Grinder

Grinders are a simple glass working tool specifically designed for removing small amounts of material at once from glass via the action of Grinding.

Types of Grinders

Grinders can be broken up into a few groups, each with their own specialty and sub-groups. Though there's two main groups, Powered and Manual.

Powered Grinders

Table/Bench Top

Table top grinders are what you will find in most glass studios. These are small plastic boxes that have a water reservoir and small motor to spin a shaft horizontally with a Grinding Bit attached. These can then be broken down into water delivery types.

Wicking

Wicking grinders rely on a sponge, brush or any other type of passive movement of water to the bit of the grinder.

Bit Feed

Grinders using a special Grinding Bit geometry that looks like threads and shroud in the work surface to force water up the side of the bit.

Pump Feed

Pumps that move the water from a reservoir to the bit.

Gravity/Drip Feed

Either a container of water or a directly plumbed line feeds small drips of water to the grinder bit.

Vertical

Vertical grinders are as the name implies, vertical. Rather than rotating horizontally the tool rotates vertically and allows the use of larger wheels and more freedom to work the part against the machine. These are made up of two types of grinder.

Pump Feed

Pumps that move the water from a reservoir to the wheel.

Gravity/Drip Feed

Either a container of water or a directly plumbed line feeds small drips of water to the grinder wheel.

Horizontal/Flat Lap

Horizontal grinders or laps are a more specialized type of grinder where a large disk is used to do the grinding. While these can be small they also can be very large. Often used bulk material removal or flattening of sides/faces they are a more precision machine than the others.

Slurry Drip Feed

These are very unique in that there isn't any grinding material on the head itself when bought but rather a large cast iron plate has a Cerium Oxide slurry dripped onto it that is then worked into the cast iron by use of the machine to make it abrasive. This is a rather old style of machine thus it's not very common anymore.

Pump Feed

Pumps that move the water from a reservoir to the disk.

Gravity/Drip Feed

Either a container of water or a directly plumbed line feeds small drips of water to the grinder disk.

Manual Grinders

Manual grinders is mostly made up of man made materials and isn't really used for much as the effort required is extremely high.

Pads

Grinding pads are typically made with Bonded Diamond attached to a single face.

Stones

Grinding stones are typically made with Cerium Oxide mixed with a binder and shaped into a brick or stone shape.