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Hi All:

So I received the wheel last night. I had a bear of a time--thanks to my ineptitude--in mounting it. In what should have been a straight forward procedure, but I failed to read the instructions thoroughly (the instructions for the D-Way wheel contain the standard boxed, bold 'read first entreaty but I ignored it and just glanced at the diagram, figuring that's all I needed) and tried to force the bushing onto the arbor. Now, I was gentle and took the bushing off the wheel so it was just the  weight of the bushing on the arbor while  I eased it on--mindfulbor--and used several lubricants, but the correct method, as you guys probably guessed, is to sand either the bushing or the arbor to adjust the fit. I managed to get the bushing stuck using hand pressure and had to leverage it off, carefully, with a pipe wrench.

I then panicked and set up a dial indicator to see if I damaged the arbor but both horizontal and vertical axes showed no run-out, arbor alone, arbor with SG being the same (there was .002 movement on the vertical axis but I attributed this to the SG being out of true.) So, I lucked out. But another reminder about the virtue of reading thoroughly. Expediency can come back to bite you. Don't rush.

After sanding the inside of the bushing with 150 grit, slowly, checking for fit so as not to create any biases or wobble, I got a good friction fit and mounted the wheel. Dial indicator seems to indicate it runs true. Used a square and it looked flat, no unintended radius.

I filled the trough and ran it with water and ground a rabbet block plane and it was quick. This is the break in period but my first impression is the speed will suffice. This will need more testing but it is significantly faster. What I liked just as much, though was that it required less pressure for the same speed of cut--this makes life just that more pleasurable. Trumping even that though--it won't wear. There didn't seem to be any residue from the A2, being as it's not quite the HSS CBN seems marketed for (Dave attested to be A2 being ok on CBN--this seems to be the case).

Wear is a major pro in my case. I've become attuned to how quickly med/high alloys wear out the SG, and this has been corroborated by Tormek support. This is probably also due to my inexperience and the extra time I end up putting on it to square a blade I might have favored on one edge and skewed unintentionally--things like that. But with CBN not wearing I don't have to worry about checking and whether the SG being out of true is compounding my own user problems.

I'll reserve judgment as I continue to put it through paces and practice on my tecnique too, but I do like the CBN wheel initially.

I get some honerite gold tomorrow (doing the math, I'm wondering how far each bottle will go...) But drying down the wheel methodically and applying wd-40 (I put some VCI paper, resting on top of it to be particularly pampering) worked flawlessly--not a fleck of rust today when I went back in. My shop is moderately insulated but most of the natural humidity gets in (I'm in Chicago, so it's not awful--but it's also not Arizona)

I'm interested to try the honerite, because that will make it more practical. All, in all, even with the slower than dry speeds--though quicker than factory setup--and the significantly added cost, this looks like it might work. It's fast enough it seems, provided you don't have too many tools (volume), frequency, or major reshaping. And like tormek generally, it's just more pleasant to do wet. And easier I hear.

It's $1000 for a Tormek w/CBN vs $300 for a slow speed rikon with cbn, but the upsides might be worth it...


I guess time will tell!

G

Ken:

Thanks again for your perspective. It is a 180 grit D-Way wheel--correct. I wanted to go with the 80, but it was out of stock. That might be no matter as the 180 is plenty enough and the finer scratch pattern might make it quicker. Had a positive experience ordering. I also liked that it is advertised as being amenable to water-use (with a rush inhibitive)--after-market modifications to things haven't been to kind to me when I try my own hand at it.

It arrived today, so I'll try it out tonight and see how it goes! I will also study up more on sharpening techniques using the Tormek, as well.

Ken:

I can't thank you enough for expounding on your experience/testing in this area to such length. This was extremely informative.

I'm not entirely sure of my workflow/need at this point since I'm relatively new to the hobby. I've had to grind back some back bevels (they are supposed to be easier, no frills to produce a keen edge with out polishing the back much but it seem to dub the edge). I also anticipate that I'll need to occasionally to grind back to the primary bevel if my secondary bevel gets too large from repeated sharpenings. In that sense it really isn't reshaping and I wouldn't see too much grinding because it's just a hobby. I think my needs are probably low comparatively. That's why I opted for a Tormek, because although it's a trade-off in speed to a bench grinder, I felt it wasn't too much of a time sink, and I gained peace of mind with dust and blade heat (though with the cbn on low speed grinders temper is even less of a concern apparently).

My game now is to see if I can speed up the time on a Tormek and find a middle ground in terms of speed. Even if I don't do this again for a while, I know I'll loathe it taking too long when the time comes. It seems to take me half and hr or so of on and off grinding when I tested to regrind to my primary bevel angle--and in this case I had jointed the edge pretty far back to remove a back bevel and there was an out of square edges that were leftover from my first attempt to grind with worksharp as a solution (I really have tried to avoid bench grinding due to fear of heat), which I did not like.

I'm ok with 6 or 7 minutes per for something like that. It sounds like a 3x might get me there. I like the tormek experience and I'm not doing this very often, like you said--which would seem to suggest tormek--so I'm hoping the conclusion isn't just to go to cbn on a low speed bench grinder and return the tormek (save money vs the tormek sticker price, and heating, the main reason I was interested in the home doesn't seem to be an issue with cbn on a low speed grinder with cbn wheel)

I actually sort of rashly ordered a cbn wheel for the tormek before you responded (I can be impatient) but it sounds like I might keep the reducing bushing for the 1" arbor to 12 mm and instead return the cbn and just get a Norton 3x to use wet and see how fast that goes...if it's still too slow then I need to think, like you said, about how little I'll do it in the long run and whether my OCD and impatience is too insistent and I hypervalue time whether I should just get a bench grinder with cbn wheel for heat and save 400 or so over the tormek. My thought is the 3x wheel, like you said, is probably fast enough for the times I'd need to grind.

Ken S: I'd also be interested in how you attached those Norton 3x wheels with the 12mm arbor.

I'm looking to sharpen A2 and PM-V11 irons and chisels, primarily bevel resetting. I've found the SG stone a bit too slow in this department, and was investigating alternatives, including CBN wheels (given that the diamond wheels are not out yet)

How fast will a low-grit CBN cut compared to a SG? I'm between this and switching to a low speed grinder with a CBN for A2 bevel resetting so my time at the wheel isn't too long. What do you guys think? The general opinion might be to just go with the low-speed, but I'm fairly invested in the Tormek, like using it, and have an irrational fear (more or less) on drawing out temper.

Thanks in advance!