Replacing monolithic wheels with bonded CBN or diamond.

Miguels244 · Oct 13, 2018

The price and availability of wheels with aluminum cores and CBN or diamond surfaces has brought me to rethink my grinding and honing wheels.
They are in bench grinders and pedestal grinders.
I guess I’m wondering about speeds and material compatibility.

Can I just slap a CBN bonded wheel in a bench grinder and expect it to work?
What about comparative grits?

Milland · Oct 13, 2018

Yes and no. CBN is meant for hard materials, ideally RC50 and above. If you use it for softer stuff you may get embedding into the wheel.

The other thing I'm a little worried about is prolonged heavy grinding without coolant, which could heat up the Al core enough to expand it and fracture some of the bond to the abrasive. I've not seen failures like this myself, but I think it's possible.

Diamond's good for really hard non-ferrous, but aside from carbide and ceramics or glass, how often would you use it?

steve-l · Oct 14, 2018

Assuming Milland's concerns are dealt with, there is the cost issue and the concentricity issue as well. These resin based diamond imbedded wheels must mount dead true. Wheels on conventional bench grinders do not mount wheels anywhere near true enough. These wheels cannot be trued up by dressing in the conventional manner.

In my experience, these wheels work very well, but they require a dedicated grinder designed exclusively for them.

MattiJ · Oct 14, 2018

steve-l said:
Assuming Milland's concerns are dealt with, there is the cost issue and the concentricity issue as well. These resin based diamond imbedded wheels must mount dead true. Wheels on conventional bench grinders do not mount wheels anywhere near true enough. These wheels cannot be trued up by dressing in the conventional manner.

In my experience, these wheels work very well, but they require a dedicated grinder designed exclusively for them.

Resin based diamond wheels you can true somewhat if you don't care about loss of wheel lifetime.
Maybe you were thinking of electroplated diamond/CBN that has only a very thin layer of abrasives that is not enough thick for trueing up at all?

adama · Oct 14, 2018

You can true them just fine by losing the nut holding them and simply clocking - tapping them into true. I run a cheap chinese diamond wheel for tig tungsten dressing, works well, but theres no way i would replace the other everyday alox wheel on the other end with a CBN.

IME with a wet diamond tile saw useing up the last of a bonded wheel is not a good idea, when thoes final bits of abrasive let go its brutal, will destroy the work piece too.

pianoman8t8 · Oct 18, 2018

+1 on indicating the wheel with the locking nut "snug". I do that occasionally with diamond wheels that are 20", usually using a block of wood or something else soft. I'm not sure of the smaller wheels, but the larger ones have a witness groove to indicate with vs making a flat on your indicator tip on the OD of the wheel. But, it's also be my experience that the witness/indicating groove in the Al core isn't always 100% true. I had one come in that was like .003" not true... that took a little while to get down, but whatever. I try not to dismount them from their arbor once they're mounted and trued.

adama · Oct 18, 2018

^ I sorta have one old DTI thats a lovely swiss one bit its kinda sticky, its only half thou resolution and so i could not care about the flat, whilst it presumably did put a flat on, 3 -4 revolutions of a as yet undressed - unopened diamond wheel surface probaly won't remove all that much indicator tip!

pianoman8t8 · Oct 18, 2018

Yeah we use a cheap .001" increment 1" DTI, to get it in close, and dress from there. But, we're also indicating in a 20" diameter wheel, so a revolution or few form that is a far amount of linear distance for the tip to be rubbing on. The flat actually helps, believe it or not, to get a "smoother" reading, it'll a little less jumpy from all the grit.

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Replacing monolithic wheels with bonded CBN or diamond.

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