness,
Arbor size,
Surface Texture,
Grit,
Abrasive Material,
Norton Style,
Abrasive grade,
Bond,

Once you choose a category, there are sub-sections within each.
The first few are easy but when it gets into the details I get lost.
Thanks for the help.
Just trying to get educated.

Welcome to the grinding world . It's a simple game . What does your machine take and what are you grinding ? :)
 
Welcome to the grinding world . It's a simple game . What does your machine take and what are you grinding ? :)
Dave is correct. Deal with each job as it comes for a beginner. In the meantime, learn the basics and ignore the fine differences and "special" wheels made to try to give makers a one source product. Try starting here:
https://www.georgiagrindingwheel.com/grindingwheels_basics.htm
and bookmark the page for future reference if you like it.
 
Most f the auctions that I have seen, they remove all the wheels and discard them, it is An issue of liability in case somebody buys it and the wheel explodes and brings a lawsuit!
 
Over 30 years ago, I did some work on the inventories at a grinding wheel manufacturing plant. As the OP noted, there are an immense number of combinations and permutations of size and composition that can go into a particular grinding wheel. As I recall, the same abrasive in a different bonding agent will perform entirely differently for a particular application. They could formulate a wheel for almost any specific use. Eg the wheel for grinding the flashing off train wheel castings would be very different from a wheel that does the final sharpening of HSS planer blades. And on and on.

The other thing was shelf life. In most manufacturing operations, if your product was over (say) 2 years old, it would be considered obsolete and written off. A grinding wheel, OTOH, is perfectly fine for many years as long as it is stored dry. And given the combinations above, somebody was likely to come along looking for that particular wheel...sooner or later!

Craig
 
Most f the auctions that I have seen, they remove all the wheels and discard them, it is An issue of liability in case somebody buys it and the wheel explodes and brings a lawsuit!

Yeah but we live in California.
In the United States of America, it may be different.
OOPS is that political? I apologize.
 
here is my 2 cents...

friable white grinding wheels are good for hard materials (hard steels)
semi-friable wheels in pink, brown,grey ,& red are used for grinding softer steels and other softer materials

aluminum oxide wheels are the most common
White and Pink are for hard steels
Ruby Red good for tool steels
Grey and Brown are the most commonly used for low to high carbon steel

Silicon Carbide wheels are Black and Green
Black is for non ferrous grinding- aluminum,brass, plastics,rubber, marble ,granite, etc.
green wheels are for hard materials- carbides,& titanium

Ceramic Blue and Pink are commonly used for tool steel and low carbon steels too

the hardness of the wheels are graded from a to z
A being the weakest grit bonding
Z being the strongest grit bond
F,G,&H grades are common for steels
I, J, K, are a medium bond
L, M, O are strong bonds

grit size
coarse 16-24 grit
medium 36-60 grit
fine 80-120 grit
super fine 150 and above
 
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The first wheel I bought for my SG was one that would serve as a general purpose wheel and also be a good selection for dusting my magnetic chuck. I decided on a 32A46-HVBE from Norton.

Personally, I don't think hobbyist needs to buy the perfect wheel for everything we grind. I would buy more general purpose type wheels and I think you'll be pretty well covered. At least that's what I'm doing. I have one for grinding softer type steels and one for more harder and harden steels.

Ted
 
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