Thread: Diamond Grinding Wheel

LOL.

Marginal diffs make a diff to the pro's and obsessive amateurs.

Plead guilty to the latter.

Originally Posted by Manuka Jock

I'm getting the feeling that the resin/diamond grinding wheel is a cheap trick with an expensive price tag .

Yes, an expensive price tag, but diamond abrasives have been used in a wide range of industries (e.g. masonry, mining, glass, ceramics, electronics, metal fabrication and tooling) for decades now. They even use it to cut up the bitumen on the local roads. Bought my first diamond blade 35 years ago. Paid heaps more for it at the time than the cheaper alternatives, but over the full life cycle it was more economical. Many areas of industry have settled on diamond or CBN as the most economical abrasive in the long run for particular applications.

Whether it's economical for an individual woodturner to go with diamond or CBN to sharpen their carbide or HSS tools would depend on how much sharpening they do.

I'd still like to know what advice the manufacturers have for truing and dressing these wheels is .So far my net search has been in vain .

Don't know about this manufacturer, but suggest as a starting point you use mild steel to true CBN/resin bond wheels and silicon carbide for diamond/metal bond wheels. And for dressing use aluminium oxide for both types of wheels.

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Yes , I have used diamond masonry blades in the construction industry for years and know that they work well .

My issue is with this grinding wheel and the lack of information from it's manufacturer .

Originally Posted by Manuka Jock

My issue is with this grinding wheel and the lack of information from it's manufacturer

OK, out of interest I have sent the following email to Woodcraft.

Hi

What is your recommended method for truing and dressing your WoodRiver Diamond Grinding Wheel?

Thanks

Neil

I very much doubt that Woodcraft manufacture the wheels themselves, and may not have an immediate answer. It's probably a new product line for them. But hopefully my email should get them asking their manufacturer/supplier some questions. It will be interesting to see what they come back with as a response.

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Good one

Be interesting to see their response eh

Returning to a comment Brendan made about the finer scratch pattern made by the wheel cp Alox.

There are diff stds for rating abrasives and you can get yrself into the poop confusing them. Click

Not saying it happened here; just a heads-up.

Originally Posted by rsser

Returning to a comment Brendan made about the finer scratch pattern made by the wheel cp Alox.

There are diff stds for rating abrasives and you can get yrself into the poop confusing them. Click

Not saying it happened here; just a heads-up.

And, another.


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Hi Brendan,
Hope it is going to The You Turn.
issatree.
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Originally Posted by NeilS

OK, out of interest I have sent the following email to Woodcraft.

Hi

What is your recommended method for truing and dressing your WoodRiver Diamond Grinding Wheel?

Thanks

Neil

Here is the reply received from Woodcraft:

Thank you for your inquiry. The Diamond Grinding Wheel should not need to be dressed. It should run true out of the box.

Thanks,
Sam Murner
Technical Representative
Woodcraft Supply, LLC406 Airport Industrial Park Road
Parkersburg, WV 26102-1686

A fair enough reply. As posted earlier, I would expect these wheels to run true out of the box. Brendan's experience confirms that. If they don't, send them back!

What the reply doesn't include is any acknowledgment that the wheels may become untrue or need dressing during use. As indicated earlier, I think this is a new product line for woodworking suppliers and at this stage this type of info is not in their knowledge banks.

We will all be very interested in Brendan's experience over time to see if truing and/or dressing is required with his particular wheel with our type of use.

We now know that Robo Hippy's experience indicates that it is required with the CBN wheels that he is using.

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Well, I called up Woodcraft tech help this morning, and asked a guy there. He didn't know and sent me to Bob who knows more. They have been selling these wheels for about a year now, and the issue of cleaning and truing the wheels up after a lot of use hasn't come up yet. I sent him to this forum, and told him he should check out this thread, and he said he would have them look into taking care of the wheels over time. I would expect them to last pretty much like my CBN wheels. Maybe this is another demolition test I need to do on a turning product. So many toys, and so little time.............

robo hippy

Well, the wheel has now had 8 days of regular grinding and I can report the following:
No wash out
No noticeable wear/dishing of the grinding surface
I haven't had to true or clean it
Still grinding beautifully
I can freehand sharpen my gouges on it quite successfully without too many facets
I am still very happy with it - I consider it a significant improvement to my sharpening methods
I have noticed older tools and carbon steel tools produce sparks whereas the good quality HSS tools don't.
I spent about 3 min regrinding a scraper on it and did not have to stop once to cool it down

I do not have any affiliation with Woodcraft Supplies and will not benefit financially from any favourable comments (unless they want to change there minds!)

sounds encouraging...thanks Brendan

So, starting to look like a good solution.

Thanks for the update, Brendan

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Thanks Brendan.