Bench Grinders

[Bodrighy]

I have come to the conclusion that if I am going to master the art of sharpening my tools properly, with or without a jig, I need something better than my £10 from B&Q" grinder. Having just bought a chuck I am looking at the cheapest I can get and the Perform CCBGDL Wide Stone Grinder seems to be a good buy. Could any of you experts let me know if this is worth getting or should I perservere and save up for something better? (Tormek etc is way outside my scale at the moment)

Pete

 

[CHJ]

Well this is my take on the beast,

And still going strong.

 

[Bodrighy]

Thanks Chas, you sort of confirmed what I was thinking, that the width and quality of the wheels were what are really important. If I can upgrade the wheels even more later on so much the better. I have been practising on my cheapo tools and suspect they are soft steel as I have blued a couple of them. Also I hardly touch the wheel and they are ground too much. Practice, practice, practice. The stuff I want to turn needs really sharp tools though so I am going to have to get the hang of it.

Pete

 

[greybeard]

To your practice practice practice mantra I'd add a patience patience patience one!

I struggled for a long time, just couldn't get the hang of anything other than a simple straight edge. And a multi-faceted gem of a thing it invariably was too! And even if I could get one side nominally single-figure bevelled I'd invariably over-ground that side, so had to grind back the other.....that well-known 3-leg highchair that ends up as the three-legged footstool situation!
And the usual curse of course, of spending an hour's workshop time ('workshop'?... oops!, slipped into fantasyland there briefly - I mean 'garden shed move-out-the-bikes-and-the-mower-and-the-deckchairs time'!), possibly just beginning to get some fluency and confidence, and then having to troll off to the day job!

So I copped out and went the Tormek and jigs route, wincing all the way. And it's worked in a perverse kind of fashion! Reassured that I can achieve a single bevel (oh me of little faith!), with a lot of expensive help, I've been trying my freehand sharpening skills again.

And of course they're rubbish! But they are a better class of rubbish than they used to be, which is a kind of progress. Practice and patience! - one day!!

 

[Anonymous]

Pete, my old B&Q cheapie is still going strong after at least 10 years... it has a white wheel on one side (cost more than the grinder :lol: ) and a grey wheel on the other side, useful for rough grinding axes etc.

I also have the Record with the white wide wheel... it's permanently set for grinding gouges. The perform version, IMO, has a push switch, the record has a rocker switch... with hindsight, I'd have preferred the former :wink:

 

[Bodrighy]

What I was thinking of doing was getting some sort of polishing wheel etc for the cheap grinder. Part of the problem seems to be the narrowness of it. It is plenty powerful enough and sturdy but I seem to get the idea that a wider wheel would be better than the skinny thing that is on it. It is also only 5" dia so things like the skew and chisels need to be ground on the side. If I got the wide, white wheel grinder and set up the old one as a polisher or something it might help. Only thing I need now is a decent shed to get it all into.....the slippery slope gets steeper by the day.

Pete

 

[Anonymous]

... Only thing I need now is a decent shed to get it all into.....the slippery slope gets steeper by the day.

Pete

Sheds, freezers etc all have a common problem... they fill to capacity in a short time :lol:

 

[duncanh]

That Perform grinder is the one I've been using for 3 or 4 years now and it's still going strong. I use the original wheels that came with it.
I use the Tru Grind jig for everything except roughing gouges, for which I use a home made system that I'll try to photograph sometime.

Duncan

 

[wood yew believe it !]

pete, im not 100 per cent on this mate but im sure i heard once that you should never grind on the side of a wheel, something to do with messing up the integrity of the wheel internally (even though you cant see it) and that they can eventually xplode and shatter, not a good day out! serious injury etc blah blah, maybe an old sweat could either confirm or dispell this. like i said only something in the back of me little walnut telling me this.

and as for sheds, well i two yrs ago got the biggest i could afford, 20 ft by 8ft, and the management(missus) has still managed to 3/4 fill it with fridges, potting stuff,this, that an the other!! just yesterday with the good weather had a ruddy good turf out, oh my, got me some room back again now, gonna fill it quick with wood to dry etc b4 she does lol :roll:

 

[Paul.J]

WYBI.
You are correct.
Grinding heavily on the side of the stone is dangerous.Think it's because this is the weaker part of the stone :?: :?:
A friend of mine spent all day in hospital when a stone shattered on him from grinding on the side,a guard was fitted apparently on the machine but wearing no goggles,lucky to have his sight still.
BE CAREFUL.
Paul.J.

 

[NickWelford]

I'll second that - be very very careful about applying any pressure on the side of the wheel - especially the softer white wheels. It's OK for very light pressure flattening, but they can easily shatter with anything more.