I have two CBN wheels, an 80 and a 120. I'm happy with them execpt when I want to reshape a tool. It simply takes a long time on the 80 grit wheel. What do you use when you want to remove a lot of material on a gouge?
-
July 2025 Turning Challenge: Turn a Multi-axis Weed Pot! (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Kent Reisdorph for "Sugarberry Bowl" being selected as Turning of the Week for July 14, 2025 (click here for details) -
Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.
Tool Shaping
- Thread starter Dave Fritz
- Start date
60 grit Norton white stone works for me.
60 grit Norton seeded gel blue wheel.
If you don't have a second grinder for roughing tools, you can always mount a grinder wheel on a shaft and chuck it up on your lathe.
I have multiple sanding wheels that readily mount on my bowl chuck that allow me to sand segment rings, I also have a diamond wheel
that mounts on a bowl chuck that I use to grind carbide scraping blades for scraping lathe ways and precision cast iron straight edges.
I have multiple sanding wheels that readily mount on my bowl chuck that allow me to sand segment rings, I also have a diamond wheel
that mounts on a bowl chuck that I use to grind carbide scraping blades for scraping lathe ways and precision cast iron straight edges.
Could a belt & disc sander work for this and if so what type of belt would you suggest? Aluminum oxide seems like the choice from what I've read so far.
I made a point tool out of a screwdriver on a 220grit CBN wheel last night but only used the square side of the wheel.
Debating a second grinder because of what the OP said...
I made a point tool out of a screwdriver on a 220grit CBN wheel last night but only used the square side of the wheel.
Debating a second grinder because of what the OP said...
I use a 12" disk sander with an 80 grit disk. I tilt the disk table to the angle I want. I do the reshaping slowly with frequent stops to keep the steel from getting too hot even given the the properties of HSS and V-10. Then I use the 80 grit CBN to finish.
Be careful, a screw driver is probably a cheap steel which will clog up your cbn wheel and ruin it.
I also second the mounting of a standard old wheel we all took off our grinder to mount our cbn wheels. Just mount on your lathe even if you sandwich between chuck and tail stock for heavy stock removal.
Thank you, I actually have a wheel for my lathe that I hadn't thought of. I think it will go much quicker and save on the CBN wheel.
Well, I keep a 36 grit belt on belt sander and it shapes things fairly fast. Other than that, having a very coarse standard wheel around can come in handy. Some saw shops will have very coarse wheels and would charge a minimal fee. It kind of depends on how much shaping you need to do. There are 60 grit CBN wheels around also. Note, if you have removed the wheel guards from your grinder, you need to put it back on when using a standard wheel.
As for softer metals on your CBN wheels, they don't ruin the wheel, but they can clog it up. Sharpening your scrapers will generally get most of it off, and you can put some lapping fluid on the bevel of your tool to help clean the wheel. If you put the lapping fluid on the wheel, you will get a racing stripe on your turner's smock. Generally it only takes a couple of sharpenings to fix any loading. I haven't tried it yet, but the Slick Stick from Ken Rizza is supposed to be really good for cleaning your CBN wheels, but I haven't tried it yet.
robo hippy
As for softer metals on your CBN wheels, they don't ruin the wheel, but they can clog it up. Sharpening your scrapers will generally get most of it off, and you can put some lapping fluid on the bevel of your tool to help clean the wheel. If you put the lapping fluid on the wheel, you will get a racing stripe on your turner's smock. Generally it only takes a couple of sharpenings to fix any loading. I haven't tried it yet, but the Slick Stick from Ken Rizza is supposed to be really good for cleaning your CBN wheels, but I haven't tried it yet.
robo hippy
I haven't tried the slick stik either. I was concerned about loading the wheel so used a face that didn't normally get much use just in case.
Very old screwdriver seemed to grind up nicely into a 3 faced point tool, but the first square nut/bit driver handle I tried liked to disintegrate at the tip. Quickly ditched that one. I used water to quench since I wasn't using any type of HSS that I knew of.
I bought my grinder without guards so throwing on a stone wheel is definitely a safety issue.
If there's nothing wrong w/ sandpaper, may as well ruin a few belts & discs on the small one I have. Inexpensive experiment. Kinda wondered if some specific paper types worked better than others or if it mattered much.
Very old screwdriver seemed to grind up nicely into a 3 faced point tool, but the first square nut/bit driver handle I tried liked to disintegrate at the tip. Quickly ditched that one. I used water to quench since I wasn't using any type of HSS that I knew of.
I bought my grinder without guards so throwing on a stone wheel is definitely a safety issue.
If there's nothing wrong w/ sandpaper, may as well ruin a few belts & discs on the small one I have. Inexpensive experiment. Kinda wondered if some specific paper types worked better than others or if it mattered much.
I made a three point tool from the rod that came out of the rear door gas spring of a truck topper from the dump. I read it is really hard and it seems to work just fine.
With my Project convert to NRS, I learned that ceramic belts 24g remove a lot of material rapidly. Still takes a while to get a 20-degree bevel on 1.5 wide by .35" thick steel.
Its widely known that the edge on NRS does not last very long. The funny thing that I learned in this process is that if you sharpen on 24g belt, the negative rake burrs last a long-long time between touch-ups.
Its widely known that the edge on NRS does not last very long. The funny thing that I learned in this process is that if you sharpen on 24g belt, the negative rake burrs last a long-long time between touch-ups.
Last edited:
For sanding metal, Ceramic lasts the longest, then Zirconium, then Aluminum oxide. As I mentioned I use very coarse grids to remove a lot of material. I usually sharpen with 100 or 120 ceramic belts @ about 700 sfm.
Someone brought up that running an AO type grinding wheel unguarded on your lathe is a safety concern and I want to second that. Also, if you do, be sure to clean the bed thoroughly when you're done, as running your banjo over the grinding dust and then sliding it around on the ways may scratch things up.