80/180 or 80/350 CBN, am I over thinking it?

[Damon McLaughlin]

I recently sold a couple of my turnings and just placed an order from Ken for two CBN wheels a few days ago. I had meant to order the 80/180 grits as that seems to be the most popular combination. I just realized today that I actually ordered the 80 and 350 grit wheels. I'm wondering if this is still a good combination or should I return the 350 and get the 180 as I had intended to order. My understanding is that the 180 produces an edge good for most turning needs. I read that the edge from a 350 wheel may be sharper but won't last as long as one that came off of a 180 wheel. I turn green and dry wood, spindles, bowls and platters. Is there that much of a difference in real world experience between the 180 and 350?

Last year I received my father's Tormek 2000 which has a 600 grit CBN wheel. With this setup being able to get me a finer edge when I need it I just wonder if the 180 makes more sense. Keep the 350 or exchange for the 180? Am I just overthinking this?

D.

[Roger Chandler]

The 350 grit will give you a keen edge.....great for a good surface off the tool. For roughing bowls, etc, you will have to sharpen more often, I think. You can always rough with the 80 grit grind, and do the last pass with a freshly sharpened 350 grit edge, which will help minimize sanding if you use shear cutting/scraping.

[Reed Gray]

Well, difficult call here. Since you already have a 600 grit on the Tormek, then you don't need one for your standard grinder, unless you want an extra one. The 180 does fine for 90% of your turning needs as in a good edge for finish cuts, and raising a good burr for heavy duty scraper cuts and shear scraping. No experience with the 350 grit wheels. It will raise a finer burr and have a better edge for difficult woods, but probably more durable for cutting than the 600 grit wheel. Best burr for shear scraping is the burnished burr.

robo hippy

[John Keeton]

I have only one CBN - the 180. It does all I need for it to do. Were I to get another it would be the 80. Personally, I don’t see the 350 doing anything for me, but then, I don’t bother honing my gouges either. A keener edge will always break down quicker and for my needs I can produce a fine enough cut with the 180 edge and sanding is minimal.

Flatwork tools are a different category and I sharpen those to 2000 and hone with compound.

[Bill Blasic]

I have two sets both 80 & 180, the 180 gets my tools as sharp as I need them while not taking a lot of metal off the tools. The 80 is mostly used for scrapers.

[roger wiegand]

I just got my first CBN, a 180. I think I'm in love.

I'm thinking seriously about a second one for the other side, so that I can leave my Wolverine jig set up for the bowl gouge on one side and the platform on the other. I don't see a compelling need for either a finer or coarser grit at this point. It's easy enough to give a skew a swipe with a stone to hone the edge better than the 180 finish, other tools seem quite good as-is.

[John K Jordan]

I recently sold a couple of my turnings and just placed an order from Ken for two CBN wheels a few days ago. I had meant to order the 80/180 grits as that seems to be the most popular combination. I just realized today that I actually ordered the 80 and 350 grit wheels. I'm wondering if this is still a good combination or should I return the 350 and get the 180 as I had intended to order. My understanding is that the 180 produces an edge good for most turning needs. I read that the edge from a 350 wheel may be sharper but won't last as long as one that came off of a 180 wheel. I turn green and dry wood, spindles, bowls and platters. Is there that much of a difference in real world experience between the 180 and 350?

Last year I received my father's Tormek 2000 which has a 600 grit CBN wheel. With this setup being able to get me a finer edge when I need it I just wonder if the 180 makes more sense. Keep the 350 or exchange for the 180? Am I just overthinking this?

D.

David,

FWIW, I have an 80, 220, and 600 on bench grinders and one on a Tormek with either a 600 or 1200 wheel.

-> The 600 grit is my most used wheel on the bench grinders, for skews, roughing gouges, scrapers, card scrapers, etc.

The 600 grit wheel on a grinder is a different animal than that on the Tormek. Since the speed of the grinder is much higher it will take off steel much faster than the Tormek with the same grit. I use the grinder to sharpen all of my spindle gouges since I sharpen by hand without a jig. The Tormek is so much slower to remove metal that using the skew jig there takes significantly longer with even a minor misalignment.

-> I haven't used the intermediate 220 grit wheel for a while and haven't really missed it. I removed the Wolverine base to reposition it and haven't gotten to putting it back.

-> I do use the 80 grit wheel, primarily for shaping new tools and reshaping old, especially scrapers. I'd hate to be without it.

I do think that the type of turning might make a difference. If primarily turning bowls I'd probably go with the 180 or 220 wheel. For finer work and smaller work I'd want at least the 350 or 600 grit wheel on the grinder. For my spindle gouges and small bowl gouges I loves me the 1200 grit wheels on the Tormek, the 600 grit as my second choice - still an excellent Tormek wheel.

I'd love to have a second Tormek for the water wheel. I might need a longer sharpening station though....

Tormek_CBN.jpg

JKJ

[Damon McLaughlin]

JKJ, your grinding station is about as big as my shop! The grinder on the far right, is that a buffing pad attached on the right side for honing? I like your bins for the smaller pieces of wood, I use plastic tubs as well for smaller pieces of wood and scraps. I just can't seem to throw wood away and eventually I find a use for all those scraps.

[Damon McLaughlin]

Thank you guys for all your feedback. My CBN wheels arrived yesterday from Ken and they look great. I did call Ken after the wheels showed up and asked him if I could return the 350 for the 180 grit and he said absolutely as he wants to make sure all his customers are satisfied. But then he went on to tell me that on his personal grinder he found the 80 and 350 to be his ideal set up and suggested I keep the 350 for a while and use it. If I decided it wasn't the right wheel for me he would let me change it out. So with that I installed both 8" wheels on my 1/2 hp slow speed grinder. It takes a few seconds for the wheels to come up to speed but once going they spin quite true with a little hum from the motor. I sharpened a couple of my scrapers and am very very happy with the 350, though I know the wheel is a bit coarse when its new and will settle in. Later this evening I'll try re-shaping a tool on the 80, I may try one of my scrapers on the 80 as well to see what that burr looks like. One note, it takes forever for the wheels to stop spinning.

When I placed my order I had talked to Ken about the Tornado 600 grit CBN wheel that I had on my Tormek. Its 2" wide but I could only use the center 1" of the wheel for grinding. Any time I got towards the edge the wheel would resonate and make a piercing loud sound. Ken said this wasn't normal so when he shipped my 8" CBN wheels he included a replacement 800 grit wheel for the Tormek. I'm mentioning this because I am very very impressed and satisfied with Ken's level of customer service and feel that its worth mentioning. The replacement wheel he sent is the Spartan model for the Tormek with the nylon wheel. It is a much quieter wheel and does not have any of the resonating sound whatsoever and now I can use the entire width of the wheel. I have been toying with the idea of selling my Tormek since I have the 80/350 set up on the bench grinder. I'm not sure yet. I do like to sharpen my plane irons and chisels on the Tormek but I don't do that very often. I've decided to put the Tormek in the cabinet and if I haven't touched it in three or four months then I probably will post it here in the classifieds.

Anyway, thank you all again for your input. Its appreciated as always.

David

[John K Jordan]

JKJ, your grinding station is about as big as my shop! The grinder on the far right, is that a buffing pad attached on the right side for honing? I like your bins for the smaller pieces of wood, I use plastic tubs as well for smaller pieces of wood and scraps. I just can't seem to throw wood away and eventually I find a use for all those scraps.

Hi David. I use the polishing wheel for various metal things but not for lathe tools.

All those little pieces of wood are the "good" trimmings from the bandsaw, everything from walnut and cherry to cocobolo and ebony, from very thin to 1/2" or so thick. I'm surprised at how often I use them but I'm getting WAY too many! A art teacher friend is coming next week - I told her about the little pieces of wood and she got excited.

Another thing I've done for art classes is cut pieces of 1/2" radiata pine plywood, white and smooth on one side, not bad on the other. I make squares and rectangles about 5-8" on a side and sand the edges a bit. Kids LOVE to draw on wood with pencils and markers. I got the idea when my grandson saw some squares of ply in the shop and asked if he could draw on one.

Alex_portrait_IMG_20150417_102011_473-1_e.jpg

This was a self portrait, age about 4. He said he had fire coming out of his feet and lightning from his hands. Not long after that I tool a box full to his pre-school class.

JKJ

[Peter Blair]

Roger this setup is what I have and I see no reason for anything else BUT with the advancement in designs now i would have like to have one with square corners and grit around the side on the wheel I use with my Robo Rest!