Wheel for the BGM-100

[Ken S]

I had an unusual situation this week.  The ends of my lawn mower blade were rubbing against the side of the mower.  I'm no expert mechanic.  I ground off a little over 1/8" from each end, put the mower back together, and it worked fine.

This only relates to this site because of the wheel on my grinder.  I use a Norton 3X 46 grit wheel.  It runs cool and cuts very quickly.  I don't use the dry grinder anymore for sharpening; that's the domain of the Tormek.  So, the general advice of an 80 grit wheel doesn't seem to fit. 

If I was going to shape turning tools with my dry grinder, The Norton 46 grit stone would seem (in my opinion) the ideal stone.  It would be very fast.  Used lightly, it should be controllable, also.

The original application for my choice of this wheel was grinding off the mushroom from a couple splitting wedges.  The gray wheel was slow.  The 3X 46 grit did the job quickly.

Comments?

Ken

[Steve Brown]

Rob Cosman takes a Lie-Nielsen plane out of the box and sharpens the blade in 30 seconds. He uses 3 ceramic stones, last one 30,000 grit. He makes a shaving of half a thousandth.
"Rob Cosman Sharpening Plane Blades" on YouTube. If you've see it, care to comment?
Steve

[Ken S]

Steve,

I have seen Rob Cosman's video.  He has a good system.  However, he starts with a very well prepared blade.  I have a Lie-Nielsen chisel chisel which is probably in the top third of chisels for sharpness right out of the box.  A real world blade, with nicks would certainly take longer, as would a blade which required flattening .   While half thou shavings are certainly impressive, it would take a lot of them to flatten a workbench top or fit a swollen door.

Did you happen to notice the price of the three ceramic stones?

In my opinion, the real advantage of the Tormek is more with "the heavy lifting"; blades with nicks and other problems needing more time and effort to correct.

Ken

[Steve Brown]

Hey Ken,
The ceramic stones used by Cosman were 1000, 16000 and 30000. The first two were in the earthly realm but the 30000 was over $300. While I agree that the Tormek is definately an asset in terms of the heavy lifting, I just wonder if there is benefit in going up to 30000. I'm also wondering if Rob Cosman is the real deal or is it all done with smoke and mirrors. I've have seen his through dovetail work and it's really clean. 
Steve

[Ern]

+1 to that wheel. 

There are two bonds; mine's the harder one I think.  It's particularly good on Thompson V10 tools.

Despite the coarse grit it leaves a pretty good finish on the bevel.

[Ken S]

Hi, Ern.  That makes two votes for the Norton 3X 46 grit wheel and none against.  In politicspin, that would be a mandate from the people.

In the back of my mind, I have been wondering how that wheel would work with the Tormek.  I realize that it is designed for a much higher grinding speed, and that it would require some adapting to the Tormek due to the one inch width.  I have not tried mine, as it is for a six inch diameter grinder. I have seen a much earlier post where someone used a regular wheel, however, I have not read where anyone has tried a 46 grit wheel.

Ken

[Ern]

Ken, can't see why you'd bother really as on a bench grinder the 3X runs cool and doesn't clog readily.  Doesn't need water; easy to dress.

The point of 3X is that the grains fracture to expose new, sharp, cutting edges.

This might well depend on the speed of the wheel.