Benefits of dummy workpieces
The Grinding Doc's a fan of false nips, aka dummy workpieces, but only in certain situations.
Magazine Column
Ask The Grinding Doc
Getting a chatter diagnosis
Puzzled by the appearance of a choppy, spiral-shaped set of chatter marks showing up on a workpiece, a shop sought a diagnosis from Jeffrey Badger, Ph.D., who writes the Ask the Grinding Doc column in Cutting Tool Engineering.
Reducing hydroplaning forces while grinding
A shop asks CTE's Grinding Doc about taper that shows up when cylindrical-OD grinding. The shop seeks advice to mitigate the problem.
Wheel tests on the fly
A shop writes to the Grinding Doc: There's lots of discussion at my company about the best diamond fluting wheel for grinding tungsten carbide. Is there a quick test to determine which wheel is best?
Avoiding chatter resonance
The Grinding Doc helps a shop experiencing chatter as its grinding wheel goes from 3" to 2" running at a constant 10,000 sfm.
Ask the Grinding Doc: Loading the wheel
In the August 2017 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering, Ask the Grinding Doc Columnist Jeffrey Badger, Ph.D., fields questions about spotting wheel loading, white sticking for hardened steel loading, and what causes barber pole marks during cylindrical-traverse grinding.
Ask the Grinding Doc: The question is academic
Invited to join a 3-year academic project, a grinding wheel manufacturer turned to the Grinding Doc to determine whether such projects are worth the money and, more importantly, the time. For its part, the company is interested in evaluating its bond formulations.
Grinding steel shafts puts shop in ‘fowl’ mood
A shop that cylindrically grinds steel shafts is having trouble keeping up with tighter and tighter surface-finish tolerances. Though the shop can hold the finish, roundness and size take a hit. So the shop seeks the Grinding Doc's advice.
Ask The Grinding Doc: Decrease diameter, increase speed
Dear Doc: I installed a variable-speed drive on a cylindrical grinder. The wheels start at 18" and stub-out at 15". Should I increase the rpm as the wheel diameter gets smaller? Read the full report for the Doc's reply.
Setting up a lab
The Grinding Doc fields the following questions: 1. The grinding wheel manufacturer I work for wants to set up a basic lab for testing wheels and different Al2O3 grits. What's the best, most-economical way to do this? 2. I'm getting chatter on parts and am trying to determine if it's from grinding forces that are too high or from an out-of-balance wheel. Is there a way to tell?
Grinding sensitive parts
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?
Cam-grinding options
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.