Looking to get a CBN wheel. 8” - 180 grit. 5/8” arbor 1 1/2” wide. Wondering who has the best? Are they all aluminum or does that even matter? I am leaning towards D-Way. Any advice appreciated.
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Favorite CBN wheel brand
- Thread starter Patrick Norris
- Start date
Here are my thoughts on CBN wheels. If you are using powdered metal HHS tools you need them. 180 Grit is a great starting point. You can buy square or rounded edge wheels. If you do hollow forms or use HSS bits you will want the profiled edge wheels. I'm primarily a bowl turner so I prefer the square edge design. I have 80 (D-way), 180 (D-way) and 600 (?). The 600 is aluminum but only 1" wide. I use the 80 for major reginding, the 180 is for my scrapers, and the 600 is for my gouges. The two D-way are steel and are 1.5". I prefer the wider wheels but the narrow one works. One issue that you need to consider is that the steel wheels are very heavy. I had the two steel wheels on a 1/2 HP grinder and they ended up killing it. It started very slowly and soon it stopped working. I replaced it with a 1 HP grinder and it works so much better.
These CBN wheels are great. As far as I know they all work well so its more a matter of the features that you want.
These CBN wheels are great. As far as I know they all work well so its more a matter of the features that you want.
Here's the ones I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B3D2679P
This is my first experience with CBN wheels but they work great as far as I can tell. I don't get the slow startup and slowdown some folks report.
This is my first experience with CBN wheels but they work great as far as I can tell. I don't get the slow startup and slowdown some folks report.
I will look into this one. I sure like the price, thank you.
Thanks for the info! I do have a 1/2HP grinder so maybe I should look into aluminum wheels for the weight issue.
I have mostly D Way wheels. A big part of that is that Dave Schweitzer is a friend, and I just think he is a good man to deal with. I think D Way was pretty much the first business to offer them to the general public. The Optigrind wheels were maybe the first, but at that time they came from Austria. The Woodturner's Wonder wheels are also good quality. When they first came out, there were concerns about the material bonding to the aluminum hubs. There have not been any issues that I know of. I prefer the 1 1/2 inch wide wheels. I did have the occasional issue of going off of the edge of my 1 inch standard wheels and putting big gouges in the wings of my gouges. I don't think I have ever done that with the wider wheels. A 1/2 hp grinder is usually a bit under powered for me, and I did production work for a number of years. I prefer the 3/4 hp Baldor grinders or the 1 hp Rikon. The wheels come up to speed almost instantly. The Rikon grinders do keep spinning for a long time after you turn the grinder off. Most of the time, that is not an issue. Some give the wheel a spin before turning the grinder on to help it get up to speed. One good thing about the underpowered grinders is that you can't push too hard with your tools or you will bog the grinder down. As for grits, if you get only one wheel, get the 180. It will do almost all of the sharpening you will ever need. If you are going for a second wheel, then get a 600. The 320 just isn't enough of a step up for me from the 180. These wheels are spin and bubble balanced, so they will run true, unless your grinder is messed up. Some times the nuts on the grinders are not good quality or precision machined. This is why WTW sells the helical washers. One concave, one convex so when you tighten, you get an even spread of nut pressure.
robo hippy
robo hippy
I have bought a couple turning tools from D-Way and they have been top notch, so that is why I have been considering their cbn wheels. Thank you for all of that info.
If you have a1/2 hp grinder, I’d recommend the 1 1/2” wheels from Woodturners Wonders. I’ve had the 180 grit and the 300 grit and have had no trouble at all with them. They start up relatively fast on my 1/2 hp grinder and they run very true.
The first two CBN wheels I bought were steel Opti Grind 120 and 180
the 120 was not coarse enough and the 180 was not fine enoug.
I have replaced them with D-Way 60 and 600 grit.
I have used many grinders with the WTW aluminum wheels and the misalignment washers on 1/2 HP rikon grinders and they have worked flawlessly
the 120 was not coarse enough and the 180 was not fine enoug.
I have replaced them with D-Way 60 and 600 grit.
I have used many grinders with the WTW aluminum wheels and the misalignment washers on 1/2 HP rikon grinders and they have worked flawlessly
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
I have one D way and 2 Woodturnerswonders. The woodturnerswonders have a non metalic base. I can't tell a bit of difference in perfomance except the lighter wheels come up to speed easier on my 1/2hp grinder. The quality of the CBN material seems to be the same. Woodturnerswonders also has a much wider selection
I haven't read about a bad brand yet.
Thank you for the input. Very helpful!
I have an aluminum body 6" Hurricane wheel from the Woodturning Store and a steel one from Lee Valley. Both work well and were only about $100 each.
The half-horsepower, no-name Woodcraft grinder that I’ve been using for over 15 years has had the steel D-Way wheels on it the whole time. It does take a while to get up to speed, if I think about it, I’ll give it a little push to get the wheels moving (we’re both getting old…) before hitting the switch, but it has shown no sign of giving up the ghost yet.
Question about another factor...... radius edge, or not radius edge? I can see having CBN on the side as well as the face being useful, I can't think of many reasons to have the radius edge. I don't have any CBN wheels, but shopping them now.
I have a radius edged wheel and I don’t particularly like it. I’m thinking of getting a 1 1/2” wheel from Woodturner Wonders so that I have a wider wheel in general and to take advantage of the side grinding. The radius edge may make it easier to sharpen HSS bits for hollowing, but that’s the only advantage that I can think of. For me the advantages of a wider wheel and the ability to use the side surface far outweigh this.
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If you don’t sharpen hollowing tools the radius is not too useful
Not turning it
does a nice job on a curved sickle blade.
When my radius edge wheels wear out, I probably will not replace them. Some times I will restore old hand planes and blades, and I have one platform locked at 25 degrees. It is easier to swipe a plane blade across a rounded edge than across a square one. Kind of have to start in the middle and go to the edges. I would expect that with practice, I could make a square edge wheel work.
robo hippy
robo hippy