Grinding wheel - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A grinding wheel is an expendable wheel that is composed of an abrasive

Abrasive

An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away...

compound used for various grinding (abrasive cutting)

Grinding (abrasive cutting)

Grinding is an abrasive machining process that uses a grinding wheel as the cutting tool.A wide variety of machines are used for grinding:* Hand-cranked knife-sharpening stones * Handheld power tools such as angle grinders and die grinders...

and abrasive machining

Abrasive machining

Abrasive machining is a machining process where material is removed from a workpiece using a multitude of small abrasive particles. Common examples include grinding, honing, and polishing...

operations. They are used in grinding machine

Grinding machine

A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is a machine tool used for grinding, which is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool...

s.

The wheels are generally made from a matrix of coarse particles pressed and bonded together to form a solid, circular shape, various profiles and cross sections are available depending on the intended usage for the wheel. They may also be made from a solid steel or aluminium disc with particles bonded to the surface.

The manufacture of these wheels is a precise and tightly controlled process, due not only to the inherent safety risks of a spinning disc, but also the composition and uniformity required to prevent that disc from exploding due to the high stresses produced on rotation.

Characteristics

There are five characteristics of a cutting wheel: material, grain size, wheel grade, grain spacing, and bond type. They will be indicated by codes on the wheel's label.

Material, the actual abrasive, is selected according to the hardness of the material being cut.

Aluminum Oxide (A)
Silicon Carbide
Silicon carbide
Silicon carbide , also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with chemical formula SiC. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. Silicon carbide powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive...

(C)
Diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

(D, MD, SD)
Cubic Boron Nitride (B)

Grain size, from 8 (coarsest) 600 (finest), determines the physical size of the abrasive grains in the wheel. A larger grain will cut freely, allowing fast cutting but poor surface finish. Ultra-fine grain sizes are for precision finish work.

Wheel grade, from A (soft) to Z (hard), determines how tightly the bond holds the abrasive. Grade affects almost all considerations of grinding, such as wheel speed, coolant flow, maximum and minimum feed rates, and grinding depth.

Grain spacing, or structure, from 1 (densest) to 16 (least dense). Density is the ratio of bond and abrasive to air space. A less-dense wheel will cut freely, and has a large effect on surface finish. It is also able to take a deeper or wider cut with less coolant, as the chip clearance on the wheel is greater.

Wheel bond, how the wheel holds the abrasives, affects finish, coolant, and minimum/maximum wheel speed.

Vitrified (V)
Resinoid (B)
Silicate (S)
Shellac (E)
Rubber (R)
Metal (M)
Oxychloride (O)

Straight wheel

To the right is an image of a straight wheel. These are by far the most common style of wheel and can be found on bench or pedestal grinders

Bench grinder

A bench grinder is a type of benchtop grinding machine used to drive abrasive wheels. A pedestal grinder is a larger version of a bench grinder that is mounted on a pedestal, which is bolted to the floor...

. They are used on the periphery only and therefore produce a slightly concave surface (hollow ground) on the part. This can be used to advantage on many tools such as chisels.

Straight Wheels are generally used for cylindrical, centreless, and surface grinding operations. Wheels of this form vary greatly in size, the diameter and width of face naturally depending upon the class of work for which is used and the size and power of the grinding machine.

Cylinder or wheel ring

Cylinder wheels provide a long, wide surface with no center mounting support (hollow). They can be very large, up to 12" in width. They are used only in vertical or horizontal spindle grinders.
Cylinder or wheel ring is used for producing flat surfaces, the grinding being done with the end face of the wheel.

Tapered wheel

A straight wheel that tapers outward towards the center of the wheel. This arrangement is stronger than straight wheels and can accept higher lateral loads.
Tapered face straight wheel is primarily used for grinding thread, gear teeth etc.

Straight cup

Straight cup wheels are an alternative to cup wheels in tool and cutter grinders, where having an additional radial grinding surface is beneficial.

Dish cup

A very shallow cup-style grinding wheel. The thinness allows grinding in slots and crevices. It is used primarily in cutter grinding and jig grinding.

Saucer wheel

A special grinding profile that is used to grind milling cutters and twist drills. It is most common in non-machining areas, as sawfilers use saucer wheels in the maintenance of saw blades.

Diamond wheel

Diamond wheels are grinding wheels with industrial diamonds bonded to the periphery.

They are used for grinding extremely hard materials such as carbide cutting tips

Tool bit

The term tool bit generally refers to a non-rotary cutting tool used in metal lathes, shapers, and planers. Such cutters are also often referred to by the set-phrase name of single-point cutting tool. The cutting edge is ground to suit a particular machining operation and may be resharpened or...

, gemstones or concrete. The saw pictured to the right is a slitting saw and is designed for slicing hard materials, typically gemstones.

Diamond mandrels

Diamond mandrels are very similar to their counterpart, a diamond wheel. They are tiny diamond rasps for use in a jig grinder

Jig grinder

A jig grinder is a machine tool used for grinding complex shapes and holes where the highest degrees of accuracy and finish are required.The jig grinder is very similar to a jig borer, in that the table positioning and spindles are very accurate...

doing profiling work in hard material.

Cut off wheels

Cut off wheels, also known as parting wheels, are self-sharpening wheels that are thin in width and often have radial fibres reinforcing them. They are often used in the construction industry for cutting reinforcement bars (rebar), protruding bolts or anything that needs quick removal or trimming. Most handymen would recognise an angle grinder

Angle grinder

An angle grinder, also known as a side or disc grinder, is a handheld power tool used for cutting, grinding and polishing.Angle grinders can be powered by an electric motor, petrol engine or compressed air. The motor drives a geared head at a right-angle on which is mounted an abrasive disc or a...

and the discs they use.

Use

To use the grinding wheel it must first be clamped to the grinding machine. The wheel type (e.g. cup or plain wheel below) fit freely on their supporting arbors, the necessary clamping force to transfer the rotary motion being applied to the wheels side by identically sized flanges (metal discs). The paper blotter shown in the images is intended to distribute this clamping force evenly across the wheels surface.

Dressing

Grinding wheels are self sharpening to a small degree, for optimal use they may be dressed and trued by the use of wheel or grinding dressers. Dressing the wheel refers to removing the current layer of abrasive, so that a fresh and sharp surface is exposed to the work surface. Trueing the wheel makes the grinding surface parallel to the grinding table or other reference plane, so the entire grinding wheel is even and produces an accurate surface.