I'm making a pendant out of Tungsten carbide - which I know is unusual
- but I make pendants out of unusual/exotic materials as a hobby.
I am used to working with tough materials - I make pendants from 6al4v
titanium through to tigers eye - but this T.C is proving troublesome.
The type of T.C is a brand called Cerbide (I'm using that because it
does not have cobalt in it) and it blunts my diamond wheel (a wet tile
saw) after a very small amount of cutting (1 mm on the 1/4 blank I'm
making my pendant from). I can get the diamond wheel 'back' by grinding
some other material like granite, which I presume is grinds back the
binder in the wheel to expose more diamods again.
Has anybody got a suggestion for a way to work this stuff? All I have
at my disposal are basic tools and very little money to purchase
anything else. Would those small silicon carbide wheels for dremmel
tools work it? As a last ditch method I may try scoring it with the
diamond wheel and breaking it to shape in a vise. Is there a better way
to keep the diamond wheel cutting?

wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm making a pendant out of Tungsten carbide - which I know is unusual
- but I make pendants out of unusual/exotic materials as a hobby.
I am used to working with tough materials - I make pendants from 6al4v
titanium through to tigers eye - but this T.C is proving troublesome.
The type of T.C is a brand called Cerbide (I'm using that because it
does not have cobalt in it) and it blunts my diamond wheel (a wet tile
saw) after a very small amount of cutting (1 mm on the 1/4 blank I'm
making my pendant from). I can get the diamond wheel 'back' by grinding
some other material like granite, which I presume is grinds back the
binder in the wheel to expose more diamods again.
Has anybody got a suggestion for a way to work this stuff? All I have
at my disposal are basic tools and very little money to purchase
anything else. Would those small silicon carbide wheels for dremmel
tools work it? As a last ditch method I may try scoring it with the
diamond wheel and breaking it to shape in a vise. Is there a better way
to keep the diamond wheel cutting?


A diamond wheel should deal with carbide with no trouble. Makes me wonder
if this Cerbide you spoke of isn't really a ceramic. Is it heavy? Tungsten
has a very high specific gravity, something like 17.

The one thing that can spell trouble is if you're grinding any steel at the
same time. If not, and the wheel continues to perform as it does, you
really have few options. Dressing the wheel with stone as you've done is
what needs to be done, and it may or may not be taking a toll on the wheel.
All depends on if the wheel is loading, or is getting dull. If it's
loading and all you're doing us cleaning it, fine, but if you're dulling the
diamond, you need to look into the reason why.

Silicon carbide is a quantum leap softer than diamond, so it isn't likely to
work well. The green wheels are formulated to break down quickly so sharp
grain is constantly being exposed when grinding very hard materials. The
typical silicon carbide wheel (not the green ones) would dull quickly and
quit cutting. They also more or less club off the carbide, leaving a
terrible finish as compared to diamond grinding. I'm not convinced you'd
like working with the green wheels, which are quite messy, and hazardous to
your health (silicon dust).

Harold

wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm making a pendant out of Tungsten carbide - which I know is unusual
- but I make pendants out of unusual/exotic materials as a hobby.
I am used to working with tough materials - I make pendants from 6al4v
titanium through to tigers eye - but this T.C is proving troublesome.
The type of T.C is a brand called Cerbide (I'm using that because it
does not have cobalt in it) and it blunts my diamond wheel (a wet tile
saw) after a very small amount of cutting (1 mm on the 1/4 blank I'm
making my pendant from). I can get the diamond wheel 'back' by grinding
some other material like granite, which I presume is grinds back the
binder in the wheel to expose more diamods again.
Has anybody got a suggestion for a way to work this stuff? All I have
at my disposal are basic tools and very little money to purchase
anything else. Would those small silicon carbide wheels for dremmel
tools work it? As a last ditch method I may try scoring it with the
diamond wheel and breaking it to shape in a vise. Is there a better way
to keep the diamond wheel cutting?


Looking at

http://www.cerbide.com/

makes me think you will have trouble shaping a material designed

"...to perform at measurably higher levels of abrasion and erosion
resistance than tungsten carbide..."

Cerbide is an excellent material. We looked at selling it but it is
primarily for high wear / low impact application such as nozzles. We
are more tools such as saws.

I talked to new guy there maybe a month ago. He seemed bright and a
straight shooter. Were I you I think I would call them.

Cerbide does have a small amount of binder. It is much smaller than
ordinary tungsten carbide and falls in a category called
"binderless." This is not strictly correct but is accepted common
usage much as the term "tungsten carbide" is used to refer to
tungsten carbide grains cemented with a binder rather than just the
tungsten carbide grains themselves.

If you are worried about allergies this may be significant. Also the
testing on solubility is done on common laboratory acids and organic
acids can react much differently.

I think I would find a little EDM shop and at least ask them for a
quote to do the rough work.

It is my understanding that cerbide has a good shop for custom fab
work. It much be best to have one sintered to shape and then polish.
This is the way they do with the watches, etc in ordinary tungsten
carbide.

Tom