When you need a tool that can do the job, diamond grinding wheels will always come in clutch. These tools can effectively strip away large amounts of paint and debris from unwanted areas with minimal effort.
However, how do you know what kind of diamond grinding wheel is right for your job? There are many factors to consider. Let’s dive into what some of them might be and the questions you’ll need to ask and answer for yourself.
What Are Diamond Grinding Wheels?
Diamond grinding wheels are tools used to strip away paint, polish, remove surface coatings from objects, and grind down stone, concrete, or other materials into specific shapes and sizes. If you spilled industrial-grade glue or paint onto an object that you care about, a diamond grinding wheel might be able to perform the job you’re looking for. Some types of diamond grinding wheels can perform very fine jobs as long as the user has the necessary skill to do the required work.
Diamond grinding wheels are typically made of cold-pressed ceramic or steel pieces or attached to specific diamond bits. Obviously, diamonds are an extremely strong substance that is particularly good at grinding down other materials, making this tool an obvious pick over other types of grinders due to its inherent longevity and durability. These grinding wheels are sometimes mounted on specific grinding tools, though this could be said for all grinding wheels.
What Are Diamond Grinding Wheels Good For?
To answer this question, you must understand how many different kinds of grinding wheels are out there. To understand what kinds of grinding wheels are on the market, you’ll need to know how these wheels are classified. While this might sound like quite a lot of information you need to process, it isn’t that much. You must know what four basic things mean: bond, grit, concentration, and hardness.
Bond
What is bond when you’re discussing diamond grinding wheels? It refers to a defensive effort that grinding wheels utilize to help contain their abrasive grains. This effectively keeps the grinding wheel going without tearing anything asunder – including itself.
There are five types of bonds used in grinding wheels, and they are: rubber, metal, resinoid, vitrified, and electroplated.
Vitrified bonds for grinding wheels use raw materials like ceramic to contain abrasive grains.
Resinoids use thermosetting resin to contain the grains.
Rubber bonds use some kind of ebonite structure to contain abrasive grains. They are great for their elasticity, but you won’t want certain grinding wheels to be elastic – especially if you’re trying to grind down any materials with a high degree of roughness or tensile strength.
Rubber bonds are better for grind jobs that require quite a bit of fine polishing. They’re also ideal if you’re worried about inflicting any damage to whatever you’re grinding down, as rubber is a much softer alternative to the other kinds of bonds on this list.
Silicate bonds are utilized when the heat generated by the grinding process needs to be kept to an absolute minimum. It releases abrasive grains more slowly than other types of bonds, making it ideal for containing the possibility of a grinding experience where too many sparks fly.
Metal bonds contain abrasive diamond grains. Most diamond grinding wheels use metal bonds because they are highly heat-resistant. Diamond grinding wheels can make quite a lot of heat, so metal bonds are ideal. Finally, electroplated bonds are ideal for any grinding wheels that will do a lot of cutting.
Grit
Grit refers to how rough a grinding wheel’s surface is. The smoother it is, the higher the grit and the better the grinding wheel is for polishing things. The lower the grit, the rougher the grind, meaning not all grinding wheels were designed for all grinding tasks.
A high-grit wheel might be used to polish slabs of marble or obsidian or steel, while a low-grit grinding wheel might be used to strip material of wallpaper, epoxy, or varnish. Low-grit grinding wheels are typically employed in the early stages of a job to eliminate any bad work that had previously existed.
Concentration
Abrasive concentration is represented by a formula calculated by taking the weight of a grinding wheel’s diamond particles. It is only used to measure the abrasiveness of metal bonds. The greater the abrasiveness, the higher the cutting power. The strongest diamond grinding wheel possible would have 72 carats of abrasiveness per cubic inch.
Hardness
Finally, hardness is a way to measure just how abrasive your grinding wheel’s overall bond is. It’s represented by a letter from A to Z, with Z being the highest amount of hardness you can get. Grinding wheels are measured based on a wide range of factors, including overall abrasiveness, the types of material the wheel is grinding, and the type of grit it’s equipped with.
This means that even two wheels used for similar purposes with similar strength might have very different hardness ratings. This is why there are four ways to measure diamond grinding wheels. There are too many mitigating circumstances for it to be possible to measure them with only one formula or figure.
Finding the Right Grinding Wheel for You
Now that you understand some of the metrics in determining what makes a good diamond grinding wheel, you can start figuring out what it is you’re looking for. After all, are you aware of what kind of job you’ll be doing? A diamond grinding wheel with low grit and metal bonds might be the best option if you’re going for a grinding tool for stripping paint or glue off wide surfaces.
However, if you’re trying to find a wheel that’ll finely polish your marble countertops until they shine, a high-grit wheel with vitrified bonds might be better.
Just make sure that when you decide, you know what it is you’re getting it for. It’s always better to have a diversified range of tools you can use for any type of project you tackle. You don’t want to force a square peg in a round hole by trying to make a one-size-fits-all diamond grinding wheel. Make sure the tool you have fits the job you’re using it for.