- Joined
- Dec 6, 2021
- Messages
- 237
I don't have an abrasives problem. I just keep buying them. But no matter what kind or how many I buy, it's never enough. I always want more and better abrasives. I'm rarely satisfied that I'm using the best and always in search of something better. As a hobbyist, I lack the experience of pro-fabricators, metal workers and machinists. No employer stocks the cabinet for me. My jobs and materials are too inconsistent for good A/B comparisons. And none of my spam calls are from industrial abrasive reps offering free hits of their newest drug.
Okay, so maybe I do have a problem. My OCD is always telling me there's a "right" abrasive for this job or that. Always a feeling that abrasive nirvana is just around the corner. Just one Buy Now click away... Since I'm too cheap for therapy (and you guys are free), I'm just going to talk about it like this is a support group. Abrasives Anonymous. My name is John...
Tools & Machines – an inventory of compulsion*
Well, gotta stop here. I could go on, but I promised my wife I'd go with her to a museum today. (She's worth it.)
Please share any go-to abrasives you love and would never be without. Also any eureka-type discoveries you wish you'd known about sooner.
Okay, so maybe I do have a problem. My OCD is always telling me there's a "right" abrasive for this job or that. Always a feeling that abrasive nirvana is just around the corner. Just one Buy Now click away... Since I'm too cheap for therapy (and you guys are free), I'm just going to talk about it like this is a support group. Abrasives Anonymous. My name is John...
Tools & Machines – an inventory of compulsion*
- two 1/3hp craftsman block motor bench grinders – 6"
- 1/2hp craftsman block motor bench grinders – 6" (not yet in service)
- 8" HF bench buffer 8
- 12" delta disc grinder (recent estate sale find – this cast iron beauty replaces a dreadful HF 12" that's frustraited me for 15-20yrs)
- 1x42 (also works w/1x30) Rockwell belt grinder
- collection of cheap HF pneumatic grinders
- collection of cheap 4.5" HF angle grinders
- NEW cordless 18v Makita angle grinder (that makes me want to throw all the HF corded grinders in the round file)
- 10" craftsman angle grinder I've never bonded with but have too many flap wheels for to get rid of
- also a big, cast iron 6" Delta(?) belt grinder acquisition that's never gone into service
*deliberately omitting the misc sawdust producers
3M Scotch-Brite EXL 6x1 deburring wheel, 3M #048011-05132 (hard/grey/fine, density-9) – I feel like an idiot for wasting so much of my life without this. Doubly so since it was the $85 price tag that scared me off. I've been going through 3" scotchbrite roloc discs like toilet paper since the 90s and they're well over a dollar each. The 6" deburring wheel is going on it's 4th year and still has plenty left. Yeah, idiot.
Norton "Alundum" white 6x1 aluminum oxide wheels, one medium (60grit) and one fine (150grit) – Another "why didn't I do this sooner" item... Got them for tool sharpening, but WOW – soft wheels can really cut. I'd only used hard, grey wheels before that and now I feel like a kid who grew up in the forrest seeing a city for the first time. Now I wonder what else could be out there...
It's complicated – the love/hate abrasives"3 Roloc discs – Pure and simple, these things are heroin. Truly blissful at first, but quickly fading and expensive. One is never enough. They're only cheaper by the case, and those purchases often lead to deceit and lying to loved ones.
Wire wheels – always too coarse or not nearly coarse enough. Forever throwing needles into your clothes and skin. Usually occupying a spindle for the wheel you wish you had mounted just now.
Any 12" PSA disc on an aluminum platen – (I'm looking at you, Harbor Freight.) Maybe this is just an OCJohn problem, but in 15-20yrs of owning a HF 12" I could never get 100% disc adhesion for more than a day. Thermal expansion/contraction? IDK. But it didn’t matter what brand or quality of disc I got (or how much acetone I used to clean it…) they’d all develop a 1/16-1/8 lift on one edge. Super frustrating. (In contrast, the delta is all cast iron. Discs stick at STAY stuck. Also has a buttery smooth miter slot, much nicer table adjustment and is so quiet and free of vibration it’s easy to forget it's running. I think they run about $400-500 new, but man… I kinda get it now.) As with wire wheels, whatever grit is currently on my 12" it's always too fine/coarse for what I need at the time.
Well, gotta stop here. I could go on, but I promised my wife I'd go with her to a museum today. (She's worth it.)
Please share any go-to abrasives you love and would never be without. Also any eureka-type discoveries you wish you'd known about sooner.
