Using A Surface Grinder

Surface grinders are made up of various component parts. They include the abrasive wheel which is covered in super hard abrasive material like diamond or carbon fibre.

It also includes a device known as a chuck. This holds in place the material being worked on. It does this either by using a magnet if the material is magnetic, or by using a vacuum or other mechanical means if the material is not magnetic.

surface grinders can work on many different materials including minor steel and cast iron. These metals don’t tend to clog the grinding wheel which is why they work so well with this process.

Aluminium, brass, stainless steel and some plastics are other materials that can be used, although these can be more difficult to work with.

Surface grinders are the most common of the grinding tools. It’s a finishing process that uses a rotating abrasive wheel which smooths the flat surface of metallic or non metallic materials.

This is either to make the surface look more refined or to make it suitable for purpose.


The speed of grinding creates high temperatures which can make some materials weaker and more likely to corrode. The heat of grinding can also be a cause a loss of magnetism in some materials.

The grinding wheel does not necessarily have to be cylindrical. There are lots of different shape options which can be used to make different geometries on the material. Straight wheels can be adjusted by the machine operator to produce the required geometries for a material. The shape of the wheel makes a mirror image on the material being worked on.

Materials used on surface grinder wheels include silicon carbide, Aluminium oxide, diamond, and cubic boron nitride (CBN).

Aluminium oxide is the material most commonly used. This is because it is significantly cheaper than other options such as diamond. If more expensive materials like diamond or CBN is used then it is usually only a thin layer with a core of less expensive material underneath it.

These harder materials can be utilised to grind ceramics and carbides which can’t be ground with aluminium oxide or silicon carbide wheels.

Grinding dressers are used to ensure that the wheel quality is maintained. This is extremely important as the grinding wheel must always be performing at peak to ensure that work is as precise as possible.