Using A Grinding Disc For Weld Preparation?
Grinding discs chewing the edge and fail to 
give a clean edge ‘prep’ for welding? The result: excessive wire use and untidy welds. Our Friday training this week looked at three options for grinding a weld prep on the edge of 8mm thick steel.
Option 1: K3K 36 5” 125mm (with FIH Backing Pad) – To increase disc performance we used the FIH (air cooled) back up pads. A softer back up pad would only increase heat generation due to the excess pressure required to grind the edge.
Outcome – A good inital cut, a great finish but short lifetime of discs. We tried this disc for around 30 seconds and you can clearly see the difference in the before and after shots of the disc.
Before After
Option 2: SLIN 125 Grinding Disc – A traditional premium quality weld prep grinding disc. Left a rough, uneven edge which would often need to be
followed with a zirconia flap disc to dress out any ‘chew’ marks and leave an edge suitable for mig welding; a time consuming process that has the added disadvantage of high vibration readings when compared to other products.
Outcome – The grinding disc would on occasion dig in deeply into the edge leaving an uneven surface which would create additional problems when welding. A poor finish, clearly not as good as the sanding or flap discs trialed.
Option 3: Ceramic FTPM 5” 125mm disc – A plastic backed disc with cooling fins built into the disc and a threaded locking system (no locking nut needed).
Outcome – Fast stock removal, a clean, smooth edge and low vibration make the Cibo Abrasives P40 grit ceramic flap discs disc excellent for weld prep grinding.
In our own in-house testing it is very clear that the new Cibo ceramic flap discs seriously outperform traditional grinding discs when weld prep grinding. Faster, smoother, cooler and with lower vibration and as our customers tell us, reality in the workshop is no different.
Buy a Cibo Abrasives Ceramic Flap Disc To Fit Your Machine:
Machine Suitable Discs
115mm / 4 1/2″ grinder FTC/40/115 Conical faced disc
FTF/40/115 Flat faced disc
125mm / 5″ grinder FTPM/40/125 Flat face disc with cooling fins and self locking
FTC/40/125 Conical faced disc
FTF/40/125 Flat faced disc
180mm / 7″ grinder FTC/40/180 Conical faced disc
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