Messages

Ken,

I did indeed take the plunge, albeit after having the owner of the shop I brought the wheel from doing everything in his power to not let me buy it, as "it simply won't work, and is a stupid idea" according to him.

I am now the proud owner of a 360 grit CBN wheel.  The bushings I brought previously when I was toying with this idea were too long for the wheel I got, which despite being 40mm wide was only 30mm at the bore, so I had to make some extra bushings out of old chopping board (HDPE) which works extremely well to take up the slack space.

All is working well and after an initial test on two or three Bowl Gouges, I'm extremely impressed.  They are cutting fast, as expected when straight out of the pack, and I haven't tried them wet yet, but so far I'm very happy indeed!  The finish on the tool felt perfectly sharp, more so than my SG-200, even when dressed, and cut beautifully.  The scratch marks were very visible, but that's not something that comes into my mind as a concern when woodturning tools, and I imagine this will lessen both with the wheel wearing in, and trialling water on the wheel.

I have some Honerite Gold to try them wet with, do you also have to wipe the wheel down after use it, or do you just drop the trough? 

Something else that's been on my mind is I have some of my grandfather's tools which would be carbon steel based on their age, I have read this can clog or ruin a CBN wheel, is this a real thing I need to be aware of?

Many Thanks

JAck

Ken,

Thank you for your very concise response, I feel much more comfortable now with moving over to a CBN wheel, despite all the naysayers on the woodturning facebook group chiming about "buying a proper grinder to run a CBN". 

After my post, I found I can source the DWC-200 direct from Tormek, although this option is a little hidden away in their webstore, and at £20 difference between a CBN and the DWC-200 price is negligible.

Currently, I am leaning towards an 8" CBN wheel, simply for the reason of if I decide I need to go back to an SG full time on the Tormek for my flat tools then I can just move the CBN wheel over to a dedicated machine; I have a feeling the DWC-200 would not fair well being used at the faster speed of a grinder.

Also thanks for your note on the thirty minute rest period, I also assumed that would be a red herring.  My problem with the T4 as a machine, and my note about wishing I'd brought the T-8, is it seems to be viewed by Tormek as the "poor cousin", and as such, they seem to be purposefully holding back on some top-tier products/wheels i.e. the SB and diamond stones.  In reality, it's a clever marking ploy, however, in my view it just makes me feel a little dismissed.  I love there jigs and am extremely happy with my machine, but I'm disappointed that the T4 seems to get very little love.

Thanks for your advice

Jack

About 3 years ago I brought a Tormek T4 as I started Turning, I've learnt a lot about using it effectively, mainly but using it wrong in the beginning. I do like my Tormek and use it often for both Turning tools and other sharpening duties, having said that I do wish at the time I had waited till I had enough funds to buy a T8, but nevermind.

After a hard life, my SG200 wheel is starting to get down to 6(ish) inches so I think I need to consider replacing it shortly.  With my turning gouges causing dips in the wheel, which requires it to be re-dressed when moving back to sharpening flat blades, I do like the idea of a CBN or Diamond wheel just for my turning tools, and keeping my ageing SG200 until it finally dies for knives etc.

After some research on this site, I've found out the T2's wheels can fit on a T4 which was great news, however, I can't seem to find them for sale over here in England, I do however have easy access to CBN wheels, and reducer bushings.

Please, can someone give me the pros and cons of importing a DWC-200 vs using a readily available CBN wheel?

Thanks for your help

Jack