The grinder is a popular tool used to produce very fine finishes or light cuts in manufacturing and metalworking jobs. In order to perform its cutting function, the grinder employs a spinning abrasive wheel. This wheel is usually made up of stones, diamonds, or inorganic materials.

Popular kinds of grinders include the bench grinder, the cylindrical grinder, the tool and cutter grinder, and the surface grinder. The bench grinder owes its name to the fact that it is usually secured to a bench. It is manually operated and features two different-sized wheels to roughen and finish materials. The bench grinder is used to shape tool bits and to create or repair tools.

The surface grinder can also be manually operated just like the bench grinder, although semi-automatic models featuring CNC controls are currently available. In this type of grinder, the workpiece moves back and forth past a grinding wheel. A magnetic chuck is usually employed to hold the workpiece. Since depth of cut and number of passes may be preset in this kind of surface grinder, operators generally are not required to intervene much.

The cylindrical grinder involves one or more wheels against which the workpiece is pushed to form cylinders and precision rods. Wheel condition is exceptionally significant in this and all other grinders, and for this reason diamond dressers are often used. To avoid overheating the machine and burning the operator, the grinder incorporates a coolant. Metal dust can also be removed using a special device.