"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:30:10 GMT, "Harold and Susan Vordos"
wrote:


"Wes" wrote in message
...
Mark Rand wrote:

Use the finest bonded diamond wheel you can find. You don't need to
remove
much material at all to refresh a scraper bit and you need to end up
with
a
mirror finish. Stay away from the silicon carbide!

I roughed out the radius on one of the scrapers I am making last night
during break on a silicon carbide wheel at work. I wasn't impressed at
all.
I'll buy the diamond wheel.

Thanks,

Wes

Good choice. Mark knows of what he speaks!

I've always been underwhelmed by the performance of silicon carbide for
grinding tungsten carbide. If you look at the edge created, it's always
chipped, never smooth. How in hell is that supposed to work properly?

Harold

SC is only supposed to be..in most applications..the rougher, with
diamond being the finisher.

Don't buy into that bull****. You can move more carbide per unit time with
a fine diamond wheel than you can with a coarse silicon carbide wheel-----so
where's the advantage? Taking the discussion further, it's entirely likely
that a $125 diamond wheel will last longer than a dozen $20 silicon carbide
wheels, so you can't even argue economics. The only possible advantage I
can see is that you can club off some carbide by a poor method without
spending as much money up front, but you pay the price, it's just a matter
of when. In most cases it's by reduced performance and tool life.

As I said, I've been using diamond wheels for over 50 years now, and that
includes a short stint (5 months) in a shop that used silicon carbide wheels
exclusively. I have more than my share of experience grinding carbide by
both methods. I don't recommend green silicon carbide wheels for anything,
or anyone, unless the person in question has absolutely no prospects of
buying a diamond wheel. The degraded condition of tools ground with those
green wheels is such that it's hard to get them to perform to satisfaction.

I guess you can consider the opportunity to breath silicon one of the
advantages. I think I'd rather not.

Harold