Mist

[bandmiller]

Have any of you chain grinders ever tried water based mist cooling as used in the metal working industry. It is clamed to not be messy and would speed up grinding with possibly better finish.

 

[rmihalek]

I was wondering about this in the context of heat. In particular, if the rivets, gullets, etc. are being ground down, I think that a lot of heat would be generated which could possibly change the hardness of the metal. I noticed that my hand filed chains stayed sharper longer than when I had then sharpened on a grinder and I was thinking this was due to a loss of tempering due to heat build-up with the grinder.

 

[tony marks]

well im still using square grd filed by eric.. but i can tell u that u do loose edge durability with a grinder.. my chain holds it edge alrite after a grinder.. but hand filed mower blades llast a good 2-3 times as long.. the mist probably be a good idea..

 

[bandmiller]

Bob, heat is the reason i'am interested in mist cooling. Misting uses a small air nozzel with just enough water based coolent to cool yet not enough to drip and make a mess.It is applied exactly where the stone(rock to you southern boys)and cutter meet.Bob last post were you talking about Boston lawnmower??

 

[Crofter]

The softening from grinding is a very real problem. I have forged quite a few knives and special lathe cutters from high carbon steels and have a fair grasp of hardening and tempering. Even when you know what is going on it is hard to grind a chain without softening and occasionally spot hardening a tooth edge. Especially if you have to do more than a mere touch-up. The mist would certainly help the problem if it was not too messy. I believe the grinding wheels are resin bonded; anyone know if there would be any problems with stone being affected by the moisture?

Frank

 

[rmihalek]

Hi Bandmiller,

See my PM about boston lawnmower.

I re-read your post and see you mentioned cooling as a reason for wanting a water mist when grinding chains. I thought it was that you wanted to be able to grind them faster, which could be a benefit of having a water mist system spraying on the grinding wheel. Plus, the water would carry the debris away maybe resulting in a sharper edge.

We'll have to wait for an expert to chime in about whether the resin bonded grinding wheels are able to have water sprayed on them. But it sounds like an easy system to rig up as long as the water can be kept away from the grinder motor.

 

[John Ellison]

If you cooled your grinding wheel with a mist I guess that you could grind faster but it seems like it would make it hard to see the tooth well. They sell a waxed wheel that is suposed to grind cooler but if I remember right, the wax also makes it hard to see.

John

 

[eric_271]

The temper can start changing on hi carbon steel at 400f to 600f. A rocked out chain is going to feal every bit of that and if you see a color change you prob have changed the hardness for better or worse. The mist thing may well be worth a try as stated earlier for cooling as well as carrying debris away, the mist not letting shaveings and spent stone pass a second time between the stone and cutter. A reguler stone I dont know about but a diamond type will take fluids without any harm. Something that u might try is a temp stik in the 400f to 600f range if u want to know how warm the cutters are geting. Just mark the cutter grind and see if the temp stik changes color. Might work Im not sure.

 

[jsikkema1]

grinding wheels...

I find that once the grinding wheels load up then they have a tendency to burn the cutter more since the grinding wheel is rubbing more than cutting away metal... Keep your wheels clean by hitting it with a dressing brick from time to time. Keeping a good clean stone will keep the tooth from getting too hot.