Properties of Diamond Abrasive

The strength and hardness of diamond gives it some advantages over other abrasive materials. High grinding efficiency along with high wear resistance promotes a precise, good quality grind and longer tool life. In turn, the longer life of a properly used diamond tool can lower the cost of finishing your workpiece.

Diamonds are also chemically inert, and their biocompatibility make them an ideal abrasive for orthopedic surgeries. Bone saws and surgical burs are often coated with natural diamond grit in a wide range of mesh sizes.

Diamond abrasive is best used on materials such as ceramics, marble, stone, concrete, asphalt, glass, fiber glass, and non-ferrous metals like copper and aluminium. High temperatures generated in a fast cut or high RPM grind can cause diamonds to react with iron, nickle, cobalt, and chromium. For this reason, depending on your application and desired result, diamond abrasive may not be the right choice for your job.

Tips for Tool Use

Proper use of any abrasive tool is key to ensuring you get the longest life possible. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your R&R Abrasive tools.

- Choose the right grit size for the job. Knowing your desired surface finish will help in making this decision. If you’re looking to remove material, then go with something coarse like 60 grit. If you want to end up with a smooth surface finish, work down in steps to a progressively smaller grit size. Start with a 60 or 100 grit, then finish with a 200 grit or finer.

If you don’t find the right grit size needed for your job on our page, Contact us for a quote on custom orders. We have everything available from 20 grit to 20 micron and will share our experience to help you determine which is right for you.

- Don’t use too much pressure, let the diamond do the work. This is especially true with our quick-change rotary discs. Too much downward pressure can cause uneven wear of your diamond tool, or worse, gouges and uneven surface finishes on your workpiece. Light pressure and continual back-and-forth or circular motion will give you the best result.

- Use lubrication if needed. As with most machining processes, a good deal of heat can be generated while grinding with rotary discs at a high RPM. Depending on the type of material you’re working on, a spray of an appropriate cutting fluid will help cool down your tool and worksurface.

- Clean off caked-up cutting material. While grinding soft or gummy materials, it’s possible for your shavings to load up on your tool’s cutting surface. This will cause less of your abrasive to be exposed and your tool to become less effective. A quick remedy for this is to use a medium bristle wire brush to gently clean off the loaded up material. This will expose your abrasive and give your tool new life.

- Use your tools the way they were designed. It’s important to use any tool the way it was intended. Sandpaper, abrasive pads, and our quick change diamond discs are meant for smoothing and polishing surfaces. Attempting to make cuts into a workpiece with the edge of a diamond disc could greatly wear down the life our your discs or even cause a mechanical failure.

If you don’t find the product you need offered on our site, please Contact us and we’ll share our experience and resources to help you develop the right tool for your project.