Does anyone have suggestions for grinding refractory using an angle grinder or belt sander. What wheel or belt do you have experience using? I mainly will want to grind an eighth of an inch here and there on my fires lid segments to improve how the lay into the steel lid hoop. Grinding may not be absolutely required but could be a good option to have if needed. Refractories, being high in very hard AlOx tend not to grind easily. Denis
I use the 125mm or 5" diamond coated steel angle grinder wheels intended for masonry and concrete. I go to the back of the yard, stay upwind of the fine dust cloud thrown up and grind it dry. I had to take the furnace lid hole from 4" to 5" and it wore out one of those wheels doing so.
After doing a little work on my 6” bench grinder and a coarse AlOx wheel, I got the nubs off and removed a little flash. .for this go-round that p rob ably is all I need. But, good to know about the diamond wheels for the angle grinder. I think I may get one of these to have on hand https://www.amazon.com/Gunpla-Doubl...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== The reviews are very good. Denis
These are what I used, they are thin edged and intended for cutting rather than grinding but at $2.50 a pop they work great: https://www.bunnings.com.au/craftright-diamond-blades-4-piece-set_p0035937 It's a budget in house off-brand but there has to be something similar locally.
I used something like this on my kastolite 30 LI plus in my furnace. https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-7-in-24-Segment-Turbo-Cup-Grinding-Wheel-HD-TAW7024P1/202884372 It cut it pretty nice. Patrick
I think I'm turning into the Grumpy old man of this forum, But I cannot think of anything that would make me grind on my furnace... and at this point my furnace is litterally held together with hose clamps.. yes it is a couple of years overdue for replacement V/r HT1
Your furnace may never need grinding. Since I am trying to put together a segmental refractory lid, some of the tiles needed a bit of fettling to improve their fit. I was able to get several helpful answers by tapping into the collective wisdom of the forum. I got my fettling done and am welding the last couple pieces of steel at this moment. The success or failure of this lid design may add yet to the collective knowledge here. Denis
I did buy a diamond wheel similar to the one Patrick-C recommended and it does cut fired Blu-Ram cleanly and quite fast. It makes it possible to trim off a bit here and there to improve fitup and remove globs of refractory that can occur on a molded piece. I also bought some inexpensive 50-grit diamond burrs for my die grinder. They also work well though a couple of them had "1/4" shafts that were over size and had to be fiddled with to work. That said they too cut quite smoothly and rapidly and seem durable. Denis
