cutting tngsten carbide

I'm making a pendant out of Tungsten carbide - which I know is unusual

- but I make pendants out of unusual/exotic materials as a hobby. I am used to working with tough materials - I make pendants from 6al4v titanium through to tigers eye - but this T.C is proving troublesome. The type of T.C is a brand called Cerbide (I'm using that because it does not have cobalt in it) and it blunts my diamond wheel (a wet tile saw) after a very small amount of cutting (1 mm on the 1/4 blank I'm making my pendant from). I can get the diamond wheel 'back' by grinding some other material like granite, which I presume is grinds back the binder in the wheel to expose more diamods again. Has anybody got a suggestion for a way to work this stuff? All I have at my disposal are basic tools and very little money to purchase anything else. Would those small silicon carbide wheels for dremmel tools work it? As a last ditch method I may try scoring it with the diamond wheel and breaking it to shape in a vise. Is there a better way to keep the diamond wheel cutting?

Reply to
twocranks1
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I don't know anything about Cerbide, I would try a 'green silicon carbide wheel' on a bench grinder.

A diamond wheel for carbide would probably work, but is quite expnsive.

You might try a few small machine shops in your area, one may have a pedestal grinder equipped with a green wheel and let you try it. Take along your safety glasses with side shields.

Wolfgang

Reply to
wfhabicher

A diamond wheel should deal with carbide with no trouble. Makes me wonder if this Cerbide you spoke of isn't really a ceramic. Is it heavy? Tungsten has a very high specific gravity, something like 17.

The one thing that can spell trouble is if you're grinding any steel at the same time. If not, and the wheel continues to perform as it does, you really have few options. Dressing the wheel with stone as you've done is what needs to be done, and it may or may not be taking a toll on the wheel. All depends on if the wheel is loading, or is getting dull. If it's loading and all you're doing us cleaning it, fine, but if you're dulling the diamond, you need to look into the reason why.

Silicon carbide is a quantum leap softer than diamond, so it isn't likely to work well. The green wheels are formulated to break down quickly so sharp grain is constantly being exposed when grinding very hard materials. The typical silicon carbide wheel (not the green ones) would dull quickly and quit cutting. They also more or less club off the carbide, leaving a terrible finish as compared to diamond grinding. I'm not convinced you'd like working with the green wheels, which are quite messy, and hazardous to your health (silicon dust).

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Looking at

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makes me think you will have trouble shaping a material designed

"...to perform at measurably higher levels of abrasion and erosion resistance than tungsten carbide..."

Reply to
jtaylor

Cerbide is an excellent material. We looked at selling it but it is primarily for high wear / low impact application such as nozzles. We are more tools such as saws.

I talked to new guy there maybe a month ago. He seemed bright and a straight shooter. Were I you I think I would call them.

Cerbide does have a small amount of binder. It is much smaller than ordinary tungsten carbide and falls in a category called "binderless." This is not strictly correct but is accepted common usage much as the term "tungsten carbide" is used to refer to tungsten carbide grains cemented with a binder rather than just the tungsten carbide grains themselves.

If you are worried about allergies this may be significant. Also the testing on solubility is done on common laboratory acids and organic acids can react much differently.

I think I would find a little EDM shop and at least ask them for a quote to do the rough work.

It is my understanding that cerbide has a good shop for custom fab work. It much be best to have one sintered to shape and then polish. This is the way they do with the watches, etc in ordinary tungsten carbide.

Tom

Reply to
president

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