Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveL
A grinder is great for trimming steel, but not so much for use on aluminum. The soft aluminum will attach to the wheel and clog it up.
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When you do a lot of aluminum, you have to use the dressing tool after every ten minutes or so. For both aluminum and steel, a bench grinder is much faster than a hand file and is both faster and offers more control than a dremel or angle grinder for the jobs it can handle. Just remember to use vise grips for small pieces for better control and so you don't burn your fingers!
To be fair, we do use our bench grinder more for steel than aluminum - finishing cut bolt ends, removing flashing, going past deburring to actually rounding a corner, and occasionally even sharpening a blade.
We bought a unit with two different grain size wheels; if we were buying today, we'd probably just get one stone wheel and the other would be a wire brush to use for clean-up jobs including paint or coating removal.