Harbort Freign Grinder/wet grinder

Cyrille I like a dry grinder and a 6" one set up as on my site. With all the dust in my shop from sanding, I think the wet wheel would be filthy in a hurry.

SNIP

You are getting into some pretty personal preferences that you will understand as you start grinding. And the differences of opinion stretch from the most experienced pros to the newest turner.

Take in the opinions, make the decision that suits you.

I would not buy either of the grinders that you list from HF. Nothing wrong with them, but for me I really prefer sharpening my HSS tools on a friable ceramic wheel. These wheels cost more money than the hard wheels (gray), and they are worth it to me. You can usually tell friable wheels as they are white, pink, green, blue, etc. The only one that I know that has a slow speed grinder that comes with friable wheels is Woodcraft, and theirs is on sale frequently for under $100. Just being nosy, I looked at the WC site, and it is now less than $100 when not on sale.

I like the 8" wheels as they give less of a hollow grind on the chisels. Obviously after a lot of wear, that is a moot point. But I have * wheels that have been properly cared for and they are doing fine with a diameter loss of only about 3/4" in a few years. I also found I like the bigger, heavier grinder as I use it for other things besides sharpening lathe tools, and I discovered that for me it was easier to work my homemade jigs aound the 8" wheels. However, we have a couple of guys in our club that love the 6" grinders. They are used to them and they like the more hollowed grind. The touch up the tools with a diamond file between trips to the grinder and the hollow grind makes it easier. I have tried it; it's true. They also have Wolverine systems and they can put an edge and a half on just about anything.

Some like high speed grinders (3450 rpms) and some like slower (1750 rpms or so) and the reasons are wild and varied. Some do strop, hone, polish and all manner of other things after sharpening, but think most of us go grind the tools first, then straight to the lathe. Another reason good wheels are important.

One thing for sure that I agree with Darrell on, and that is no wet grinders around the wood shop. Unless you keep it covered, I don't know how you would keep wheels and water clean enough to use. I have no dust collection on my lathe, and when I sand soft woods it soon looks as if I am standing in fog there is so much in the air. Seems that would clog a system wheels pretty quick.

Good luck on your purchase!

Robert

I use a stationary belt sander. That might be why no one likes me. ;-)

I think I saw a pretty nice grinding jig on either Darrell's web page or on CharlieB's website. Couple hours, couple bucks, a cheap grinder and you're good to go. The white or pink stones ARE very nice. You'll find them where machinists shop.

Bill

what we always used in a high school woodwork shop was the 8" dry grinder. That will work for chisels, plane blades and your lathe tools. You then need a set of oilstones for final sharpening and resharpening. We usually got about 5 sharpenings on the stones before regrinding.

If you are doing lathe work with the scraping method the dry grinder will put a burr on with only one or two passes.

A large wetstone however , in my opinion , will get you a much nicer edge with less work . It also has the benefit that you have to work to overheat the steel and ruin the metals temper.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

snip

This may be true for the carbon steel tools we used in shop or trade school (dating myself). Today most lathe chisels/tools are made of HSS and don't really need to be stoned (honed) after grinding. The skew chisel may be the exception. I usually hone the skew after I grind it and then hone it periodically while in use (touch it up with a small handheld diamond hone). All other chisels, gouges, scrapers (I don't really have scrapers, honest) etc. have an adequate edge off the grinder. When I feel they are not cutting as they should, I step to the grinder and touch them up (takes 10-30 seconds). I use a soft or friable (sp?) wheel on an eight inch grinder. Very little metal is removed when touching up. I was/am using a Wolverine grinding jig and recommend it for any turner that doesn't have much grinding experience. I tend to free hand grind now (just like in trade school). So, get an 8" grinder with a soft wheel (60-100 grit) and a hand held diamond hone. High speed or low speed isn't that important. Hank

Hi Cyrille

A 180 rpm wet st> hello,