Grinding Wheels

I am considering white Norton wheels from Lee Valley or Blue slowspeed wheels from Oneway. Which stones are preferable for woodturning chisels and why are they preferable?

Reply to
rodnhazel
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I used the white wheels and found that they wore and grooved far too quickly for my tastes. Now I use a regular aluminum oxide wheel, 80 grit. I think, and it is only my personal opinion, that any of the regular commercial wheels have a fiable enough bond for good turning use. I have not used the blue wheels. Note that the white, blue, etc colors are just a manufacturer's coding system. The cutting material is still aluminum oxide.

Reply to
Darrell Feltmate

There is a lot to the selection of grinding wheels. Aluminum Oxide comes in three or four basic colours - brown, blue and white. White is more friable (each crystal breaks off more easily) than brown while blue is in between. A grinding wheel consists of the material (Aluminum oxide or silicon carbide), the grit, the hardness, the structure and the type of bond (vitreous or resin).

The harder the material that you want to grind, the more friable you want your wheel to be. When a grain becomes dull, you want it to break off and expose a new sharp surface. If this does not happen the wheel will glaze over and will not grind anymore. Thus white aluminum oxide will be suitable for harder material while brown aluminum oxide will be okay for softer material such as mild steel. Silicon carbide will be suitalbe for non-ferrous material such as aluminum. Similarly you have to choose the right hardness for the wheel and the right structure. Too hard a wheel will tend to glaze if the material ground is also hard. You will mostly use vitreous wheels for you grinding jobs. Resin based wheels are good for applications such as cut-off wheels.

You may want to do a google search. I suggest entering a topic such as "Brown vs White Aluminum oxide". You should come up with a lot of information

Chip

Reply to
Chip

Chip I believe that if you check you find that Aluminum oxide is a white crystalline substance and the various colors that are for sale are added by manufacturers for proprietary classification purposes.

Reply to
Darrell Feltmate

Hi Darrell

I have worked in the metal industry and I do know that there are at least half a dozen different grinding wheel colors, and yes there is no standard as to exact hardness and friability between different manufacturers, but there is a general labeling standard on grit, material and hardness etc. and wheel colors are also indicative on bond strength/hardness, I have a nephew who makes his living in an R&D lab of a large electronics co. as a fine machinist and grinding as his specialty, and his take on the wheels he uses is that you really have to know from which manufacturer the wheels are, and experience has taught him they are not all the same, 2 wheels with the same color, grit size etc. and from different manufacturers makes for 2 different grinding characteristics.

I have a link here to some more info if anyone is interested

http://www.jjjtra> Chip

Reply to
Leo Van Der Loo

Max

Reply to
Maxprop

You're going to make me dig out my catalogs, aren't you?

OK, the Lee Valley look good - especially at 1/2 or just under the prices of the Oneways. My concern going with just these wheels is that they don't have one coarse enough (80/120) from my experience. I use a

36 grit for reshaping the edge profile and an 80 grit for general sharpening. (I use Camel brand from Woodcraft and they happen to be blue.)

The Oneways look good too and I'm sure are top quality as Oneway products are known to be. (Lee Valley also carries excellent products, but they certainly aren't geared solely to the turning crowd with these wheels like Oneway is.) I like the grits offered better than the LVs -

54/80/120.

If those were my two choices for sources and I had the budget, I'd probably try the Oneway wheels in 54 and maybe 120. They offer a 90 day satisfaction guarantee, so if the 120 proved too fine - meaning it loaded up too fast for my grinding technique - I'd exchange it for an 80 grit.

Now that I've typed all that, I must say that I like my Camel wheels from Woodcraft, and at about $25-$30 they seem to fall right in between the two outlets you're considering.

Reply to
Owen Lowe

I'm going to make a comment here that is not exactly in line with the question asked. You have to look at wheels and even gouges as consummables; both will wear awa;y if you are using them. If you avoid shaping and sharpening because you don't want to wear them out you are missing the point and maybe the fun. billh

Reply to
billh

Why are they knocking us using aol off the ng? Glenn Hodges Nashville, GA

Reply to
Ghodges2

Hi Ghodes2

It's not service that's important to them, you should know !! It's MORE MORE MORE, money is the only drive. Just make sure you keep that in mind when spending your money on so called "service providers".

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Ghodges2 wrote:

Reply to
Leo Van Der Loo

: The harder the material that you want to grind, the more friable you : want your wheel to be. When a grain becomes dull, you want it to break : off and expose a new sharp surface. If this does not happen the wheel : will glaze over and will not grind anymore. Thus white aluminum oxide : will be suitable for harder material while brown aluminum oxide will be : okay for softer material such as mild steel. Silicon carbide will be : suitalbe for non-ferrous material such as aluminum.

You bring up aluminum. There is a post at Lee Valley's website, stressing that you should never grind steel and aluminum on the same wheel. It apparently can create thermite, and the result can be an exploding wheel.

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

Hi Andrew

Good call

I guess most of us have heard of termite and its use to weld rail tracks and other large pieces, when mix>

Reply to
Leo Van Der Loo

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