Bench grinder, diamond wheel, questions...

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Quality Pen

Quality Pen

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So I'm really excited that Christy won a diamond grinding wheel from D Way tools - Diamond Grinding Wheels | CBN Grinding Wheels | Diamond Sharpening Wheels but I am not sure which we want? The funny thing is, we are both new turners, and we actually ordered a grinding wheel this week and it literally shipped today -- when she found out she won this prize from the Bash raffle. She was so excited she actually called me from work lol. I thought something might be wrong cause that doesn't happen much :tongue: So we're really happy about this and these are the "good problems" to have in life!

Anyways, we had ordered a basic 6 inch grinding wheel and an aluminum oxide 80 grit wheel. Now that we're going to use a diamond wheel it will obviously be our weapon of choice to sharpen our chisels. We currently sharpen by hand on a stone -- Helps but clearly we need better.

And now that we got this windfall winning, we were thinking that maybe we want to get a better bench grinder. We can always return the one we haven't even received/opened yet. We really chose it because it had decent reviews online (not this web site, just in general) and it was very inexpensive.

I read the web site linked above regarding Diamond Grinding Wheels but I don't see where it talks too much about the advantages/benefits and disadvantages/drawbacks of the radius curve versus the flat wheel. I'm really in the dark here about which would be optimal for pen turning specifically.

The videos were great, the product looks exceptional, and we're super excited to try it... but we don't know whether to choose 6" or 8" or flat or radius! :bulgy-eyes::confused:

Thank you very much for the help, and on behalf of Christy who is sleeping, thank you for the very nice raffle.
 
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If you were sharpening plane irons or bench chisels I would get the 6" because it gives you more of a hollow grind, but since you'll be sharpening lathe tools I would get the 8". If it were ME...and it's NOT:biggrin:... I would get an 8" grinder and put a regular aluminum oxide on one side and the CBN on the other, that way you can use the regular wheel for shaping and re-shaping and the CBN for the final sharpening...but that's me!:biggrin:
 
Congrats on the win. If you will be sharpening HSS tools, then CBN is the way to go. A 180 grit CBN does a wonderful job sharpening all of my HSS gouges. If I want to do heavy reshaping, such as turning a square scraper into a radiused skew, then I'll do the hogging with a 80 grit aluminum oxide wheel first before final sharpening with the CBN. They offer a coarse CBN, but I haven't needed to spend that extra money yet. I prefer the flat wide surface without the radiused wheel edges, but that is just personal preference.

I believe diamond is for sharpening carbide, but don't have any direct experience with one.
 
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Maybe I will be eschewed and ostracized, but whats the take on something like Ryobi 8 in. Bench Grinder-BGH827 at The Home Depot ? It's affordable, 8 inch and I could put an 8" aluminum on one side and the nice 180 grit diamond sharpener on the other? (still not sure if radius or flat?)

And I should point out that I don't think I will do any reshaping, but merely trying to get my tools very sharp. Gotta walk before you can run, right? :)
 
Quality Pen said:
Maybe I will be eschewed and ostracized, but whats the take on something like Ryobi 8 in. Bench Grinder-BGH827 at The Home Depot ? It's affordable, 8 inch and I could put an 8" aluminum on one side and the nice 180 grit diamond sharpener on the other? (still not sure if radius or flat?)

And I should point out that I don't think I will do any reshaping, but merely trying to get my tools very sharp. Gotta walk before you can run, right? :)
Click to expand...

That Ryobi is a high speed grinder, so one needs to consider the high speed vs low speed. The CBN wheels cut fast and a slow speed grinder is quite suitable. The mass of the wheel also takes considerable time to wind down. I use mine on a Delta VS grinder at the low speed and it does fine. You might get some good info on grinders and speeds from D-Way as I've seen them demo several times. I really do like the 8" wheels for gouge sharpening as the hollow grind is smaller.
 
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Biggest difference between 6" vers 8" is outside wheel speed. An 8" will take off more material faster than a 6". It also will generate slightly more heat, and will require a little lighter touch with less pressure. Either one will work fine. Wheels are a personal choise. Jim S
 
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Without a second thought.......Get yourself a slow speed grinder. Not only will it do a better job, in the long run your tools will last longer.

(The above is my opinion........That and a $1 will get you a cup of coffee at MickyD's)
 
I have the radius wheel coming, 8" size…and will be mounting it on Rikon's entry level slow speed grinder. Woodcraft had them on sale a couple months or so ago for $99 and it comes with proper wheels for a wood shop so that price was too good to pass up.

Normal price is $139 which still isn't bad…

You'll need to know your grinder's shaft size in order to get the right arbor bushing for your new wheel…so you might need to sort out the grinder issue before you complete your order (or at least ask for clarification so you don't end up with a wheel in hand and a separate order for the bushing).

Congrats on the win!
 
I have been using that Royobi grinder with a wolverine rig while I am snobirding in Tucson -- Gets the job done!! A bit noisy, and winds up a bit slow, but makes sparks on HSS.

Key regardless of speed is a light touch --

Have a slow speed grinder in the north quarters the rest of the year. Also with wolverine jigs.

Both work well -

(I know some very good turners who use 6 inch grinders to put and edge on the tools -- Diameter and speed are probably not as important as technique to get a consistent edge with a light touch)
 
The 6" is going to cause a concave space on the bevel of your gouge. That's why professional turners use 8 & 10" wheels. You might get lucky with a 1/4" gouge, but any serious gouge is going to suffer from a 6" wheel.
 
and if all else fails ask the dave what he suggests for a grinder when you call him to place the order.
if memory serves he uses high speed grinders in his vids
but i could be wrong.
 
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