Received my CBN wheels from Ken at Wood Turners Wonders today after what felt like forever (but was only actually 4 days lol) and I am totally blown away.
I was at the point where I was seriously considering dropping a considerable chunk of money on a big old pedestal grinder and a VFD just to try and get a smooth running variable speed grinder. I have a 3 year old 8" Delta variable speed unit that I bought at Lowes.
No matter what I did, I could not get the Norton white wheels that I was running to spin true. The vibration drove me absolutely bonkers and made it very difficult to get a smooth chatter-free grind on a bowl gouge.
So I ordered a pair of CBN wheels from Ken, a 180 & 350. Holy crap what a difference!! It's like I got a brand new grinder AND 2 sweet wheels for 250 bucks. The 350 grit wheel puts such a sharp edge on that Thompson steel I can almost get a finish-ready smooth surface right off the tool! It's unreal. And the 180 is perfect for raising a nice burr on scrapers. The aluminum wheels have a pretty distinct "ring" to them as you grind. I kinda like it lol
I should have bought these things months ago. Now I need to replace the old school carbon steel spindle gouges I learned on with some good high quality Thompson gouges. This is an expensive hobby.