Thread: HSS Lathe bit sharpening

I touch mine up with an oil stone after grinding, as for where to buy it I don't know as I have had all of mine for years.

Dave

I will add mine are good enough off the grinder, but always have a burr, so I knock it off. If it's a finishing tool I will go to the trouble of rubbing it on the oil stone until I am happy with it.

If you just starting out grinding, I would recommend buying some cheap ($6) eye loupes off ebay to look at the edge. I bought some a while back and I wish I had of had them over the years. Mine come in a pack of 3, 2x 5x 10x from memory.

Dave

I grind on a white aluminium oxide wheel, off hand.
Its 8" dia by 1" wide. grade 80 or 60
The white Alum Oxide is a friable mineral which maintains a cool clean grind.
Important to true & dress the wheel from time to time.
I use a diamond & then a Norbide dressing stick.
Most times the HSS comes off the wheel sharp & ready to use. Sometimes I hone across the point & to provide a small radius. I use a small alum oxide stone with a bit of kero.
If you are not careful with the hone a dulling of the HSS edge can result if the hone is not held correctly.
Hope this helps
regards
Bruce

As Bruce said you can dull your newly ground tool with a stone, this is where the eye loupe will help you see whats going on.

Dave

I (again) do the same as Bruce on my white Aluminium Oxide (Alox) wheel but I have a small stone that I bought about 1' wide and 2" long and about 3/8' thick that I use to 'wipe it's nose' with to give, in effect, a small nose radius. As has been said, great care must be taken when honing as it can remove any clearances you ground on the tool and almost be invisible to the naked eye.

Phil

I shape with a alum oxide wheel.... I will then finish with a diamond wheel.... And I found using a diamond wheel on steel did not cause society to collapse leading to people eating one another brians as I was lead to believe would happen by reading on another forum...

Originally Posted by .RC.

I shape with a alum oxide wheel.... I will then finish with a diamond wheel.... And I found using a diamond wheel on steel did not cause society to collapse leading to people eating one another brians as I was lead to believe would happen by reading on another forum...

What he said, though I have only ever generally used bog standard AlOx grey wheels, never had any trouble with em and I only use a small oilstone to "keen" the edges, though I do nowadays, sometimes, use my diamond wheel after the grinding. I too found (years ago, without really knowing I found it) that the diamond wheel and HSS doesn't cause any catastrophes.

Cheers.

Hi fittermachinist,

One unusual place (not really unusual I suppose) that I found a nice smallish Norton Arkansas oil stone about 100mm x 50mm x 13mm was at a camping store in the knives section, fine one side and medium on other side.

Unfortunately maybe nowadays they have gone to stocking those horrible soft-ish oil stones that seem to be made of something just a bit better than sand, well it's maybe a bit better than sand.

They may also stock the small diamond impregnated hand held sharpening "stones" as well.

Oil stones and other industrial stuff can be bought at Blackwoods Industrial supplies, Blackwoods | All Your Workplace Needs, elsewhere on the Net or Ebay.

Cheers.

Mention was made by Abratool of Norbide dressing stick. I bought one in 2008, it cost me $127 in Australia, I checked a couple of places in the USA at the time and they weren't much cheaper, exchange rate and postage considered.

Here is an Ebay USA link to a genuine Norton Norbide stick at a pretty good price USD70 buy it now, but he doesn't post to Aus. New NORTON 61463610148 Dressing Stick Size 3/16" x 1/2" x 3" Type Boron Nitride | eBay

Here is an Ebay USA link to another similar, no brand mentioned, Boron Carbide stick with imperfections for USD10.95 buy it now plus postage, he posts worldwide. Boron Carbide Dressing Stick | eBay. I do not know how good these are compared to a Norton Norbide stick.

I've mainly just put this up for general interest.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by Log

Mention was made by Abratool of Norbide dressing stick. I bought one in 2008, it cost me $127 in Australia, I checked a couple of places in the USA at the time and they weren't much cheaper, exchange rate and postage considered.

Here is an Ebay USA link to a genuine Norton Norbide stick at a pretty good price USD70 buy it now, but he doesn't post to Aus. New NORTON 61463610148 Dressing Stick Size 3/16" x 1/2" x 3" Type Boron Nitride | eBay

Here is an Ebay USA link to another similar, no brand mentioned, Boron Carbide stick with imperfections for USD10.95 buy it now plus postage, he posts worldwide. Boron Carbide Dressing Stick | eBay. I do not know how good these are compared to a Norton Norbide stick.

I've mainly just put this up for general interest.

Cheers.

You can get them in Bunnings.....not sure on the brand but they cost about $25 from memory.

Like Phil i use a white Alox wheel and a small slipstone. I have had mine for years but small norton stones can also be had in bunnings for $5 or something. I use mostly WKE45 (11% cobalt) these days and i find i have to dress and clean my wheel very regularly.

Log, i'm not sure on the cheap stones being made from sand.....sand is still abrasive, i think they are made from old dried grease or something, no abrasiveness and no strength

.RC, people may not be eating each others brains, but maybe it was you that caused all these problems in politics lately......

Originally Posted by Ueee

You can get them in Bunnings.....not sure on the brand but they cost about $25 from memory.

Like Phil i use a white Alox wheel and a small slipstone. I have had mine for years but small norton stones can also be had in bunnings for $5 or something. I use mostly WKE45 (11% cobalt) these days and i find i have to dress and clean my wheel very regularly.

Log, i'm not sure on the cheap stones being made from sand.....sand is still abrasive, i think they are made from old dried grease or something, no abrasiveness and no strength SO, You have one of em too eh!!

.RC, people may not be eating each others brains, but maybe it was you that caused all these problems in politics lately......

Hi Ueee,

I have plenty of oil stones(at the moment anyway so haven't taken any notice of Bunnings offerings lately, will have to check next time I'm there, last time that I did have cursory look at that area (abrasives etc) I can't remember seeing any good stuff in oil stones.

They definitely won't have genuine Norton Norbide sticks, one place in USA lists them at USD168 odd. Yikes, USD56 per inch for 1/2" x 3/16" section , I'll break mine in half and sell a half for $80, https://www.acklandsgrainger.com/AGI..._code=NRN10148, might be a bit cheaper elsewhere USA.

Now we gotta get back to our projects, well you can, I'll watch

Cheers.

A cheap alternative are the diamond encrusted flat plates , I bought a set of three on ebay from a UK seller .Fine, medium and rough .

I've had reasonable success with them , they certainly are tough, I've used and abused the hell out of mine and they haven't gone dull at all.

I'd recomend a magnifying viewer to inspect the edge after honing.Another good test is run the edge over your finger , you can get an idea of blunt it is by feel.

Its quite a skill , honing the edges, and it takes some practice before you are able to get a nice edge.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/x3-Diamon...item5d33c3e654

hi speed tooling in Belmont sells various stones, though a little pricey.
Most of the gear they stock in store, is not shown on their website.

Welcome to Hi-Speed Tooling | Hi-Speed Tooling

Thanks everyone for the replies!
i will be using my oil stone a lt more frequently when grinding hss bits now! and may possibly try and get some of those diamond honing sticks.


thanks guys!