Thanks to all that replied. I guess I'll get a white wheel for tool
steel and a med. diamond for carbide. Thanks all for the information.
Dick

--
Richard H. Neighbors
Building and repairing fine billiard cues for real pool players at
affordable prices.
Over 35 years exp. Located in Cincinnati OH
ph.# 513 233-7499
e-mail
web site http://www.dickiecues.com
"Daniel A. Mitchell" wrote in message
...
Dick wrote:

I've got a H/F lathe tool grinder, a copy of a Balder or something.
Any way I have read that the green wheels are for carbide but that you
shouldn't sharpen tool steel on a green wheel. I'm thinking about getting
a diamond wheel to put on this and was wondering if tool steel can be
sharpened on the diamond wheel? Also, which diamond wheel would you get
if you could only get one, coarse, medium or fine? As always, thanks in
advance for your comments. This is by far my favorite forum.
Dick

Most diamond wheels should NOT be used on regular (high speed) grinders to
grind steels. They are fine for carbide. The same is true for the 'green'
Si-Carbide wheels. Grinding steels will soon wreck either type wheel.
Note: ... there are LOW speed diamond wheel grinders that can be used on
steels (Glendo, etc.) ... these are a whole different animal than the so
called 'carbide' grinder you purchased.

For common tool steels you should get a 'white' aluminum oxide wheel.
These are available with the steel backs as required for this type
grinder. MSC has them, as do others.

One thing to watch out for. I bought two of the HF grinders, one for my
home shop, one for university where I work. They are generally
satisfactory, BUT ...

One cast-iron wheel guard on one grinder was bored a bit off center. No
problem with the 'green' wheels provided. I ordered two 'white' wheels
from MSC, and these were about 1/8" larger in diameter. That was perhaps
1/16" too big to fit in the off-center wheel guard.

I solved the problem by unbolting the bad wheel guard and setting it up on
the rotary table on my mill, then milled out the inside of the guard to
approximate concentricity with the mounting hole. Only a small amount
needed to be removed from one side of the guard ... ample thickness
remained. I used a ball-end mill to avoid any sharp stress-riser internal
corners. Now it works fine. This was a minor job for anyone with a mill. I
suppose it could have been done freehand with a die grinder and some care.

Considering that the HF grinder is about half the cost of the other such
imported grinders, it seems a good value, even WITH the added work on one
of four wheel guards. It's a just typical HF (and imported in general)
quality control problem.

Dan Mitchell
============