I have used a saw blade in the past, and it worked pretty good, but nothing like the rake that caswell sells! And my wheels seam to have more color on them (black).
Also, i have used a small bench grinder for many jobs, granted it adds a lot of time to the project but the machine was free, and easy to find supplies for. I recently added a 3/4hp Craftsman buffing machine, and it runns circles around the old small grinder. But it was over $100 for the machine that will only be used for buffing. So its a little hard to justify.
Here are some of my results, these were ALL sand cast parts. So lots of sanding had to happen.
Finished it yesterday, pretty soft aluminum.
Harder aluminum
