Hi all,
I bought some iffy lathe tool of Ebay; the seller claims it to be tungsten carbide, but I'm sceptical about that. Looks more like HSS or chrome/moly to me. I need to ascertain if it's genuine TC or not. So... how about trying to grind it on an ordinary grey stone grinding wheel? It should be invincible against grey wheels, should it not? So if I end up with a bit of the tool ground off, then it can't be TC, can it? Will that be definitive proof or has anyone got a better suggestion?
ta.
Are you sure it's not just tungsten carbide tipped?
Density of tungsten carbide is 15.6 g/cc*, whereas that of steel is around 7.9 g/cc**, i.e. roughly half. Even if you can only measure the density approximately, that difference should be enough to distinguish one from the other.
PS: forgot to mention that tungsten carbide isn't magnetic, whereas most steels are (but not all, I don't think, so not necessarily absolutely definitive).
In message , Cursitor Doom writes
For some reason my newsreader has put Chris Hogg in the kill file (although not found there).
Tungsten carbide tipped tools can be sharpened on a conventional grinding albeit ...slowly:-)
I was never a grinding engineer but, don't green wheels simply have more sulphur lubricant than conventional?
It was explained to me that soft wheels, where the grinding material was "renewed" during usage, were used for Tungsten Carbide, and harder grinding material used for steels that were softer.
Look at the sparks thrown off when you grind it:
Apprently tungsten carbide tools also contain cobalt.
Testing some router cutters solid tungsten ones were much less magnetic than steel. Basicaly it was an effort to pull steel cutters off the magnetic whereas the tungsten ones fell away easily.
So a comparison with a known HSS tool should gibve a good indication.
Saying which, depending on the seller's feedback profile, and the price paid, whether the seller will necessarily roll over straightaway is another matter.
michael adams
...
Green wheels are usually silicone carbide and are used to grind carbide but it is still slow.
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