DIYbanter - Surface grinding thin stock?

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote in message
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"Doug Warner" wrote in message
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I want to have a pair of stepped feeler gauges made.

1. Thin: 0.18 mm Thick: 0.24 mm

2. Thin: 0.13 mm Thick: 0.19 mm.

Is it possible to fixture material this thin for surface grinding?

Sure... a mag chuck, and take really light passes with flood coolant.

LLoyd

There's far more to it than that. Grinding isn't just turning on the
machine and taking passes, not if you desire proper results. You'll fight
flatness and parallelism endlessly, and your end product won't be any
flatter than it started unless you do something to remove any bowing that
you start with. You do that by carefully straightening the part before
starting the grinding process, and shimming appropriately. You may not
even achieve a totally full grind on the first couples passes on each side,
but that's OK---you just keep taking off minute amounts from each side until
it is being fully ground.

If you want them to be straight and parallel, you'll have to take successive
passes, side to side, removing little from each side with each pass.
Internal stress will be released uniformly by that method, permitting the
parts to remain reasonably flat. This kind of grinding requires patience
and considerable skill, depending on the size of the pieces. The larger
they are, the more demanding they become. Use good grinding practice for
this operation. Don't plunge grind, grind from one edge to the other. Be
certain your wheel is well dressed and is aluminum oxide, assuming you're
grinding steel.

As Lloyd said, be certain to flood the items with coolant. Heat is your
enemy.

Harold