talk about supporting your subscribers. that was a lot of effort. thanks again.

I know you made this 5 years ago but I'm just getting around to seeing it now. Our company has been grinding 6061-T6 Aluminum to very close tolerances and finish specifications for over 25 years. It's a process that requires lots of outside of the box thinking. The special wheels the manufacturers suggest are very expensive, but I have found that a decent 46 Grit, H Hardness wheel under $300 works fine. I suppose the $1000 wheel they suggest may last longer, but this works for us for the number of parts per wheel purchase. We also use the same exact coolant, but at 7% mix with water. We hold .0005" flatness and maintain a 16 rms surface finish.

You gave me some help my sine table magnet. I did get it done but I first put it my bench mill and faced about .025" off to strengthen it up . It took another .002" grinding to clean it up and get the face mill marks out . A couple of tenths at a time and dressing about three times. Persistence won out as it usually does . I also beefed up my setup which helped too . Thanks for your input . I had surface ground before but always someone else surfaced the magnet .

39C and 37C Silicon carbide is your friend on aluminum and cast Iron. With flood coolant that has a high mineral oil content you can grind aluminum just like steel. ATB, Robin

I boldly or stupidly ground the aluminum cylinder head on my Volvo turbo using my Boyer Schultz surface grinder . Seemed to work out okay but time will tell. Barely made it fit to the grinder. Thanks for this excellent tutorial. The wheels are often a mystery. _Dan_

Interesting. Thanks for all the hard work.

Nice video Steve, I really like the the Radiac wheels. That 46 you used is my all around favorite wheel!

Hi steve. Can't thank you enough for your time and efforts. When grinding aluminium the best lubricant i found was 2% mixed regular lube (i use british lube called morris). After grinding aluminium i dio the wheel in petroleum for a night and then use brass brush. I will try these open wheels you use. Never even thought to try them but i see you're using them a lot and they are very versatile. Thanks again!

That was really interesting, I didnt know aluminum could be ground. Thanks for sharing

The fine and excellent finish on your aluminum grinding test most definitely must be due to your modified toothbrush - LOL! No, this is most valuable information to me since I was told by an "Expert Machinist" that you can not under any circumstances grind aluminum! Thank you so much for sharing this most interesting information and keep up your great work!

Surprisingly the course 46 grit wins. I bet the same principle applies to sanding belts. And the coolant made the difference

Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

Wow. I've never had the need to grind Aluminum, but the coolant trick is great. I tend to like Crisco oil for small features, using a grinder similar to the one you have . For large surfaces I use flood coolant on our 32 x 16 Okamoto. You really have me sold on the open structure wheels. The Okamoto uses very large wheels, but I think I'm going to be going with the Radiac. Thanks Steve, and son's.

Thanks Steve! That was interesting. I have no idea when or if I'll ever need to grind aluminum, but now I have a pretty good idea how. By the way, pick up a 3M P100 type respirator. I think I paid $16 for my mask and first set of filters (just grabbed it while I was getting my welding gas), and I find it very comfortable for extended use. There are different versions, but the basic one should be fine for your use.

Great experiment, found out a few new things.

Great vid Steve!!!!!!!!

Thanks! Very interesting - I have never put aluminum in my surface grinder but have wondered about it for years. I will have no fear about it now and probably come up with a project to make use of it. Adam, It looked to me that the camera was auto focusing on the vice below the top of the shinny aluminum surface. I could not make out the ground surface - or my eyes are blurred out from watching boobtube videos. Maybe place a reference object on the surface so the auto focus can grab it.

Hi Steve. Thanks for the replies to my D2 dilemma which worked out fine. Short laugh here. I worked for a company doing Pratt engines and they hired a safety officer who was a former CT. state trooper. Oh No! ;- ) Anyway someone complained when new guys were grinding AL on the pedestal grinder claiming the wheel can explode from heat and that became policy to never grind aluminum. I understood the frustration of an AL packed wheel but it's entirely possible to surface grind AL as I have many times. I flat ground real flimsy castings of some virgin material with much luck using either grease, oil or paraffin wax on both the wheel, part or both. It sticks pretty well with light coolant also. Occasionally I would rub a little mud off the wheel with a wire or brass brush and solvent or DW40. Works well.

Thank you!!

we used to use Crisco in the mold business for taking off large amounts put on the part, not the wheel Joe

I think it would have been nice to have the picture in picture to have been an up close look of the surface as it was being ground rather than of you cranking the wheel. How do you like the Cimperial 1070? Do you use it on your mill too? I have been thinking about trying it the next time I cnage my flood coolant out but never have found anybody that used it. I currently am using rustlick ultracut pro and it works ok but I feel it doesn't help as much as it could with the cutting action and is mainly just a coolant.

For taking ultra light sizing cuts of removal of .0001" or less use a green wheel normally used for carbide. Not sure how it works on aluminum.

You are wise using the face mask. The original cast for Wizard of Oz had Buddy Ebsen as the Tinman. They powdered him with loose aluminum dust, and he had lung problems (he said it was emphysema) disable him, so the part was given to Jack Haley. They used aluminum powder mixed with Vaseline so they didn't lose a second Tinman.

Thanks Steve, that was fantastic. One question what alloy of aluminum and which heat treatment did it have? If you told us I missed it, thanks.

I ground some Ally blocks last weekend using an A60 wheel 1/2 thou depth of cut with WD40 smeared over the part. Ive tried wax in the past. But I find wheel clogging is terrible with wax.

Nice job! Is there an advantage of having a arbor for each grinding wheel?

yo yo yo yo YO! IS THAT A SUPRA ?!?!??!

Hello Daddy Steve, is there a reason behind using the soluble oil instead of kerosine?

I thought silicon carbide was the wheel for aluminium, no?

Anyone know how to o.d. grind aluminum.

What DRO are you using?

Sir you have job for chater mark no finishing kn

Sir aluminium grinding wheel grade

Got 3M double sided tape with AL tomorrow ;- ) .0005 flat ... parallel. The whole lot. Why not? Ya know? I remember the parallelogram as being for flatness on the old Pratt drawings. Now it's flat and parallel as the symbol suggests. Go figure. Makes sense doesn't it? Rare is that flat is more important than parallel. Anyway. You know not to mind the debates and negative. I'll check back soon as I have seemingly become the new shop grinder lol.. Thankx Steve. Chris

why bother use a sharp fly cutter and get as good of surface finish. smh