"Rick Samuel" wrote in message
...
Have an old grinder that has seen better days, it has 6" wheels. Have a
Jet 1014 on order.
Anyone have ideas as to what to replace my grinder with? The low speed,
(70 to 400) wet, looks like a good idea. Comments welcome. Thanks in
advance.


Something with good bearings that runs true. I wouldn't (actually, don't)
keep water around the woodshop unless I had a far corner, which would make
it pretty inconvenient. My Makita comes out to do planer or jointer knives,
jazz the plane irons, then back into the box. Makes a lovely edge.

Two ways of getting steel off the bar - grit and speed. For general shop
use, the slow speed is certainly more useful for carbon steel in chisels,
plane irons and such. Just put the coarse wheel on, or use the belt sander
when the axe or lawnmower needs work. It's also going to remove less per
second than the high speed if you use the wheel rather than the hone to
freshen your edges. Since it's slow speed, you won't need one of those
soft wheels that dish when you look at them cross-eyed and disappear rapidly
as you try to dress them back into usefulness.

Workshop grinders are one place where size really doesn't seem to matter.