Abrasive blade cutting brass

[Bill D]

I can not find any info about if brass can be cut with an abrasive blade. Lots of do not mix aluminum and iron on a grinding wheel. They say an abrasive cutting wheel will gum up if cutting aluminum. No mention of fire hazard.
BilL D

 

[technocrat]

Generally not, you can have a wheel made for brass but others are not suitable. Abrasive wheels are made of two things - the abrasive and the binder to hold it together. For any material, the goal is for the binder to break down just as the abrasive becomes dull. This ensures that fresh abrasive is always present for best cutting with max wheel life. If the binder is too weak, you get fast wear. If the binder is too strong, the wheel dulls and stops cutting. If a dull wheel loads up with a soft material, it can go out of balance and explode.

 

[boslab]

They do use abrasive disks to trim brass and bronze castings, I think a saw is preferred but watching videos they don’t seem pickey about cutting risers off
Mark

 

[???]

I have cut 25mm x 3mm strips of brass using a drop saw with a standard metal cutting abrasive disc. Also surface ground brass. Just take care.

 

[michiganbuck]

I have found brass difficult to grind, but have had to grind it and found full-wheeing one pass after a dress to be good for brass and aluminum (not incremental-cross grinding) with soapy coolant.
Used to mix up a coolant of pink lotion soap and water for aluminum and brass. Needing frequent dressings, likely the same with a parting wheel. Could be that a narrow carbide saw blade might work, likely need to have a 1 1/4" hole put in one try..and experiment with how deep a cut to take.
Good to have a small aquarium pump and a 5 gallon bucket so as to not fudge up the regular coolant.

 

[scollins]

I have found brass difficult to grind, but have had to grind it and found full-wheeing one pass after a dress to be good for brass and aluminum (not incremental-cross grinding) with soapy coolant.
Used to mix up a coolant of pink lotion soap and water for aluminum and brass. Needing frequent dressings, likely the same with a parting wheel. Could be that a narrow carbide saw blade might work, likely need to have a 1 1/4" hole put in one try..and experiment with how deep a cut to take.
Good to have a small aquarium pump and a 5 gallon bucket so as to not fudge up the regular coolant.

I used to make turned parts out of brass that had to have a flat on one side of a 25mm diameter. In effect producing a D shape cross section
An aluminium oxide wheel in a surface grinder was very effective and it removed the surplus metal quickly and achieved a good finish. So fast that it was not worth doing a preliminary milling op, just did the operation entirely on the grinder.