Grey AO grinder wheel vs White?

[tmenyc]

I'm still waffling about moving on from my grey AO grinder wheel on the DeWalt 6" bench grinder. Simply put, my small shop is in a Manhattan apartment, so I have space, noise, and air handling issues, most of which are pretty well under control even with my Logan 820, bench grinder, and air compressor in a 10x10 room. I grind my own HSS tools, and every time am put off by the time it takes to accomplish a tool, the dust from wheel dressing (I do a good job of capturing the actual grinding slad with wet paper toweling), and the heat. A belt sander, while perhaps ideal in some ways, would just take up space I don't have to give it, and I can't install a good vacuum system. I seriously considered a CBN wheel as a cure for all of the issues but it just didn't fit while the grinder was bolted to a shelf. Now, however, the grinder is on a vise pedestal so I could go back there. Then I saw a video where the machinist was using a white AO wheel. Did some reading, learned that it's considered to be cooler and cleaner.

Do you have experience with grinding HSS cutting tools on a bench grinder and have used both grey and white AO? Is the white better, quicker, cooler? Does it throw off the same quantity of dust in dressing? How long does it take you to grind a tool on the white wheel?

Many thanks,
Tim

 

[DavidR8]

In my experience the grey wheel are just awful on HSS. I have a white wheel on my 6" grinder and it works great on HSS. I also have a belt grinder so I don't use the bench grinder except for when I need sharp inside corners.

 

[francist]

About a year ago I had finally worn down enough of my grey wheel that I felt ok about replacing it. Switched to one of these Norton 3X and it’s night and day for time and tool finish. Should have done it years ago. I don’t use my grinder for much else other than grinding cutting tools.

-frank

 

[tmenyc]

David, Frank -- this definitely hits the "wish I had known a year ago" file...thanks! This decision is getting easier fast.
Tim

 

[benmychree]

And, if the white wheels are properly graded, they last quite a long time; I bought a Delta "triple Duty" grinder probabyl 25 or 30 years ago, and it still has the original wheels on it, this in a commercial shop with daily use.

 

[pacifica]

I just used a norton cbn wheel to cut 4 facet drill point , compared to using pink ao it is about 1/5 the amount of grit/dust. It cost a lot more than the ao.