Wet Grinding

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grizzled gizzard

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Aug 31, 2010
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In response to some questions about wet grinding in another thread, I figured it would be better not to hijack that thread, but just start a new one.

I hope this answers some questions, and that the link works. It still works where I posted a lot of information on another site.

If you look by the upper right corner by the first picture, you can choose to view a slide show. As you're viewing, if you keep your mouse at the top of each picture, it will give you a description of the photo.

To answer the questions posed in the other thread here;

About three years ago I caught the wet grinding bug from Gayle Bradley. You can eat off his shop floor. I had just gotten a TW90, so I set it up soon after I got it.

I stopped grinding wet for a little while once, because hardly anyone does it. I thought I may have been exaggerating the benefits in my mind.

Not so. It's the difference between night and day.

It's hard to scorch liners. I very rarely have to take the blade off the belt or dip it. The blade almost never gets too warm to the touch.

It works with all materials. I've ground walrus ivory, fossil ivory, petrified mammoth tooth, all kinds of wood, stabilized or not, G10, all kinds of synthetic polymers, including a bunch of my favorite, Kirinite, which is easy to melt.

I've never had any sort of negative impact at all on any material. Your belt almost always stays perfectly clean, which is sweet.

I have low tolerance for G10. That stuff can make me ill in a hurry. I've wet ground close to 100 sets of scales. I still wear a respirator, and go outside to blow off with compressed air, but I've had no reaction to it when wet grinding. I don't think there's residual dust in the air a few minutes after shutting down.

It was pretty easy to set up the TW90. I lose very little water, so very little mess. A friend set up two vertical grinders. My setup, which is gravity fed, cost about $15. Joe used a tile saw submersible pump, and ran it to two grinders. His cost the pump plus about $5. Gravity feed is infinitely controllable. A pump is more convenient, and it works well on a vertical machine. I have to control the water precisely, which is simple, as you can see with the C-clamp on the hose.

http://s260.photobucket.com/user/ytreich/library/Wet grinder
 
Good post! I have enjoyed talking with you about it and I will be turning my new homemade grinder to run wet but I plan on doing the tile pump like joe.
Thanks again
 
Grizz, Would you please elaborate on the benefits of running wet? Are there any significant finish advantages? Are there any time savings?
 
Any negative effects on the machine? My TW-90 is a major investment. I take very good care of it. I'd hate to see it rust or die a premature death somehow. Also, where did you get the large contact wheel? Is that a 14"?
 
I am looking to give the wet grinding a try. I can't seem to either increase the size of your pictures or find information in another site. Boy, would I appreciate some help if it can happen. Thanks. Frank
 
I don't think anyone has a good tolerance for that stuff, its pretty terrible for your lungs. Sounds like you've got a good system there. We cnc mill it and we've got a really good dust collection setup for the mill but we still wear respirators.

-mike

grizzled gizzard said:
I have low tolerance for G10. That stuff can make me ill in a hurry. I've wet ground close to 100 sets of scales. I still wear a respirator, and go outside to blow off with compressed air, but I've had no reaction to it when wet grinding. I don't think there's residual dust in the air a few minutes after shutting down.
Click to expand...
 
Other than the obvious benefits to sharpening wet I also grind wet when doing tricky offhand grinding such as clips where I don't want to lift to dip. Wet grinding allows you to get in your groove and stay there until you're finished which reduces errors caused when getting situated.
 
Thanks much. I will be re-investigating this again.
The paintbrushes solves a problem I had in the past with this. >> terrific <<
I also noticed had on a Gator-Belt in several pics. I was always under the impression that those were to be run dry. I even wipe off my blade after cooling before I go back to grinding. Are you really getting good life with that? Very cool.
 
The Gators I've tried wet didn't last very long. I think the structured abrasive binder is water soluble.
 
Sorry guys, I'm super busy right now, and thought this was something of little interest.

Thank you for the kind words about the paint brush(es). It took a while to figure out how to spread the water evenly across the belt. I modify them with the tape, which spreads the water throughout the paint brushes. The brushes are cheapies, but still last a long time. In some circumstances I use another one at the top of the vertical platen.

The chutes do a really good job of catching water that comes off the belt, and either redeposit the water to the belt, or controls the water back to the gutter. I didn't have a picture of the chute I use a lot at the top of the vertical platen which was kind of a breakthrough for me. It keeps almost all the water in check.

The benefits of wet grinding are very significant. The biggest one is that you very rarely take the blade off the belt. Actually more to check progress, then right back to grinding. No wasted time cooling in a bucket of water. That can be as much as a 50% increase in efficiency of time. The belts stay cleaner and last longer. Considerable savings.

When grinding handle material, the belts don't load at all and stay cool. No scorched liners, no melting of "plastics", more aggressive grinding, you can see what you're doing much more easily, because you don't have to wipe the dust off, and Almost No Dust in the air!

All good grinders are a major investment. If I'd seen a single negative affect on my TW90, I probably wouldn't have pursued it. I definitely wouldn't propagate anything with adverse affects. It's Simply About Controlling the Water. You may have to get creative.

I use rare earth magnets from Rockwell to keep everything in place, and heavy HTing foil with magnets holding it in place as shields. The gutter, chutes and shields keep everything totally dry. You would normally need to be much more concerned with dust, and there isn't any.

Frank, I'd be more than happy to help in any way, with whatever you need.

Gators do not handle ANY water. I use 3M 953s and Norax structured ceramic waterproof belts most. It's not hard to find belts that work perfectly.

I've had good luck with all heavily backed polyester ceramic belts, with extremely few failures. Blaze belts work well, but they want to curl up into a ball when you take them off. It seems the backing might not be quite heavy enough.

A few precautions about belts;
Run the machine wide open to get excess water off the belt whenever you stop or change belts. Release the tension on the belt when not in use. To keep belts from curling up, fold them in half and use a $1 spring clamp to keep them in check (you can use one clamp to hold many belts). Waterproof belts won't curl. Good belts you just have to keep one inside the other (as you'd normally store multiple belts).

Thank you for the interest, guys, and the vote of confidence. Much appreciated!

I would be happy to help with anything else.
 
This seems like it's going to make me want to actually use some of the aerospace carbon fiber material that's just sitting around here- haven't wanted to use it because the dust is hazardous, and there's just no way otherwise to get around breathing some of it eventually.
There are also a lot of grinding tasks I like to do bare fingers, and I'm really tired of burning myself.
Thanks for the info!
Great thread.
 
Thanks a bunch for all the kind words, guys. I'm thrilled to give something meaningful back to this forum!

I'm happy to help in any way. My knowledge is yours.
 
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