In this study, presintered and full sintered low purity alumina ceramics were machined with various tools to clarify the effect of cutting fluid in machinability. The main conclusions obtained were as follows. When the presintered ceramics were wet machined with sintered diamond tool, the tool wear becomes extremely large, and higher cutting speed can be used than in the case of full sintered ceramics. The productivity of wet cutting with the sintered diamond tool is much higher than that of dry cutting. In the case of the CBN and ceramic tools, the tool wear were smaller at wet cutting than at dry cutting, especially exhibiting considerably larger grooved tool wear in wet cutting with ceramic tool.
