Which CBN Wheel for Tormek?

[Greg McClurg]

I'm thinking about changing to a CBN wheel for my Tormek, and wondering what grit would be best? I can do all my shaping on my grinders so this would be more for putting a really sharp edge on my turning tools and carving chisels. Suggestions?

Thanks,
Greg

[Reed Gray]

They do have diamond wheels for the Tormek now, though not sure where they are sold. Due to the slow speed of the Tormek, there is no heat build up so the diamond is fine. I think they go up to 1200 grit.

robo hippy

[Dave Mueller]

Greg,
I have been using a Woodturners Wonders 10" 600 grit CBN wheel for my Tormek since April 2016, and I love it. I can sharpen a gouge with two passes, and it leaves a very smooth surface. You cannot reshape a grind with this grit, so I have an 80 grit CBN on another 1800 rpm grinder if that is necessary. The link to the CBN wheel is https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/tormek-style-wheels/products/spartan-10-cbn-wheel-5-8-arbor. It is slightly different than the one I have, as mine has an aluminum body, whereas this one looks to be HDPE. Give them a call to check it out.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I also have the Woodturners wonders 600 grit since it came out and I love that too. I do have the blackstone wheel, so what little shaping I do, I use that. For regular re-shaping I have an extra f bar and the bench grinder mount....... No experience with other grits, but the 600 does re-sharpen as fast as the blackstone I think. Much better surface. Didn't even know others offered a wheel. I'm extremely happy with the 600 grit.

[John K Jordan]

I'm thinking about changing to a CBN wheel for my Tormek, and wondering what grit would be best? I can do all my shaping on my grinders so this would be more for putting a really sharp edge on my turning tools and carving chisels. Suggestions?


Greg,

It might depend on how you use it. I bought a 600 grit CBN wheel for my Tormek and it was not fine enough for spindle and spindle detail gouges to suit me. I use a 1200 grit wheel now and it's a lot better. (When I bought the 1200 grit wheel there evidently wasn't much call for them so it required a custom order - Woodturners Wonders now has them on the menu and keeps them in stock so I assume others are buying them now.)

However, 1200 or even 600 grit might be tedious to use when shaping tools instead of sharpening due to the slower speed, especially after the wheel is "broken in". (The wheels tend to be much more aggressive until the rogue particles wear off.)

The way I work now: reshape tools with an 80 grit CBN, sharpen scrapers and skews and some other tools on a 600 grit, both on bench grinders. I sharpen spindle gouges and small detail bowl gouges and sometimes other tools on the 1200 grit CBN on the Tormek, honing/polishing afterwards.

If you don't need razor blade edges on spindle gouges for detailed work you will probably be happy with the 600 grit. For me, it's perfect for bowl gouges. I'd use the 1200 for the skews except the 600 on the bench grinder is faster and it's easy enough to hone a razor-sharp edge on the straight cutting edge of a skew.

JKJ

[Alex Zeller]

Is there any advantage other than cost to go with CBN vs a Tormek diamond wheel? It looks like a 600 grit diamond wheel will cost you $300. The CBN wheel talked about above is going to cost you $200 and you can't grid on the side of the wheel (if that's an issue for you). The diamond wheel will sharpen carbide (I'm not sure if CBN can) if you want to try and sharpen vs replace inserts.

[Greg McClurg]

Thanks everyone for the replies. For the majority of my turning tools my 180 and 350 grit CBN's work fine. I was thinking something more around the 1,000 grit just to polish a tool when necessary and thought a higher grit would be better for my carving chisels. I haven't done much sharpening with my carving chisels so maybe 600 grit would be fine.

[John K Jordan]

... The diamond wheel will sharpen carbide (I'm not sure if CBN can)...

We have ground carbide on CBN.

[Reed Gray]

I did a few carbide bits on one old set of CBN wheels, not the micro grained stuff, and it really wore them down. As for the diamond vs CBN, I don't know, but Glenn Lucas says with the CBN wheels, he finds them a good home after a year. With the diamond wheel, after a year, it still cut like new.

robo hippy

[Pat Scott]

I have a 320 grit CBN from Woodturners Wonders for my Tormek and wish I had bought the 220 grit instead.

Glenn Lucas says diamond cuts better at slow speed (Tormek), and CBN cuts better at high speed (dry grinder). Also a diamond wheel can be run in water and it won't rust or damage the wheel. Woodturners Wonders says do not use water with their CBN wheels or it will void the lifetime warranty. If you use water you're supposed to dry off the wheel after each use. Yeah right, that will never happen. I have used my CBN with water since I bought it to keep the metal fillings from sticking to the end of the gouge. Water also helps dampen the ringing noise that happens when you sharpen towards the edge of the wheel. Yes my wheel rusted but it still cuts. Last year I started using ProGold in the water which is a rust inhibitor. The rust is gone off the wheel and now I don't have to worry about the wheel sitting in water. I will say that before I started using ProGold I had a couple spots on the edge of my wheel where the CBN chipped off. I don't think Ken at WW will cover my wheel under his lifetime warranty now.

[John K Jordan]

...I have used my CBN with water since I bought it to keep the metal fillings from sticking to the end of the gouge. ...

If the filings are sticking to the gouge when the wheel is turning away from the edge (sharpening from the front) the tool may be magnetized. I keep an old bulk tape eraser near my sharpening station to demagnetize tools (and knife blades).

Lathe and other tools can become magnetized with simple use, no magnetic field needed other than that from the earth.

JKJ

[Randy Heinemann]

I have the 600 grit Tormek diamond wheel and love it. It is great for maintaining edges on gouges (with their jig). The 600 grit seems to be all that is needed.

The nice thing about the Tormek's gouge jig and diamond wheel is that the jig also has a jig for sharpening carbide cutters.I have resharpened my Easy Wood round cutters several times and the result seems to be that they are at least as sharp as brand new. After doing all my turning with carbide insert tools when I started a couple of years ago, I now use these (mostly Easy Wood tools) to rough out different parts of bowls. The round cutter works great for the inside and, since I am able to sharpen them on my diamond wheel, I don't have to buy new ones each time they dull. The result is much better than merely honing the flat side of the cutters on a diamond plate. I would recommend the Tormek 600 grit diamond wheel for ongoing maintenance of the edges. To grind a new angle would be excruciatingly slow with a Tormek 600 grit wheel though.