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new CBN wheels

Mike Heinen said:
Can you run CBN's on a regular bench grinder?
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By "regular" bench grinder I assume you mean a high speed grinder. Yes ... of course you will have to remove the guards and perhaps make a few height adjustments. I ran one CBN for five years and two CBN's for three years on a 7" HS grinder before I bought a 1hp 8" (1750 rpm) grinder. As @Mark Hepburn mentioned it did take a little bit of time to spin up with two wheels on it.
 
Mike Heinen said:
Can you run CBN's on a regular bench grinder?
Click to expand...
(Edit- Oops, I was not the first to answer...)

By "regular", do you mean a 3600rpm bench grinder (vs. an 1800rpm "slow speed" grinder), or something else? If you mean 3600rpm, I am not aware of a reason why you cannot run CBN wheels on them, but it may be worth a call to the supplier/mfr. to inquire.

Mine are on a slow speed grinder. Over the past 20 years or so, the 1700-1800rpm grinders have become the go-to bench grinders for woodturners. Turners seem to like the more relaxed feeling of the slow speed grinder, and I agree with the notion. I turned for my first 7-8 years sharpening on a 6", 3600rpm grinder with a Wolverine jig system with 60 and 120 grit white aluminum oxide wheels, and it served me just fine, and I didn't know the difference. (Very few, if any, affordable 1800rpm machines available to hobbiests in the mid-90s and older.) Hope this helps.
 
One of the benefits of CBN wheels is that they come spin and bubble balanced so they will run true no matter what speed you run them at. If they are not running true, then that is because your grinder is messed up.

robo hippy
 
I'm late here but i have the D-way double coated -120 grit - light weight version ( comparible to the 80 grit) and the WTW 180 grit.
However --- I am now looking at the 400 grit from d-way- he doesn't offer a 600 grit from what I can tell.
 
Grit size does not make a cleaner cut. (See my video on grit size for sharpening) It does slightly improve edge holding and possibly removes less steel. However unless your sharpeningvskills are dead on you may not remove enough steel to actually get a goid edge with a 600 grit wheel. 180 is a good all around grit to get a good edge and will remove enough steel that if you don't get the tool in the jig exactly the same as the last time you still get a good edge.
 
john lucas said:
However unless your sharpeningvskills are dead on you may not remove enough steel to actually get a goid edge with a 600 grit wheel.
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I agree. Probably the only reason I get away with using the 1200 grit CBN on the Tormek for my spindle gouges is I keep the bar and jig set up just for those. The grind is repeatable and only takes a few seconds to renew. Sharpenng other tools on the 600 are similar since I use a consistent way to set the Wolverine platform angles precisely. (I do use the fat blue sharpie method to test to insure the platform angle is exactly right. I've let others try with sometimes varying results.
 
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