Shaping molding irons

[Judson Green]

I've got some slip stones for sharping, but what about for the shaping or if the cutters are really out of wack? Gonna be buying a 6" bench grinder very soon. I know I could use the edge of the wheel for some cutters, but others (like beading cutters) wouldn't seems to work that way.

Are there thinner wheels available? How about using a cut off wheel?

[Chris Griggs]

A dremel or other rotary tool works well. You can also get ultra thin grinding wheels for a bench grinder. http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/s...m/NO-EXTRAG.XX

I bought a harlequin half set of H&Rs recently and have just been using my dremel to regrind the hollows, but all mine are in quite good shape. I should get one of thin wheels but haven't bothered yet...if yours need heavy reshaping the thin wheel on the bench grinder seems like it would be the way to go.

[george wilson]

I recommend a thin wheel for the bench grinder. You can easily dress a 1/4" thick wheel to whatever shape you need. This is what they used in the millwork shop to grind shaper knives. And,that was removing a LOT of metal compared to a normal molding plane,and HSS at that.

Buy a single point diamond dresser. They are pretty cheap,being bort diamonds,and you can cut a wheel to pieces with one.

The trouble with Dremels is they have a weak plastic tube that couples the motor and the chuck. And,it lets go easily and needs replacing. I haven't used my Dremel hard at all,and it's broken down. I've gone to a hand held die grinder. Mine is a vintage Fairchild I picked up at a flea market. Makita makes one too. My favorite is my 1/10 H.P.,10,000 RPM Dumore. They have much superior bearings to Dremels and the Makita,too. But,they aren't real cheap.

In a pinch,you could use the motor part of a laminate trimmer. Be careful turning routers on. Back in 1963 I had one twist out of my hand and go straight down to the concrete floor,just missing my body. It turned vertical from the gyroscopic effect. It spun half of the 1/2" bit off on the concrete before I could get the plug out.

I haven't used routers much at all for many years. Such mess makers. I just have a few jobs I use them on.

[Warren Mickley]

I use a coarse India slip stone for shaping and sharpening.

[Judson Green]

Thanks Chris and Warren

And thanks George.

I think I'll get the thin wheel. I have a dremel type tool (didn't buy it, but adopted from another woodworker) and I'm sure it would work, but in the long run I feel I'd be better off with a thin wheel. I did recently use it to sharpen my bandsaw blade, I think it worked pretty well for that. Also have a laminate router, never would have thought to use it for grinding the cutters. I have used it (along with a shop built jig) for sharping the knives on my old jointer.

[David Weaver]

The other thing you can use is a silicon carbide cone with a 1/8" drive, like would be used in the grinder type that george is talking about. But put it in a drill press or a lathe.

When you reshape a hardened moulding plane iron, you should only have to do it once, and then be able to keep the iron in shape with an india split. Anything moulding plane that doesn't have a straight iron, to me, is a plane to be used somewhat carefully and set up carefully so as not to need to hone it any more than necessary.

The hollow is the plane of trouble. When making H&Rs, I've always been careful to file the bevel of the iron as well as possible before hardening, so little of anything else is needed afterwards (or at least as little as possible of it).

I got a kit (two actually) similar to this from HF, but it had two larger cones in, one being al-ox and the other silicon carbide - it makes almost no difference for O1 steel.

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece...set-94992.html

Unfortunatley, this only has one wheel in it. I shape the cones a little sharper with a diamond truing tool.

[Judson Green]

Thanks David.

This is for the molding cutters that I got with my Stanley 45, a few beads and one wavy job. And of course I'd like to add others to the collection, perhaps make my own.

[Judson Green]

Of the thin wheels that Joel sells, if you where to buy only one, which one would it be? The ¼" or ⅛"?

To my way of thinking the ⅛" would not need to be dressed for different profiles, but might be more difficult to get a consistent hollow. And I guess I feel that the ¼" would get rounded (like for a beading profile) then I'd probably keep it that way, thus using only the center of the wheel.

For my application this is shaping/sharping already hardened irons. I have slip stones for honing.

Thoughts?

[David Weaver]

1/8", i guess. You're not going to be grinding moulding plane irons often, but beads and the very small hollows are really really small sometimes.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I must say, I did not know you could get a grinding wheel as thin as 1/8". Isn't that a bit hazardous? Seems it would be more likely to explode on you, or perhaps it's the other way around- less inertia? I may have to get one of those wheels.

I literally just walked in the door with my new Veritas beading tool in hand. I had hoped the stock profiles they offer would fit the beads on my trimwork, but it seems they are smaller, so I will be grinding my own. I will probably just use a file since it is a simple single bead, and the scraper blades are much thinner than moulding cutters. By the way, this thing is much heftier than I thought it would be. I thought it was closer to the size of their spokeshaves, but it is much larger than that.

[David Weaver]

I don't know, seems thin to me, too, but if one of the main line manufacturers is making it, it's probably fine.

[Steve Voigt]

I'd rather get the 1/4. If you have a diamond dresser like George was talking about, you can create a 1/8 thick (or thinner) section very quickly, then trim it off later. But if you want to make a wide hollow, or something along those lines, it will be harder to do with the 1/8 wheel, much easier with the 1/4.

[Mel Fulks]

We've had some wheels that were less than 1/16 . I think the more narrow wheels are mesh reinforced.

[Judson Green]

It does appear to be mesh reinforced, the darker one, ⅛". I wonder if it is a cut off wheel.

NO-EXTRAGXX_A_big.jpg
Lifted from TFWW.

For the life of me, I can not find any reference to part number (103201169, on the ⅛" wheel in TFWW's photo) any where on Norton's site, in print/text. I do however, in Norton's PDF find wheels with very similar numbering, but only in pictures. And of that category, assuming I'm in the right category, I see nothing that is 24 grit, the lowest/coursest being 36.


Screenshot_2014-06-04_20-11-39.jpg
Lifted from Norton's PDF.

Gonna havta email the man, I'm sure there's a explanation.