New Grinding Wheel

[Richard Baker]

Saw an interesting item at friend's house yesterday, previously unmentioned on the forums, farziknow. Diamond impregnated grinding wheel, metal rim on plastic or composite wheel (I think), said to be "perfectly" round and balanced, available in various grits for about $200. No info on source or longevity. Thought that some might be interested. Will post elsewhere also.

 

[odie]

Was he using it for lathe tools? We have some diamond impregnated 6" discs that are used for sharpening carbide cutting tools where I work.

Off hand, I'd speculate the only use for diamond impregnated grinding wheels for sharpening wood lathe tools would be longevity of the wheel itself......and that may be the case.....don't know.

Let us know what the scuttlebutt on this is.......

otis of cologne

 

[robo hippy]

Several years ago, I was looking into finding the prefect grinding wheel. I thought diamond, and you can have them made (Amplex, Norton). Found a guy here in town who could make one for me. He said that diamond was for carbide, but didn't work well for steel. The steel would clog the diamond wheel. He suggested CBN (cubic boric nitride). It is made for grinding steel, you have to order them, and they are an aluminum disc with 3/16 of CBN bonded to it. It comes already spin balanced. An eight inch by 1 inch wheel costs about $300. You don't dress them, you use a piece of very hard aluminum oxide to clean it. If the wheel does need to be dressed (the 80 grit wheel once since I had it, and it didn't really need it), you have to take it back to the maker. It will eat diamond dressers. I tried to dress it with the ceramic guides to my bandsaw, but it just cleaned them off. My 80 grit wheel is over 3 years old, and is worn down about 1/3. I had a 320 grit wheel for about 1 1/2 years, which wore out faster. I am now using a 150 grit wheel for gouges, and it is wearing better than the 320 wheel. The 320 was just a bit too fine for gouges, I don't think it removed enough steel to refresh the edge, almost like honing, it works okay, but some times you need to take the tool back to the grinder. You do get the wheel grit made to order. I do know that 3M is getting into CBN wheels, and if you have some place locally that sells grinding materials, they probably have it, or can get it for you. Not for everyone, but I really like mine. I would go through maybe 2 wheels per year with the amount of turning I do.
robo hippy

 

[Ron Sardo]

Andrea Martel had some at TTS

Here is his website http://martel.public.netc.net/tools.htm

 

[turner23]

grinding wheels

Hey all,

A diamond wheel would certainly give you the most life, though cleaning/truing would require specific tooling. The best wheel I've found is the SG 'blue' wheels from Norton. (see link below)

http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/s...___Wheels___Norton_SG_Wheel___norton_sg?Args=

At $105 they aren't the cheapest, but they constantly expose new cutting surface making continuously sharp, and the SG wheel WILL NOT burn your tools...just doesn't happen. I find them to be the best 'consumer' wheel on the market.

 

[Richard Baker]

Sorry I did not get more info, but when I heard $200 my neural pathways just shut down automatically. My friend said the coarse grits are more expensive due to use of larger diamond particles. He did a quick pass on a big scraper, said it did not raise much of a burr, but it felt like a humongous burr to me.