[Dave's_Not_Here]

dag nabit... message went the way of the sloth somewhere...

"Overs."

I picked up a cheap die grinder to finish off some mod's to my lathe. The grinder works well enough for me but the stones suck.

First off, I know absolutely nothing about what each of the colors represent and it doesn't seem to matter as all three wear out equally fast, and I do mean FAST! I now have a bunch of 1/8 and 1/4 dowel pins....

So, would anyone be kind enough to give me the Die Grinder Stone 101 on-line tutorial?

100: What does each color represent relative to grit and hardness?
101: What is each color more suited to application and material wise?
102: Where does one get a "nice set of stones... )" that last long enough to actually remove some metal?

I am working on CRS, 6061 Aluminum, 4140, some hard chrome (not too often)...

Thanks....

[Chuck Reamer]

I have mostly used the pink stones, I think they are standard aluminum oxide and should be good for most materials. I dont know if the color means much on them, the green ones may be silicone carbide. Then again I have seen blue aluminum oxide wheels as well. I think the color and grit only really matter on surface or tool and cutter grinder stones for the most part.

Small diamater stones with wear very fast because they are not spinning fast enough, anything under a .5" dia with wear quickly. Small pencil grinders work well for the tiny .125" dia shank stones, plus you get very good control with it.

You may want to consider using a carbide burr to do the job instead, they last a long time and remove material at a fast rate. But dont use them on hardend steel, it kills them in a hurry.

What kind of mods are you doing to your lathe?
Hope my ramblings helped a bit.

[roninB4]

Don't use a grinding wheel on aluminum, it will just clog up the pores. Any of the green wheels should be silicon carbide and are used for non ferrous materials (but don't use them on anything but carbide). For small mounted stones there's only what you have available, it's not like surface grinder/cutter grinder wheels. I don't like to use a die grinder if I have to remove more material than .015 or so, I'll use a rotary burr instead to rough out the geometry. If you're wearing out wheels then you should choose another method of roughing out the shape/hole. If you do go with carbide burrs then you'll need to use a very steady hand to avoid chatter. Carbide does cut quite well and last long ONLY if you can avoid chatter/vibration as carbide does tend to chip/shatter under shock/chatter/excess vibration.

[diycnc]

i use carbide burrs for mostly everything. i would recommend getting some specialized course burrs for aluminum and some finer ones for steel. the steel ones plug almost instant in aluminum

[bryan20]

The International Association of Diecutting and Diemaking Home Page. ... for their significant contributions to the diemaking, diecutting and converting industry.


angle grinder

[Coxsteve]

Don't forget when using carbide cutters on aluminium always have a candle handy as candle wax is great for a cutting lubricant that stops the carbide cutters from loading up with aluminium,Otherwise it can be a real pain as you will then have to pick out smeared Aluminium from ther Cutter flutes,And it doesn't load up the flutes evenly so will need addressing quickly for efficient use of the Tool.
I also use URYU Die Grinders these are Japanese Tool Steel production level Die Grinders,They do need at least 20CFM to operate correctly but will outlast most other Die Grinders by a Factor of ten.
If only using them occasionally then probably the best place to look for a range of Tools where you will find decent quality for a reasonable price is Aircraft Spruce and Speciality where their buying power can give you decent American equipment for fair money.
The Aircraft Spruce and Speciality pdf catalog though large is worth downloading as you will be treated to a lot of good technical info inside as well as Tools and Tooling they also have plenty of Material data within sort of like a good adjuct to Machinery and Engineering Bibles of various types around the traps.