Grinding HSS metal turning tools

[beastro]

Hi,

I have been using my Tormek super 2000 for my woodworking/violinmaking tools for 7 years.
I am extending my activities into metal work and have to form and sharpen HSS 10mm/10mm metal turning tools for my lathe.
Since I am very happy with my tormek and don't feel comfortable with the sparking of fast turning grinding wheels in my wood workshop, I would like to do the forming of those tools on my super 2000.
However, I find that grinding takes quite long and I have to redress the stone continuously, as it seems to loose its bite very quickly. Is there any trick, or will I have to purchase a seperate bench grinder for that task?

I use the standard grinding wheel and would probably not invest in the new special HSS grinding wheel.

Berthold

[Ern]

My first post, in reply to your first post ;-}

and a while ago at that.

I'm a turner.  For reshaping HSS tools a dry grinder with a white or pink wheel works quickly and cheaply. 

My floor is covered in dust and shavings usually and I've never had a problem with sparks.

That said, I've seen guys dress their wet wheel to 200 and just give the job the time it needs.

[Jeff Farris]

Beastro,

You're right, shaping does take some time.  If you're only shaping tools occasionally, the time invested is not that big a deal in the bigger picture.  For considerably less than the cost of the SB-250, you could get our new BGM-100 Bench Grinder Mount and use your Tormek jigs to shape your tools on a bench grinder.  This only makes sense if you already have a bench grinder and/or do a lot of shaping.  As of today, the BGM-100 is a very new product.  Packard Woodworks has them in stock.  They're also available through TormekStore.com, though they are not on the web order form as of today (6/30), but will be in the next day or two.

When shaping on the Tormek, you can speed the process up by working in the vertical mount.  The stone cuts faster when turning into the cutting edge.  However, I don't like to use this method when doing bowl gouges or spindle roughing gouges -- short bevel angles encourage the tool to dig into the stone -- but, it is very effective for skews, scrapers, and spindle gouges.