Retired a set of CBN wheels

I have been working with some Norway maple lately, and not liking it at all. It was very stringy, and not what I am used to dealing with, but it was off of my property, so I had to put some effort into it. I will admit to being spoiled with turning mostly madrone and myrtle/California Bay Laurel. Anyway, I was ending up with way more tear out than I consider acceptable, and the set of D Way CBN wheels are years old. No idea actually, but some of the first ones Dave was selling, maybe 8 or so years???? I quit production turning 5 or so years ago, but still, they got a very heavy work out, and in the last year or so, regular applications of Trend lapping fluid. I put on another set of wheels that had been laying around for years, and the tool edges were remarkably better, and the cuts cleaner. I couldn't even get clean cuts with honed and burnished burr shear scrapers, or swept back gouge wing shear scraping.... Maybe they do wear out. The bevels I would get with them were more polished looking than what I got off of my 600 grit wheel. I will keep them around and see if I can clean them up some. I did try 300X pictures of the different wheels, and that was not close enough resolution to see differences in grits or loading of the wheels. The Trend seemed to get most of the wood sludge off of the wheels, but I just was not getting the edges I wanted.

robo hippy

Had you tried flipping the wheels over or swapping the wheels from one side to the other? That would change the direction they normally traveled and may work better with a new leading edge for the grit. Just thinking out loud.

Dan, this is an interesting idea. Reed, if you're so inclined to try this, I'm sure at least a few of us here, and probably some vendors, would like to know if it adds life to the wheels. You're in a unique position to test it. :cool: I bet not many turners are likely to wear out their CBN wheels.

Okay, I am officially embarrassed..... I should have thought about flipping the wheels before I swapped them out... I will get around to that eventually.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that since they had been on the grinder for years, it was difficult to loosen up the nuts. Vice grip C clamps, some WD-40, and some elbow grease eventually got them off.... I put a little bit of graphite grease under the nuts this time...

robo hippy

Or club used my grinder when Stuart Batty did an demo and all day class for us. He used the 180 grit side and stated “it sure seems worn”. He did all of his remaining sharpening on the 80 grit wheel. I have had them quite a while. We also have a 180 at the shop that we all used for sharpening. It seemed more like the grit is 320. All the wheels are D-Way and were used more than the average Turner would use them. We have not reversed them.

Glenn Lucas made a comment that after a year, he finds good homes for his CBN wheels. I would think the active life of one would be longer, but I probably never turned as much as Glenn does. It makes me wonder what actually wears out on them. Is it the abrasive particles, or do they just clog up to a point where you can't unclog them...

robo hippy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reed Gray

Glenn Lucas made a comment that after a year, he finds good homes for his CBN wheels. I would think the active life of one would be longer, but I probably never turned as much as Glenn does. It makes me wonder what actually wears out on them. Is it the abrasive particles, or do they just clog up to a point where you can't unclog them...

robo hippy

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You might be able to test this with a good magnifier or microscope. That's an interesting question. I read that the particles fracture with use so I suspect they eventually wear away.

I just put a new wheel on one grinder I'll use just for gouges and not skews. Maybe I can avoid using the corners and compare the middle and edges after some use.

JKJ

Even if they do wear out I am way ahead of using stone wheels. Always round, no balancing and safer. I’ve used two other companies lower priced CBN wheels and D-Way is the best.