Thread: Green Wheel or White Wheel for drill sharpening on a 6" [150mm] Bench Grinder??

Alox, if you like chasing and cleaning the wheel, CBN if you have better things to do

My Darex has a CBN wheel

We've always used the white ones at work. 1/4" wide, dressed to a point to get the proper shape for grinding brad point bits. It's really only used for touch ups and the occasional total re-grind on a new twist bit (or when someone hits a screw), so it barely needs to be dressed or cleaned

Originally Posted by Pat

Alox, if you like chasing and cleaning the wheel, CBN if you have better things to do

Thanks Pat, I did pay attention to you & Ian at Fletty's Sharpening GTG and have a 6" CBN Wheel on order from Jim Carroll which I'll fit to one end of the bench grinder...
The other end has a shaped tool rest for drill sharpening and thus the question on green or white wheels plus of course a "TEE SHAPED DIAMOND WHEEL TRUER"....
Cheers, Peter

That's very nice. From the code on the side of the wheel: What is the grit compound? What's the grit size? What's the binder? What's the ratio of grit to binder? I just can't do "green" and "white"
to define an abrasive.
Most of what you should know about the code is found most easily on page 38, The Complete Guide to Sharpening/Leonard Lee/Lee Valley

I much prefer to use the right tool for the job but on a side note, I don't believe heat on modern HSS is that much of an issue. This topic has been flogged on this forum before and it changed my mind on the issue of heat buildup while grinding drills and lathe tooling but the annealing cycle for for HSS is a very long and slow process. A bit of blue from 5min grind is not going to effect anything. I have braze welded HSS to lathe tooling and they run the same as solid.

From my understanding the Silicone Carbide wheel is for grinding carbide or carbide tipped tools if you don't have diamond wheels. Can be used for other non ferrous metals also.
See Norton description.

Definitely the "white" Aluminium Oxide for sharpening either HSS or carbon steel.

John

Originally Posted by Treecycle

From my understanding the Silicone Carbide wheel is for grinding carbide or carbide tipped tools if you don't have diamond wheels. Can be used for other non ferrous metals also.
See Norton description.

I always thought CBN was the backup choice for carbide