Photos of my latest piece...

> (watch the line wrap) Nice contrast!

>> >> (watch the line wrap) >

Thanks...

> (watch the line wrap) > > Enjoy...

I did enjoy. You do good work.

Gorgeous work!!!

Looking for advise here. There have been threads here about lathe tool sharpening, and I think Ive read them all. For 6 or 7 years. I see Grizzly has an 8" wet grinder with a leather strop (?) wheel.

I've got, and use, an 8", high speed tool post grinder, and had been thinking of a finer grit stone, but a good stone costs almost as much as I paid for the whole grinder. The darn thing is just too fast and unforgiving for my level of experience. especially trying to eyeball grind a good "fingernail" grind (I think some here call it) Once in a while I hit it right, and then the turning is just so much fun it is hard to stop!

What do you think? I hope to coax SWMBO to stop by Bellingham Grizzly showroom with me next week.

Old Chief Lynn

On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:45:28 -0700, "coffelt2" wrote: I tried a slow, wet wheel (Harbor freight's knockoff) and realized that it was pretty much for honing...

Your present grinder is for "grinding", (shaping the tool), as opposed to "Sharpening", (renewing the edge on a tool)...

My solution a few years ago was the Woodcraft slow speed grinder:

I got it on sale for $99 and free shipping, note that it comes with 2 excellent white oxide wheels.... Since I was in the market for new wheels for my high speed grinder, I figure that the new grinder was the price of new wheels plus about $30, since the wheels were $30 to $40 each and this grinder comes with them...

After 2 or 3 years, I'm still very happy with this grinder... Hope this helps... Do a good turn today!

I agree with Mac on the woodcraft grinder. You might also want to invest in one of the jigs, such as wolverine, tru grind, etc. They make sharpening a whole lot easier.

I have a high speed grinder which I never use for sharpening, a low speed white wheel which I seldom use, a horizontal water stone sharpener which I seldom use. My favorite for sharpening turning tools is a grizzly 1" x 40 belt sander with a blue zirconia belt. I have the little table set at the angle I sharpen at and can put a new edge on a fingernail bowl gouge in seconds. Of course it is a dedicated sharpener. wouldn't want wood dust down there where the sparks go to die

Sometime I knock the wire edge off with a slipstone inside the gouge but I can't seem to see any advantage to doing this since it is knocked off the second the gouge meets a bowl blank.

Happy turning, Chief!

In article , "coffelt2" wrote:

Eyeballing a fingernail grind if pretty much limited to people who burn a lot of tools learning to do that. The rest of us use jigs, and you don't have to buy one, you can make one quite easily. Some of the ones you make are better than what you can buy, since I don't think anybody sells the "pivot at floor level" jig Jerry Glaser came up with. It's kinda large for normal sales channels.

(the third page of a 4-page article, well worth reading the whole thing, but that's the page with the jig on it) Jigs, if you like woodworking rather than transferring your funds to someone else to get toys, go to (Darell's site) and read up on lotsa free grinding jigs. And tools to make too. Or you can get rid of your money buying the things... If it's actually a toolpost grinder, it's not for grinding tools with anyway - it's for grinding work in a metal lathe and you should be able to ebay if for plenty to buy something else. 8" would be kinda big for one of those so I suspect it's a terminology issue, and you have a stand grinder. High speed is not a problem, just choose a good wheel and don't lay into it too hard. The bees knees for actual grinding (IME) is a cheap 4 inch belt sander bolted to something such that the belt is running "uphill" (some of them can be easily reversed - others it's easier to just bolt the base to the wall) with an AlZ belt. A 2" belt grinder would also do, and there are some good homebuilds on those out in the wild from knofe-makers (soem with a large contact wheel if you like a concave grind (I'm a fan of the flat platen effect myself) - you can get 8-12 inch wheel "effect" with a belt that costs only a few bucks. I find the 1" belts bit fussy for some tools (can't get the whole skew on at once) but if you have one, sure - if shopping, I'd go wider (and the 4" "sanders" are often cheaper

- just don't use the same one for wood and metal unless you like putting out fires when the sparks meet the wood-dust.) One of those ad a few beltw will probably cost less than a new stone for the big grinder. But the stone in the big grinder now might be a lot more use if you get a jig built, too.

For constant little touch-ups, some sort of strop loaded with chromium oxide is good. A bit of carborundum or diamond film glued to some glass or a granite tile is also handy.