Thread: CBN wheels

Originally Posted by Hangfire

Hi all,

I bought a slow speed grinder from carbatec a few months back and their wolverine knock off sharpening system.

seems to work pretty well.

timbecon has CBN wheels on special and i was wondering whether it was worth investing in one - and if so, what grit...

the carby grinder has 2x8 inch white wheels - 80 and 120 grit.

used primarily for sharpening my lathe chisels.

Im looking at fitting CBN to my 200mm AEG grinder probably 120 or 140 with 600 the other

Ive got a 180 cbn on my full speed grinder and find it cuts plenty fast for my usage. I can reshape a chisel in a few minutes if needed, but i sharpen before every use so my whetstone grinder gets air time than the cbn.

I use a 320 Timbecon CBN - works well
A much better final sharpening grit than the 180 I used to use. 320 stays sharp longer especially when working with hard woods

I have the 180 for the other side of the wheel rather than 80 and rarely think it would be good to have another grinder for reshaping. If I had to reshape often I would swap out for the 80 wheel but I tend to keep the same profile on my lathe tools

Originally Posted by Hangfire

Hi all,

I bought a slow speed grinder from carbatec a few months back and their wolverine knock off sharpening system.

seems to work pretty well.

timbecon has CBN wheels on special and i was wondering whether it was worth investing in one - and if so, what grit...

the carby grinder has 2x8 inch white wheels - 80 and 120 grit.

used primarily for sharpening my lathe chisels.

For turning, you will want to finish on 300-400 grit. However, this is too fine for shaping. 80 grit will be best if you are doing significant grinding, with 180 grit the allrounder for general shaping before using a 320 grit.

80 and 180 grit wheels are for flat woodworking.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

For turning, you will want to finish on 300-400 grit. However, this is too fine for shaping. 80 grit will be best if you are doing significant grinding, with 180 grit the allrounder for general shaping before using a 320 grit.

80 and 180 grit wheels are for flat woodworking.

Regards from Perth

Derek

The reason for 600 is I have a few tungsten carbide smallish scraper blades and a 3/8 Tungsten Carbide gouge tip as well. I have a stock of old ceramic metal turning tips rather fragile and the need 600 or so to get a decent finish. The other end 120 or 140 will use for shaping although I dont do much reshaping these days. I do have a few to alter as I have built my self a Vector Grinding jig.
see here Vector Grind Fixture | HannesTool

Originally Posted by hughie

The reason for 600 is I have a few tungsten carbide smallish scraper blades and a 3/8 Tungsten Carbide gouge tip as well. I have a stock of old ceramic metal turning tips rather fragile and the need 600 or so to get a decent finish. The other end 120 or 140 will use for shaping although I dont do much reshaping these days.

Diamond is cheaper than CBN and very suitable for Tungsten Carbides. Have a look at what BobL did to add a diamond disk to his grinder for carbides. Also, see the link at the bottom of Bob's post with recommendation for use of diamond for ceramic carbides.

Diamond v's CBN Wheels

Diamond disks are readily available and relatively inexpensive, for example.

As CBN is recommended for HSS, I have a #180 and a #360 CBN wheel for my turning tools. I have toyed with adding a #600 but I'm yet to be convinced I need it. I had one end of a grinder that I could add that to, but have since added a rag wheel there for power honing that is proving to be useful, so I'm unlikely to go with a #600 now as that would require yet another bench grinder and bench space.

I know that there are some keen hobby woodturning enthusiasts in the US who extol the virtues of their #600 CBN wheels. How much of that is bragging rights is hard to tell, but as far as I can see, I don't see the top turners there going for them.

Originally Posted by NeilS

Diamond is cheaper than CBN and very suitable for Tungsten Carbides. Have a look at what BobL did to add a diamond disk to his grinder for carbides. Also, see the link at the bottom of Bob's post with recommendation for use of diamond for ceramic carbides.

Diamond v's CBN Wheels

Diamond disks are readily available and relatively inexpensive, for example.

As CBN is recommended for HSS, I have a #180 and a #360 CBN wheel for my turning tools. I have toyed with adding a #600 but I'm yet to be convinced I need it. I had one end of a grinder that I could add that to, but have since added a rag wheel there for power honing that is proving to be useful, so I'm unlikely to go with a #600 now as that would require yet another bench grinder and bench space.

I know that there are some keen hobby wood turning enthusiasts in the US who extol the virtues of their #600 CBN wheels. How much of that is bragging rights is hard to tell, but as far as I can see, I don't see the top turners there going for them.

Yeah seen a few of them in my wanderings

I actually have 2 or 3 diamond blades I use to sharpen my graver bits with, might have to expand this set up. The interesting part for me is playing around with ceramic CNC turning tips and sharpening them. They do wonders in the CNC gear and given some of our hardwoods I thought it well worthwhile to pursue it to its natural conclusion. Plus I am looking over the possibility of resurrecting older carbide tips, have already resharpened a 10 mm carbide cup cutter tip for wood turning works exceedingly well on a shielded set-up not unlike the Munro tools. My next step is to refine it some, as I just cobbled it out of what I had lying around. Rough and ready, very hard to adjust and keep adjusted.

Originally Posted by hughie

Yeah seen a few of them in my wanderings

I actually have 2 or 3 diamond blades I use to sharpen my graver bits with, might have to expand this set up. The interesting part for me is playing around with ceramic CNC turning tips and sharpening them. They do wonders in the CNC gear and given some of our hardwoods I thought it well worthwhile to pursue it to its natural conclusion. Plus I am looking over the possibility of resurrecting older carbide tips, have already resharpened a 10 mm carbide cup cutter tip for wood turning works exceedingly well on a shielded set-up not unlike the Munro tools. My next step is to refine it some, as I just cobbled it out of what I had lying around. Rough and ready, very hard to adjust and keep adjusted.

Looking forward to reading about your results and findings on the carbides and ceramics. My brother who taught turning at TAFE for decades understands way more than I do about those. I have a little box full of insert tips that he gave me but I never got to use them successfully the way you have.


On the CBNs, I did find that my #180 CBN used to remove metal faster than the #360, but the #180 is starting to slow down now that it has been in use for 10 years. I never did find a big difference between the edge off the #180 and the #360.

If you do go with a #600 CBN wheel I will be very interested to hear your opinion on how you find it with the HSS tools.

Originally Posted by NeilS

Looking forward to reading about your results and findings on the carbides and ceramics. My brother who taught turning at TAFE for decades understands way more than I do about those. I have a little box full of insert tips that he gave me but I never got to use them successfully the way you have.


On the CBNs, I did find that my #180 CBN used to remove metal faster than the #360, but the #180 is starting to slow down now that it has been in use for 10 years. I never did find a big difference between the edge off the #180 and the #360.

If you do go with a #600 CBN wheel I will be very interested to hear your opinion on how you find it with the HSS tools.

Slowing down etc, Apparently you can clean with WD40 as they get loaded

Originally Posted by hughie

Slowing down etc, Apparently you can clean with WD40 as they get loaded

I haven't heard of WD40 being used, but?? why not.

I had a brain storm a couple of years back and touched some aluminium against my One way 180 wheel! It took ages to get it clean again and I used a special block, like soft stone, I had to buy from Axminster Power Tools. It was messy, but it worked and I now have a cutting wheel I'm more than happy with.

I have always found the 180 grit quick, clean and works very well at sharpening all of my gouges. The only ones that gets more than that are my skew chisles and they get a quick rub on my diamond bench stone. I think that's 360 grit, but I've had it so long I can't remember but about 15 years or so?

Originally Posted by Jonzjob

I had a brain storm a couple of years back and touched some aluminium against my One way 180 wheel! It took ages to get it clean again and I used a special block, like soft stone, I had to buy from Axminster Power Tools. It was messy, but it worked and I now have a cutting wheel I'm more than happy with.

Yes, any soft bonded cleaning stick will do it, preferably in a finer grit, but that is not essential.

Back when I was cutting a lot of hard stone with diamond blades I cut up old grinding wheels with the diamond blades to 'resharpen' them.

Unfortunately for this purpose, hard bonds are used in most of the grinding wheels that are commonly sold. But, if you can find one, something softer than about Grade I (A -> H) is best.

Got a silly question about CBN wheels, so I'm going to piggy-back on this thread.
I bought some CBN wheels from Timbecon. Does it matter which way they are mounted on the grinder?
One side of the wheel is flat (left pic below) and the other has a raised lip/boss (right pic below).
IMG_2087.jpg IMG_2088.jpg
Also, I need to take up space on the shaft. Can I fit the flanges like this below or do I need some other bushes?

IMG_2089.jpg

The only silly questions are the ones you don't ask, but I don't think it matters. I would be a good idea to contact the place you got them and put the question to them though.

Originally Posted by johknee

Does it matter which way they are mounted on the grinder?
One side of the wheel is flat (left pic below) and the other has a raised lip/boss (right pic below).

Also, I need to take up space on the shaft. Can I fit the flanges like this below or do I need some other bushes?

I mounted mine with the boss on the outside. I have had no issues myself from having done it that way.

IMG_2641.jpg

Unless you have an issue with the wheel touching something on the motor body, I would take up space by adding (quality) washers below the nut. Better to have the machined shoulder on the motor shaft and the machined surface on the wheel in contact with each other to minimise any lateral runout.

Washers are usually pressed metal and will never be as precise as a machined surface. Any irregularities in the washers if used below the nut shouldn't have an effect on the wheel seating true on the shaft.

PS - On one of my wheels I used the machined flanges that came with the grinder to provide better spacing, but these new wheels are machined very precisely and better than many of the flanges that come standard on grinders.

IMG_2643.jpg