Grinders and grinding wheels your views and when do you decide to change...

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Ok so i am busy working on a "cart/tabletop" for what is to be my mobile sharpening station. This is long overdue and i came to the conclusion one of the causes of failure in quality and ensuing frustration in my shop and working habits. You gotta be able to access sharpening quickly when you need it not have it be a huge disruption to what you working on at least thats my view now.

In this process i am mounting my grinder on a removable table top insert and one item i would like to have adjustable is my lee valley rest. To do this i am putting in a piece of T track parallel to the grinder.

Now giving thought to the fact that my grinder is an 8 inch i got to thinking with using very friable wheels at what point do you guys change out a wheel.

The point has been made about the arc on an 8 inch wheel being flatter than the arc on a 6 inch wheel so if one is going to buy into this concept and keep to getting consistent grinds one has to decide on a point at which you going to retire a wheel.

So whats your thought on how long to use a wheel till you change it out?

Also whats your configuration on your grinder. I have tried a felt wheel on one side and on the other my 80 grit white norton wheel. But i am skeptical about the felt wheel although my knowledge of sharpening has come a long way since i last had it mounted so maybe i should give it another go.

I did spot a $50 8 inch grinder at Princess Auto a while back that i was also thinking could be an addition to the shop (when i searched for the link i see its now even less) for the more general purpose grinding which when done on an 80 grit wheel tends to mess the wheel up and eat it away. So whats your thought on having two grinders in your shop if you use your shop for more than just woodworking.

Anyone tried using a very thin wheel on a standard grinder. Thinking of the red ones that are used like on a hockey skate sharpening setup.
 
IMHO, the 6" wheels are toys not fit for a real shop. 8" does give an acceptably "flat" grind.
When I first started my shop I was advised by an "expert" to use 80 grit for sharpening lathe and carving tools. Never liked it because it took too much metal off. A couple years ago I got a Woodcraft grinder with 60 and 120 grit wheels and mated with a Wolverine sharpening set. Way-way superior. Sharpens in seconds, using the 120 grit exclusively, with very little metal removal and very little heat.
 
It seems to me that sharpening requires multiple solutions, depending on what needs sharpening. I agree that sharpening solutions needs to be close at hand and ready to use. I have a regular grinder with 60 and 80 grit wheels. Its for hogging metal. I have a 1" belt sander for turning tools. I have Scary Sharp for quick touch ups of straight cutting edges. I have a Worksharp for chisels and plane irons. In addition, there is a ceramic knife set-up, diamond cards, a handifile, flat oil stones, water stones, rouges for carving tools, and a pot load of jigs. The procedure is to sharpen everything in the job prior to a project and touch up as progress is made.

Just me. YMMV.
 
...The point has been made about the arc on an 8 inch wheel being flatter than the arc on a 6 inch wheel so if one is going to buy into this concept and keep to getting consistent grinds one has to decide on a point at which you going to retire a wheel...

In the turning world, the opinions on when to retire a wheel are all over the map. If you're really concerned with shrinking wheel sizes, the CBN wheels from D-Way Tools are the solution. Always the same diameter, always in balance, and pretty much never need to be replaced:

http://www.d-waytools.com/tools-diamond-grinding-wheels.html
 
Wow thanks for that jewel of a site. Had no idea a wheel like that existed.
Bit on the steep side but watched a video or two of his and his comments on my delta grinder were bang on.
The one way balancing devices helped fix em though.

Has no one here actually worn out a wheel?
A me chanic friend of mine told me ge grinds till they very small and basically done. That dont help a woodworker.

Carol i am with you, loads of ways and means which is why i am making a sharpening station cart. Its gonna be like an Er code red cart with all the neccessary on it ready to use.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
I have a question about the diamond wheels. I first saw a demo from Bonnie Klein using the diamond wheel and her mentioning that she was getting them from a rock hound shop. So i was talking to a guy from a rock hound shop that was doing some rock polishing with a diamond wheel and water bath and he told me that without the water bath ( wet grind) that the wheel would burn out very fast due to exessive heat. Now i understand that the diamond is the hardest substance that is formed by heat and pressure but how that diamond attatches to the metal wheel is is plausable that it could break down rather quick without some way of rapid cooling. Any ideas on this from anyone?

As for the regular grinding and the subject at hand I also would recoment a balancing system with the wheels on the grinder. With turning I have my 8 inch right beside the lathe. Minimal walking time between the work and the sharpening. I personally don't like too rough a wheel for any sharpening as i am not doing mass metal removal in a hurry just want to gain the sharpened edge with minimal metal removal.
 
I have a question about the diamond wheels. I first saw a demo from Bonnie Klein using the diamond wheel and her mentioning that she was getting them from a rock hound shop. So i was talking to a guy from a rock hound shop that was doing some rock polishing with a diamond wheel and water bath and he told me that without the water bath ( wet grind) that the wheel would burn out very fast due to exessive heat. Now i understand that the diamond is the hardest substance that is formed by heat and pressure but how that diamond attatches to the metal wheel is is plausable that it could break down rather quick without some way of rapid cooling. Any ideas on this from anyone?...

No idea what wheels the rockhound guy was talking about, but I know Reed Gray (aka Robo Hippy) has been using the CBN wheels for several years dry in his production turning shop, and as far as I know he has yet to wear one out. In the long run, they have saved him money because he was wearing out traditional grinding wheels pretty regularly.
 
I have to agree with Vaughn. I got a CBN wheel from Dave a couple months ago. It has done a lot to improve the sharpening of my tools. I do mostly bowl turning but have used it on regular steel chisels to.
 
Rob,

This doesn’t answer your question since my wheels are all stock and relatively new, but here is my roll around grinding station that I made last week. I have my 8” slow speeds grinder for lathe tools and a 6” high speed grinder for other grinding. I keep my dressing tool and Raptor set up tools in the drawer and my sharpening stones, honing guide and miscellaneous sharpening attachments underneath. It sits right behind my lathe and next to my lathe tool rack.

Chuck
 

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When my 8" wheels get down to about 6" wheels I change them, I keep the 6" wheels for another grinder I have.
One day I'll get one of them diamond wheels, they will save me money in the long run, as I have to pay a LOT of shipping to get them heavy 8" wheels over here to Japan.
 
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