Thread: CBN wheel - first impressions

Glad to see you are happy wtih it diamond a cbn are the norm in the sharpening industry cbn being prefered for steel, if you had the ability to run coolant you would get a almost mirror finish. It is only recently that these wheels have become economic for the home user not so long ago the cheapest cbn wheels were in the $4-500 range

CBN Wheels are available in Australia , I believe from PFERD Abrasives,

They would probably be a special order, I worked for PFERD for 3 years and never sold 1.

You can find branches in all state capital cities, they do not sell direct but will direct you to the nearest distributor to your town.

Jeff

Thanks for the review, Bruce.

Tempting, very tempting!

Have you measured for any run-out to see if that vibration away from centre is from any out-of-round away from centre? Just lightly running a carpenters pencil across the face of the wheel while its running may show up any irregularities.

Another toy Bruce?

Interesting.

40mm width is a plus.

Maybe not enough backing alloy to support the full width?

What is the abrasive Grit spec of the wheel?? it looks to give an excellent finish, and obviously an excellent edge.
Jeff

Neil ,
Good question about the out of round- I'll give your pencil idea a go tonight - to the eye it runs beautifully.

Ern,
The wheel is not lacking in weight, that's for sure. Given that the wheel is 40mm wide, there is less than 20mm either side of the centre line so it's a bit hard to know. The base the CBN is attatched to is fairly beefy. The fit onto the grinder shaft was a perfect ,snug, push fit. Dunno.
As I mentioned - it isn't bad, just noticable.

Ed,
My best toy for a long time me thinks!! should have upgraded long ago - I actually enjoy sharpening now

G'day Jeff,
They come in 80 and 180 grit, I opted for the 180. Surgically sharp and very fast
Can't really think why you would need the 80 grit unless you were doing a lot of repair work.
Bruce

Love mine too.
Smooth as running, no alox dust, no wearing of wheel like alox and diamond, coolish cut and touch, surface still clean like new and great finish to tools.
My blu max and pink alox wheels look out of place and unused now.
You won't regret getting one (imho)

Bruce,

it appears to me that you are roughing a bowl with a spindle roughing gouge?

What's going on? Or have I misread the pics?

Que?
Now Jeff, don't go all tech on me.
The roughing gouge was used to well.... rough.
The D-way spindle gouge was used for a final cut on the outside of the bowl. Beautiful bit of steel by the way .
Bruce

Hi Bruce,
That 180G. wheel seems to be the go.
My question is, I have a 13.5mm. Gun Barrel Drill, that I use constantly.
I drive it into End Grain at 3000 RPM. & don't have a Problem with it, but it does go Blunt now & then.

The other Chaps on The Forums, may also be able to answer this.

This Drill has a TCT end, & the only way I can sharpen it is by hand with a Ezy-lap Red Fine, Diam. Impr. Steel. It gets me by, but would one of these Wheels, sharpen this Drill ?

Personally, I think not, as normally one would use a Green Wheel, to sharpen TCT.
Its really not feasible to buy a Green Wheel, just to use on this Drill, every now & then.

A green wheel will cut TCT but not exactly put a fine edge on it. That's a different ballgame.

CBN is said to be optimal for high alloy steels.

TC isn't a steel.

Originally Posted by bellyup

The roughing gouge was used to well.... rough.

One of the issues with spindle roughing gouges is that most have a very thin tang compared to the potentially large cutting area of the gouge. Apparently these thin tangs are not such an issue for spindle turning, although most of us have seen at least one with a bent or broken tang.

However, there are spindle roughing gouges and spindle roughing gouges. The P&N SRG and the Thompson SRG are in a separate category to most other SRGs. Both have substantial tangs that are milled from the billet stock; 1/2" diam in the case of the P&N (plus a substantial transition between the tang and flute), and 3/4" diam in the case of the Thompson. There may be other SRGs with similar substantial tangs that I am not aware of.

The other concern raised about using SRGs other than for spindle work is that because of their large cutting edge they can take a much larger bite than bowl gouges, which are typically much smaller in diameter. Not a recommended starting point for the novice, but more experienced bowl turners will anticipate the heavy duty forces involved in taking off a banana peel sized shaving and proceed accordingly (or not).

A very experienced bowl turner with one of the above more substantial SRGs might (not that I'm recommending it!!) rough down the outside of a bowl blank, BUT would not go anywhere near the inside of a bowl with it and never with that typical straight across grind. And, an experienced bowl turner would also realise that a longer handle than the one that came with the SRG was need to counteract the extra forces involved.

Now, I'm not much of a spindle turner, but I fail to see the difference (other than grain direction) between roughing down a spindle blank and the outside of a bowl blank of the same diameter. Yes, twice every rev you are cutting towards the endgrain on a bowl blank, but I can't see how a bowl gouge is any better than an SRG at handling this. Surely a 1" SRG will manage the task as well as a 1" bowl gouge.