polishing stainless steel machine

[Blackrat]

i would like to build a machine for polishing stainless steel plate/sheet

i have used a surface grinder in the past on mild steel and if you got your feeds/speeds right you can get an amazing finish , not quite mirror , but with a little bit of work your there

so now stainless

its not magnetic , so would need either a vacuum table with adjustable stops , and/or a vice (which will only work on the thicker stuff

working size is around 300mm x 600mm and dont polish over 25mm thick plate , but i guess 150-200 on the z would be great for clearance

do i build or do i buy a surface grinder ?

obviously it would need to be a mechanical S/grinder as a cnc one would be way outta price ... but if i build then cnc would be quite easy

idea thought's ? and maybe someone who has built a cnc grinder :D

[EddyCurrent]

I've worked on a grinder for steel that was controlled by PLC but don't you just need something that goes back and forward, side to side ? this could be done with relays and limit switches.
On the PLC grinder, a microphone located near the grinding wheel detected when the wheel had made contact with the metal and stopped it's downward travel. An electronic notch filter was used to reliably detect the right frequencies, surprisingly it worked well.

[Blackrat]

a microphone located near the grinding wheel detected when the wheel had made contact with the metal and stopped it's downward travel. .

thats neat eh ...

i am thinking why not just use a grinding stone on a cnc mill/router ?
i can use a spindle that can run 10000rpm , ive mailed some companies to find out max RPM of their 'cup' grinding stones ... i think ive saved myself some time :D oh and a few pennies :P

obviously you would still need flood coolent , and a decent way of mounting the plates