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[Eugene Dixon]

Randy,
Say hello when you are there. I'll be at the NCWW Forum booth.

[Richard Dooling]

I purchased Ken Rizza's 600 grit. aluminum-body spartan wheel and it is a great value. I also have his 4-in-1 180 grit wheel. It's 1.25" wide and presents a bit more of a mounting challenge if you want to retain the wheel guards. The spartan is 1" wide. I've decided to keep the inner guard and do without the outer guard but lots of people remove the entire guard assembly. I like that the inner guard traps the sparks. I highly recommend the spherical washer set as a solution to wobble. His site has good info on all this.

I installed the 600 grit wheel a couple of days ago. Took a bit of fiddling to get out the side-to-side wobble but it's running nice and true now. The improvement in the scratch pattern is obvious even though this is a brand new wheel and I expect it to get even better with use. I agree that the material removed is minimal. There is no issue with the 600 wheel cleaning up the coarser scratch pattern from the 180 grit wheel.

Tennessee is COLD and WET. It is likely to be a week or more before I can get back to my lathe (arrrggg). After you get your wheel and have a chance to use it a few times please let us know what you think of it.
One of my favorite things about it is that it removes almost no material when sharpening a tool. Because of that I tend to sharpen at the first signs of my gouge loosing its edge. When I have to push the tool or see a little bit of torn wood I take the two steps to my grinder and make a quick touch-up. The tool is so sharp that its actually easy to tell when its loosing its edge.

[Randy Walker]

I wish I could stop by but unfortunatly I will not be able to attend the symposium this year. I am already making plans to attend the Louisville KY event. Maybe Ill see you there.
If you make it to the TAW symposium in January, here in Nashville look me up. Just ask anyone in the maroon shirt with the symposium logo to point me out. I will have one of the shirts on too.

Randy Walker