A disc cutter is a specialised, often hand-held, power tool used for cutting hard materials, ceramic tile, metal, concrete, and stone for example. This tool is very similar to an angle grinder, chop saw, or even a die grinder, with the main difference being the cutting disc itself (a circular diamond blade, or resin-bonded abrasive cutting wheel for a disc cutter vs. an abrasive grinding wheel for an angle grinder). This tool is highly efficient at cutting very hard materials, especially when compared to hand tools.
Often cutting discs, also known as cut-off wheels, are made from a solid abrasive disc. These discs are often used for cutting metal; they are composed of an abrasive mix of grit and adhesive that is formed into a thin, rigid disc with fiber webbing running through it for strength. Some discs used for cutting ceramic tile or stone are made from a solid disc with an edge coated with diamond grit. The most common size for these cutting wheels is 4+1⁄2 inches in diameter; however they can range from 2 to 16 inches in diameter with a thickness range from .045 in. to .125 in. Type 1 discs are flat, and type 27 discs have a raised hub. These wheels are strong but are not immune to breaking. If a cutting wheel breaks while in use, fragments could injure the operator or nearby co-workers. To avoid breaking cutting discs, never exceed the maximum speed (RPM) specified on the disc, and do not overload the disc by cutting with excess force or jamming the wheel into your workpiece.
Applications
Many manual cutting tasks require a hand-held grinder using a cutting wheel. Metal fabrication is one of the most common uses for cutting wheels. Cutting sheet metal, sizing metal stock for welding, cutting a weld to re-weld it, and cutting and notching steel pipe are just a few examples. Die grinders and chop saws are other common tools used with cutting discs.
Smaller projects and smaller or more precise cuts may require a die grinder equipped with a cutting wheel. These cutting wheels or discs are extremely thin and often less than 2 inches in diameter. Because they are so thin, they are commonly made of metal and have a diamond-coated edge as the abrasive. This type of disc cutter is good for sheet metal and for lightweight or thin materials. Thicker or heavier materials will need a larger disc cutter.
For long straight cuts on sheet metal or for light cut-off work, a standard circular saw is used with a 7+1⁄4-inch cutting wheel. These cutting discs are made just like the smaller wheels of an angle grinder, with resin bonded abrasive material, or are of metal with a diamond-coated edge.
A cutoff saw is used for cutting larger items, like heavy metal stock, metal studs, and for cutting large metal pipe. The cutting discs for this tool are usually 10 or 12 inches in diameter, with a composition like that of the smaller wheels mentioned above. When cutting heavy materials the cutting discs may require lubrication or coolant to prevent overheating. The cutoff saw is for making clean straight 90 degree cuts through the material.
A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and moving it back and forth, or continuously forward. This force may be applied by hand, or powered by steam, water, electricity or other power source. An abrasive saw has a powered circular blade designed to cut through metal or ceramic.
An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflective surface, the process can also involve roughening as in satin, matte or beaded finishes. In short, the ceramics which are used to cut, grind and polish other softer materials are known as abrasives.
Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order to create holes drill bits are usually attached to a drill, which powers them to cut through the workpiece, typically by rotation. The drill will grasp the upper end of a bit called the shank in the chuck.
Metal fabrication is the creation of metal structures by cutting, bending and assembling processes. It is a value-added process involving the creation of machines, parts, and structures from various raw materials.
A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is a power tool used for grinding. It is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from the workpiece via shear deformation.
An angle grinder, also known as a side grinder or disc grinder, is a handheld power tool used for grinding and polishing. Although developed originally as tools for rigid abrasive discs, the availability of an interchangeable power source has encouraged their use with a wide variety of cutters and attachments.
Grinding wheels are wheels that contain abrasive compounds for grinding and abrasive machining operations. Such wheels are also used in grinding machines.
A grinding dresser or wheel dresser is a tool to dress the surface of a grinding wheel. Grinding dressers are used to return a wheel to its original round shape, to expose fresh grains for renewed cutting action, or to make a different profile on the wheel's edge. Utilizing pre-determined dressing parameters will allow the wheel to be conditioned for optimum grinding performance while truing and restoring the form simultaneously.
Sharpening stones, or whetstones, are used to sharpen the edges of steel tools such as knives through grinding and honing.
In the context of machining, a cutting tool or cutter is typically a hardened metal tool that is used to cut, shape, and remove material from a workpiece by means of machining tools as well as abrasive tools by way of shear deformation. The majority of these tools are designed exclusively for metals.
Knife making is the process of manufacturing a knife by any one or a combination of processes: stock removal, forging to shape, welded lamination or investment cast. Typical metals used come from the carbon steel, tool, or stainless steel families. Primitive knives have been made from bronze, copper, brass, iron, obsidian, and flint.
A flapwheel and the related flap disk is an abrasive disk, used for metal finishing. Unlike the simpler flat disks, made from a circular flat sheet of a coated abrasive, a flapwheel is made of multiple overlapping small pieces or 'flaps', bonded to a central hub.
A diamond tool is a cutting tool with diamond grains fixed on the functional parts of the tool via a bonding material or another method. As diamond is a superhard material, diamond tools have many advantages as compared with tools made with common abrasives such as corundum and silicon carbide.
A diamond blade is a saw blade which has diamonds fixed on its edge for cutting hard or abrasive materials. There are many types of diamond blade, and they have many uses, including cutting stone, concrete, asphalt, bricks, coal balls, glass, and ceramics in the construction industry; cutting semiconductor materials in the semiconductor industry; and cutting gemstones, including diamonds, in the gem industry.
A die grinder or rotary tool is a handheld power tool used for grinding, sanding, honing, polishing, or machining material. All such tools are conceptually similar, with no bright dividing line between die grinders and rotary tools, although the die grinder name tends to be used for pneumatically driven heavy-duty versions whereas the rotary tool name tends to be used for electric lighter-duty versions. Flexible shaft drive versions also exist.
A glass cutter is a tool used to make a shallow score in one surface of a piece of glass that is to be broken in two pieces, for example to fit a window. The scoring makes a split in the surface of the glass which encourages the glass to break along the score. This is not to be confused with the tools used to make cut glass objects.
An abrasive saw, also known as a cut-off saw or chop saw, is a circular saw which is typically used to cut hard materials, such as metals, tile, and concrete. The cutting action is performed by an abrasive disc, similar to a thin grinding wheel. Technically speaking this is not a saw, as it does not use regularly shaped edges (teeth) for cutting.
Grinding is a type of abrasive machining process which uses a grinding wheel as cutting tool.
Surface grinding is done on flat surfaces to produce a smooth finish.
A diamond grinding cup wheel is a metal-bonded diamond tool with diamond segments welded or cold-pressed on a steel wheel body, which usually looks like a cup. Diamond grinding cup wheels are usually mounted on concrete grinders to grind abrasive building materials like concrete, granite and marble.
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