Hello,

I'm of a mind to buy a bench grinder for general sharpening purposes - knives, chisels shears etc, but also to do some polishing/buffing of metal.

a. For sharpening, is a standard dual-wheel unit with one coarse and one fine grit (plus manual dunking in water) be OK, or would a wet/dry machine be worth it?
b. Are the grit sizes likely to be standard as supplied? And is materials choice important?
c. Are 6" grit wheels generally adequate?
d. Is it possible on most machines to easily swap wheels and/or fit buffing discs for polishing, or is there more to it than that? (I'm thinking that replacing a heavy grit wheel with a light buffing disc might not work.)
e. Any advice on makes/models? As a fairly low-usage tool I'm against spending too much.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Regards,

Chris

In article ,
wrote:
Hello,

I'm of a mind to buy a bench grinder for general sharpening purposes -
knives, chisels shears etc, but also to do some polishing/buffing of
metal.

a. For sharpening, is a standard dual-wheel unit with one coarse and one
fine grit (plus manual dunking in water) be OK, or would a wet/dry
machine be worth it? b. Are the grit sizes likely to be standard as
supplied? And is materials choice important? c. Are 6" grit wheels
generally adequate? d. Is it possible on most machines to easily swap
wheels and/or fit buffing discs for polishing, or is there more to it
than that? (I'm thinking that replacing a heavy grit wheel with a light
buffing disc might not work.) e. Any advice on makes/models? As a fairly
low-usage tool I'm against spending too much.

I've got one of those combination wheel and belt jobbies. To me, it's more
useful than a twin wheel type.

--
*Be more or less specific *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 24/07/2015 10:40, wrote:
Hello,

I'm of a mind to buy a bench grinder for general sharpening purposes - knives, chisels shears etc, but also to do some polishing/buffing of metal.

a. For sharpening, is a standard dual-wheel unit with one coarse and one fine grit (plus manual dunking in water) be OK, or would a wet/dry machine be worth it?
b. Are the grit sizes likely to be standard as supplied? And is materials choice important?
c. Are 6" grit wheels generally adequate?
d. Is it possible on most machines to easily swap wheels and/or fit buffing discs for polishing, or is there more to it than that? (I'm thinking that replacing a heavy grit wheel with a light buffing disc might not work.)
e. Any advice on makes/models? As a fairly low-usage tool I'm against spending too much.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Regards,

Chris

I'd say that the classic "workshop grinder" either with two wheels, or
one wheel and a buffer, is one of the more dangerous tools that is
readily available to the untrained DIY-er.

Excuse me if I am wrong, but from your questions it sounds to me as
though you have not had workshop training on grinders.

It's not the right tool for shears at all, IMHO: for those you are
better off with a hand stone, or an angle grinder if they are really
damaged.

For wood chisels, the type with a *low speed* wet disk is ok, you can
also do knives on them although I prefer a static stone and/or diamond laps.

There are several different types of wheel for different materials, grit
size is not the only variable. There is more skill involved in changing
wheels than in changing disks on an angle grinder.

On Fri, 24 Jul 2015 02:40:10 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I'm of a mind to buy a bench grinder for general sharpening purposes -
knives, chisels, shears etc, but also to do some polishing/buffing of
metal.

A grinder will be a bit vicious from knifes and chisels, they really
need hand sharpening on oil stones. Shears you might get away with if
you are *very careful*. For polishing/buffing the rotational speed
used for grinding is far too high.

A grinder is a useful tool but not ideal for sharpening most things.
The only things that get sharpened on mine are the rotary mower blade
and cold/bolster chisels.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Your bog standard bench grinder is OK for cold chisels, drills, general grinding of steel just do not go anywhere near it with a plane iron or wood chisel, you will draw the temper in a blink not to mention the difficulty of producing a sharpened edge perpendicular to the length of the blade.

When the 16" horizontal grinder at my last place of work became uneconomical to repair it was replaced with one of those smaller wet wheel types which seemed to do as good a job as the grinder for putting the sharpening angle in albeit a little more awkward setting up. As far as using the leather strop wheel with grinding paste to put the honing angle on, I cannot say I was impressed and much preferred using my India stone by hand.

Richard

In message o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Fri, 24 Jul 2015 02:40:10 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I'm of a mind to buy a bench grinder for general sharpening purposes -
knives, chisels, shears etc, but also to do some polishing/buffing of
metal.

A grinder will be a bit vicious from knifes and chisels, they really
need hand sharpening on oil stones. Shears you might get away with if
you are *very careful*. For polishing/buffing the rotational speed
used for grinding is far too high.

A grinder is a useful tool but not ideal for sharpening most things.
The only things that get sharpened on mine are the rotary mower blade
and cold/bolster chisels.

Ditto.
I bought a cheapy from Wickes about 4 weeks ago to put an edge on a
rotary mower blade, and again as you say great for taking the mushroom
off bolsters and sharpening them too. I was surprised at how well I did
on the mower blade, not having used a bench grinder for about 40 years!
I feel safer using one of those than an angle grinder!! Not as much fun
though :-)


--
Bill