Thread: Can I wet grind on a belt grinder?

Is there any type or brand of grinder belt that would work wet with a steady drip of water?

Yes, but slooowww rpms or you're going to need a raincoat. That means a DC drive motor and controller or variable frequency drive. This is where you can find some metal working belts that work well. The glues and such on other kinds of belts, fabric comes to mind, may not do as well.

What Mike said.
The wet stone wheel grinders I have seen work well because the stone is porous and retains quite some water, and is usually pretty large in diameter or slow moving, so the centrifugal forces don't spray the water around. A belt is not porous so anything you drip on it will be flung away.

Also I know form experience that wet blades on a high grit belt make a mess If you go that route, I would suggest using trizact belts for the finer grits because they are lined with 'bumps' of high grit abrasive so any moisture has a way to leave the contact area without smearing crud over everything.

Yup, I'd go with a double wheel wet grinder for hollow grinding if I could do it in the price range of a belt grinder. Absent that, I'm exploring other options. Maybe I'll have to invest in a scuba suit!

You can but like others have said, it's a mess! I'm sure you could set up some type of shield to help with the spray.
If you think typical 3-wheel grinder, you could rig up a shield running the length of the top. You could add the drip to the shield.
That would help defect water from coming off the top wheel.
You would still be wet but maybe not so much in the face.

I built something that looked like a chain guard, on an bicycle. It kept the water down to a mild rainstorm. Keeping the water contained is a task.

I did not stick with it.

Charlie

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yup, I'd go with a double wheel wet grinder for hollow grinding if I could do it in the price range of a belt grinder. Absent that, I'm exploring other options. Maybe I'll have to invest in a scuba suit!

You could have Cybil hold up a clear umbrella.

Charlie built a 2 wheel hollow grinder some time back. As I recall, he doesn't use it any more. You might try PM-ing him.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yup, I'd go with a double wheel wet grinder for hollow grinding if I could do it in the price range of a belt grinder. Absent that, I'm exploring other options. Maybe I'll have to invest in a scuba suit!

Yes, and the vendors like TruGrit will tell you which belts can be used wet. I you make the mistake of using a dry belt, you will end up with dissolve glue on your platen at a minimum. I have a water cooled platen setup than is not perfectly sealed, so I learned the hard way about some belts. For rogher grit, the various 3M Cubitron ceramic products like the 984 series work quite well. The Norton Blaze bets work too and cut like a mutha, but, I still don't like how they "shed" their glue when used dry and things get a bit warm especially after trying the Cubitrons.