lol, I doubt anybody will be able to offer much towards this but I figured I'd ask anyway...

my damn bench grinder's grinding wheel likes to gum up on aluminum and I have to keep reverting over to grinding on a crappy cast iron manifold to get the aluminum off the wheel (dont ask my why but it works damn good )

are there any aluminum specific grinding wheels out there that wont gum up as easily??

 

never use aluminum, stainless, brass or anything like that on your bench grinder unless you like going through wheels quick. get yourself a flap wheel for these kinds of material. it basically looks like a bunch of squares of sandpaper all put together into a wheel. or you could get a belt sander.

 

Yes there are... let me see if I can find some specfic ones in my metalworking supply catalogs for you to look for.

 

I always use a Roloc with some 60+ grit paper

 

i've heard that if you spray wd40 on the wheel while you're grinding it wont gum up. never tried this as i just use flap wheels.

 

For your non-ferrous stuff, you'll want to pick up a Silicon Carbide wheel [Note, you're using a aluminum oxide wheel right now]. They come in mostly the same sizes, and are green in color.

You can use it very well with all AL, Ti, brass, bronze, what not, however, don't even bother trying to use it with steel or tungsten unless you like shelling out money by the pound, both rip the wheel to shreads.

 

cool deal, thanks man!