First try a quality wheel something like WA60KV or WA120 KV for finer work. (the 120 will burn quicker than the 60 if you need to move metal rough with the 60). Best make another arbour for the wheels.

I have a diamond wheel on my bench grinder and find it to grind HSS well if only touching up or adding small chamfer/radius. Never tried CBN so will watch this thread to see how others get on with it.

Diamond is reputed to have a bad effect on HSS but I'm not sure how real this is especially for the amateur where the amounts of material being removed are very small – not like grinding the flutes in a cutter blank! I have a diamond cup wheel on my Quorn, the type where the abrasive is embedded in plastic, it seems to work fine. You also get diamond impregnated steel disks occasionally of a useful size.

CBN is excellent, works for both TC and HSS, but expensive. I bought a CBN wheel for my ELU bench grinder to work with my Acute grinding system – available from Axminster and The Toolpost – I bought mine from the latter.

I find that diamond wheels are great for putting a fine finish on HSS.

If I need to shape a tool I will use a coarse grinding wheel first. There is some talk of diamond wheels being eaten by steels (the fact that steel contains carbon and so does diamond) but this has not been my experience, I have been using mine for a couple of years now and they are still going strong.

To answer the original question I have not yet dressed any of the diamond wheels though I probably should.

I really must rig up some kind of dust extraction.

David.

Use Diamond for Carbide and CBN for HSS.

Also use good quality wheels (we used Norton Abrasives for our standard grinding wheels).

Nick

Hi,

Just a quick comment — CBN doesn't need to be expensive. After a tip off from a friend I have been using new old stock from ebay sellers from ex Soviet Union locations, a cost effective source of CBN. I have a number of Ø125mm wheels and the costs were between US$20-30 per wheel with free post. I use them on HSS I also purchased a "1200grit" CBN low speed lapping wheel which makes no mess for keeping tools razor sharp. For Carbide I use Diamond from the typical hobby suppliers, none of which are cost effective for CBN. I whole heartily recommend CBN for HSS, it does a wonderful job with the minimum of mess.

I would like to get advice of which of CBN or diamond is most appropriate for stellite. Even at the prices stated I want them to last as long as practical.

Steve

I think I may have already said this on another thread, so sorry if I am being repetitive…but I have a Glendo Diamond tool sharpening machine that my father bought from the states back in the eighties. It came with diamond wheels in three grits, the finest being 1800 grit. They supplied two of those since apparently these are likely to wear out first. I say apparently since all the wheels are still working fine. These are slow turning wheels, used with a supplied detergent, diluted with a lot of water. So I would say there is no problem with the life of diamond wheels, at least used in this way with coolant. So far as I know, the diamond is embedded in a nickel based matrix. I have mostly used them to sharpen HSS lathe tooling, with the odd carbide tool as well.

The fine wheel gives a mirror finish on the faces of lathe cutting tools. I think a wheel of this type, used at a suitable speed, with coolant would be great on a tool and cutter grinder like a Quorn or similar.

Joihn

ebay.com and sellers from ukraine.