Thread: Diamond Grinding Wheel

And the last one is on its way now. Happy grinding everyone!

thanks jeremy,
i expect that last one was me.
BIG thanks to neil for organising this and jeremy for donating his time to pass them on
thanks guys.

Dear Southerners,

As of 4pm today my parcel has not been delivered. Rang FedEx to see where it was. They assured me that it was scheduled to be delivered by 5pm today. Hope they (actually Australian Air Express delivers FedEx parcels in this area) don't pull their normal trick of avoiding my driveway by dropping a 'pick-it-up-from-your-local-post-office' card in the letterbox at about 4.45pm so I don't get to know about it before the post office closes.

<Grizzle: on> Annoying in the extreme, including the fact that they are being paid good money for a door to door service that they don't perform. <Grizzle: off>

Anyway, thought I should explain how it is that Jeremy has dispatched his and I haven't ...and... just in case you thought I was having fun playing around with your wheels here before I send them on their way...

.

No worries Neil, feel free to sharpen your whole kit on mine as long as you post a review ;-}

Yes, irritating, but having seen your drive I can understand why lesser mortals might quail.

Originally Posted by bench1holio

thanks jeremy,
i expect that last one was me.
BIG thanks to neil for organising this and jeremy for donating his time to pass them on
thanks guys.

No, not you BH. Just a case of electrons going missing in the ether...

Originally Posted by rsser

No worries Neil, feel free to sharpen your whole kit on mine as long as you post a review ;-}

Yes, irritating, but having seen your drive I can understand why lesser mortals might quail.

As it transpired, the wheels were delivered late this afternoon. The driver chickened out again on my driveway..., but at least he lugged them down to the house this time...

It was too late to repackage them and get them away before the post office closed this evening but they have all been inspected now (and OK) and repackaged up again ready to be post off to you in the morning.

Have fun!

And, let us all know what you think about these new wheels!

.

Hi
Well the diamond wheel arrived,out to the shed to install and tryout.What happened to all the noise? First impressions -bloody good.

Thanks again to NeilS and jmk89.
cheers
gidgee 1

Originally Posted by NeilS

It was too late to repackage them and get them away before the post office closed this evening but they have all been inspected now (and OK) and repackaged up again ready to be post off to you in the morning.

Those parcels got away Thursday and should be there early next week.

.

Replaced the 1" alox white wheel with the new WoodRiver diamond wheel and spun it up. Immediately got some vibrations. So did some removing and re-mounting of various combinations of the diamond and existing alox wheel on the grinder.

I had previously dynamically balanced the alox wheels so it was conceivable that the alox wheel that I took off the grinder may have left the remaining alox wheel compensating for a missing out of balance alox wheel that had been removed. I couldn't narrow down the precise source of the vibrations but my test combinations weren't exhaustive and I wanted to get to putting some steel on the diamond wheel... Will return to the balancing issue at some stage.

Might just mention that I don't bolt my grinder down and prefer a near vibration free run. Others may be more accepting of some minor vibrations at various harmonics as their grinder winds up and down.

The first steel to the wheel (a 1" gouge) produced a distinct kick. More obvious on the wings of the gouge. Stopped and did a slow hand spin of the wheel and looked for any runout. I thought I could see a very slight one but had no gauges that I was prepared to submit to the diamond to do a precise measurement. Then ran a pencil across the running wheel but that wasn't conclusive. Perhaps there were just a few isolated 'peaks' that was creating the kick and the wheel will true out when they have been worn down. Hope so.

The wheel had gone onto the shaft very snugly so saw no point in fiddling with how the wheel was mounted. There was no discernible lateral wobble so that wasn't the source of the kick.

As found by Brendan and others, the grind was cool and virtually spark free. I didn't find the absence of spark an issue in getting a new edge. And, fewer sparks in my shavings filled workshop can only be a plus.

The gouge I was grinding had been freshly pre-ground on the 60 grit alox wheel so I expected to see a distinctly finer grind pattern off the 120 grit diamond. I was surprised to find that I couldn't readily distinguish where one grind began and the other finished???

Here is the right wing of the gouge.

Attachment 153113

And here is the left wing of the gouge.

Attachment 153112

Which side is 60 grit alox and which is 120 grit diamond?

Have others had a different result with their wheel?

The other observation was the distinct burr that was thrown up by the diamond wheel which seemed to be more fragile than that produced by the alox wheel. I didn't have time to test the durability of the burr to establish if it is a hard or soft burr, but have my suspicions that it may be softer than the one produced by the alox wheel. If so, an extra honing step may be required.

Ern, I would be very interested to see any comparative micro shots you may care to take.

Last thing I did was touch up my carbide tips on the diamond wheel. Beautiful!

As with all grinding activities I used a respirator to keep the dust out of my lungs. The NOISH recommendations are here.

Remaining Questions:

• Have I got a genuine 120 grit wheel?
• Is there some variability in the quality control for these wheels or will they all settle down when they are run in?
• Hard or soft burr?

In summary:

• Low spark is a plus
• Carbide tip sharpening is a big plus
• Cool grind will be an added advantage with flatware CS blades.

.

Wheel arrived today; many thanks Neil, much appreciated.

Mounted it on the Abbot and Ashby which is bolted down.

Arbor a good fit.

No vibes or obvious radial run-out.

It felt heavier in the hand than an Alox wheel and the grinder run-down time struck me as longer. Didn't bother to measure either of those.

Tested an HT square ended chisel; one bevel on an 80g Alox wheel, the other on the diamond wheel. The included angle was 45 degrees.

Immediately apparent was how cool it runs on the diamond. No stopping needed to allow it to cool and no bluing.

I won't bother to take mic. pics at this stage. Diamond bench stones cut rough when new and then finer with a bit of use and I suspect the same is true here.

Under a 30x loupe, the scratch pattern is somewhat finer and more even than that from the 80g Alox wheel. With a bit of wear it may get finer still.

I did get a sense that a bit more pressure against the diamond produced a slightly finer pattern.

It did produce a large soft burr most of which could be pulled away with the fingers; the diamond grind was done 2nd. If this edge was to be used for finishing cuts, at this stage of the wheel's life a swipe or two on a honing wheel or bench stone would be necessary.

Looking at the metal trail on the wheel, it moved from the left side to the right through 180 degrees so the face is not quite parallel with the spindle.

Hope this helps.

On 2nd thoughts, here are some pics as I did promise Neil.

There's some of the remaining burr in both.

Hover mouse over the thumbnail for the grind type.

Thanks for that Ern.

Sounds like you're pretty happy.

Overall, yes Jeremy.

The cool running is a knock out.

For a turner wanting to reshape a bunch of bevel geometries it'll be quick. For a production turner wanting to cut down the time spent deglazing a wheel face it's a no brainer.

If as I suspect, and as has been posted here so far, a finer edge in due course (coarse?) will leave a cleaner finish on the wood and reduce the need for sanding.

As Neil has implied, for those with a lot of HCS bench chisels and plane blades where bluing spoils your day, it should be a lay down misere. But I haven't tested those.

Value for money? It's too early for our lot to have estimates of wheel life. An alox wheel is what, $30? And these fellas ... a bit of an ouch in the hip pocket.

OK, off to hit one or two firmer chisels that need bevels reshaping. More later.

Originally Posted by rsser

On 2nd thoughts, here are some pics as I did promise Neil.

Many thanks, Ern.

Those mic pics tell more of a story than I could pick up on my hand lens. Very different abrasive pattern between the two. The diamond cuts are variable in length and width (not unlike wire brushing), whereas the #80 alox wheel is producing continuous even width cuts.

Not sure why there is this difference. Maybe some of the diamond cuts are filling up again with swarf after the cut has been made to give that effect. That soft burr had to come from somewhere. Will be interesting to see if this changes as the wheel wears in.

Interesting!

.

Wheel arrived today ... thanks Neil.

John