Jeffrey A. Badger, Ph.D.

Our supplier in Asia is grinding hardened-steel parts and sending them to us for final processing. Some of them are cracking, so we're going to visit the supplier. What should we be looking for?

Ask the Grinding Doc Columnist Jeffrey Badger, Ph.D., responds to a question about the difference between "constant rpm" and "constant metal-removal rate" when it comes to grinding cams.

Dear Doc: I sell grinding wheels and frequently find myself pulling my hair out when recommending wheels to customers. One customer achieved great success with a resin-bond, 400-mesh diamond wheel when grinding ¾"-dia. carbide endmills. It performed like a "superwheel." I then took that same wheel to a customer who also grinds ¾" carbide endmills on the same machine model with the same coolant and it's a disaster. Why?

Ask the Grinding Doc: When I ran out of single-point dressing diamonds and got desperate, I mounted a PCD insert to dress an Al2O3 wheel. Is there any danger in doing that?

Jeffrey Badger, Ph.D., fields a question from a shop getting "terrible burn on the shoulder" when cylindrical grinding steel parts with a straight plunge.

A machinist who is cylindrical-grinding threads into hardened steel using multiple-rib, vitrified-bond, aluminum-oxide wheels is experiencing breakdown of the thread root, and turned to the Grinding Doc for help.

The Grinding Doc offers an upbeat take on tri-grit wheels.

Dr. Jeffrey Badger, who authors the Ask the Grinding Doc column, answers questions about barreling and scrubber nozzles.

Dear Doc: I battle burn and long cycle times when grinding ODs in bearing. The wheel manufacturer has specified a series of wheel changes to solve the problem, but it means buying a lot of new wheels. What's your take?

Dr. Jeffrey Badger, Cutting Tool Engineering's Ask the Grinding Doc columnist, cautions readers not to be timid when slowing the workpiece speed to induce burn.

The sweet spot is where the grits in a grinding wheel optimally penetrate the workpiece to form a chip -- not too deep and not too shallow.

Water is an effective heat conductor, and, if you get an adequate supply of coolant within the pores of the wheel, the coolant will absorb about 70 percent of the heat.