reccomend an affordable tool grinder?

[Brian Peters]

for chisels, lathe tools, etc.. I just can't see spending $300 on a simple grinder setup but need to ditch the cheap two wheel grinder I have :D

[george wilson]

Grizzly's knife grinder would grind much faster than any wheel grinder,if you don't mind buying belts. I get 2"X72" belts pretty reasonably on Ebay. The blue zirconia are the best.

I don't have the Grizzly.Have a Wilton,but they are very expensive. A friend has the Grizzly. I wish the Grizzly had a shroud over the belt to contain dust,like the Wilton square wheel grinder does. I advise making a shroud because,if you ever buy any of the very thin mylar belts,those super fine mylar belts are violent when they get cut,or break. Sure would hate to be cut by the edge of a mylar belt. Never had a cloth belt break,or get cut.

The mylar belts are probably not what you would get.They go way down to 9 micron grit. If you ever use one,never hold a knife edge upwards against one,like you normally do when making a knife. The mylar is as thin as a sheet of paper,and will get cut instantly from a fairly sharp edge.

[Jim Becker]

I use an inexpensive 8" grinder with Norton 3x wheels and the OneWay balancing system for my turning tools. I never get (flat work) chisels nor plane irons anywhere near a grinder...those are sharpened on water stones in my shop.

[george wilson]

I dip the tool in water,grind,when the water sizzles,quench at once. When the edge is getting thin,usually about 2 seconds between dips. It takes careful technique to use a dry grinder. A belt grinder is better about heat,but use the same wetting to see when the tool is getting hot. A tempered tool is usually tempered at about 400 degrees. Rapid dipping when water sizzles isn't going to be more than 250 degrees or less. BUT,you do have to be careful!! I use a wet stone too,but for most of my life didn't have one,and did fine,but,again,you must know how to grind.

[Ken Werner]

Woodcraft sells an 8" slow speed [1750 rpm] dry grinder with 2 good white wheels that are ready to go out of the box. WC sometimes has it on sale with free shipping - it can be had for about $85 or so. I think it is a good machine and an excellent value. We use it for lathe tools, chisels and plane blades. The tool rests are pretty good. It has no lamp.

[Dave Cav]

I don't like to spend a lot of time sharpening. I use the Lee Valley sander/grinder for pretty much everything. After I shape the bevel and do the initial sharpening with the blue belt it came with, I use a hard felt wheel (turning away from me) and the green honing compound for the final hone. Once the tools are sharpened, usually all you need to do is a quick hone on the felt wheel to bring an edge back to life. On my own chisels and irons I do use the scary sharp method to initially flatten the back on plane irons and chisels, but that only needs to be done once, thank goodness. At school, I use the side of the felt wheel on the backs.

This is (IMHO) a simple, fast, great system. I use it at home and at my high school shop; I even was able to teach one of my students to sharpen butt and lathe chisels and gouges and he had a great time showing the other guys how he could shave the hair off his arm with one of our ratty old Stanley black plastic handle chisels.

Dave C