grinding wheel?

[Sparky]

Hello all

I am wondering what type (brand) and grit would you recommend for a hand cranked grinder. I will need to go with a 6" diameter grinding stone and I will use it for chisels and hand plane blades. Im interested in ease of use, speed, but not necessarily finish as I will hone on my waterstones after I hollow grind.

Alf I have seen your video on youtube and I was wondering what you used, specifically.

Thanks
Sparky

[engineerone]

hi mate welcome, i too have a hand crank grinder, like one of the ones alf has. having rebuilt it, a mole, i then had to look for wheels, the one i had with it is a picador 60 grit, but i feel that that was bought for stone chisels, ie tungsten carbide, so might be too coarse for wood chisels.

surely even in dc, you must have some machine shops suppliers who supply grinding wheels, they may well know what is available and suitable there, cause i am sure these days there are few multinational suppliers who are world wide.

good luck, please let us know what works for you.

paul

[Sparky]

Thanks Paul

I was thinking about one of the wheels that Lee Valley sells. If this seems to be a good idea then my only question was what grit would be best. I'm not sure since my coarsest stone is a 220 norton and that is fast at removing steel. That is my only frame of reference.

Thanks
Peter (my real name )

[engineerone]

hi pete,
don't know for sure, but maybe if you told lee valley about the speed of your machiner, they could tell you.

i would guess that since you expect to do the initial grinding on the wheel, about 220 would work ok.

paul

[Alf]

Hi Peter,

Well I can't be particularly specific, 'cos I'm not actually sure, but it's a bog standard coarse grey wheel. I went on the same principal that I want the grinder to remove bulk fast, so the quicker it did so the better, and as finish wasn't important coarser was better too. And of course the quicker and coarser it is, the less heat build up you get (and yes you do get some, even with hand cranking. You'd be surprised). To be honest it came down to what I could readily get in the size I wanted too! Of the LV ones, I reckon the 80grit cool grind would be okay.

Cheers, Alf

[Sparky]

Thanks Alf and Paul

I've seen that Grizzly and Norton have grinding wheels that are as coarse as 36 grit, there may be something more coarse that I have not seen yet. The one thing that I wanted to be careful about was a stone that was so coarse that it grabbed the steel and tried to throw it off rather than grind it. Is this a problem with a 36 or 46 grit standard coarse grinding wheel (not the ones from LV). I will also get the grinding rest that LV sells. When I am all set I imagine it will look similar to the set up that Alf shows in her video, with the same rest.
I do like the coarser stones because they are much cheaper and would grind faster.

Thanks
Peter

[engineerone]

peter, i must admit that it is a long time since i have properly
hand ground, but i guess you have to consider the momentum issue.

obviously the wheel will be slowed down by putting the tool on it, and this should also stop overheating. but i would think 36 grit is much too coarse. although it will cut fast, i would wonder whether you might then have to spend a long time with your water stones.

interesting trade off.

paul

[mignal]

Sparky, forget 36G, that's for grinding down rail track. Way too coarse for re-working the primary bevel on a blade. I actually use a white wheel at 100G - that's fine for re-establishing the primary bevel. After this 100G I then move straight on to an 8000G waterstone. I really don't see the point in using anything coarser than an 8000G waterstone because you only need to touch up the very tip of the blade. Pointless polishing the whole of the bevel.
If I need to remove a nick in the blade then I have a Red wheel at 80G. The red wheel runs the coolest, cuts clean and fast but costs the most. The grey wheels run the hottest but should be fine providing you are careful.

[Sparky]

Thanks mingal

I will go for a less coarse grit.

One more thing, 1" wide stone or 3/4" wide...I'm thinking 1" but if you have a thought I would appreciate it.

Peter

[mignal]

1".

[Sparky]

Thanks

sorry...I spelled your name wrong

spelling never was my gift

peter