Woodturners And The Grinder: Set It Up For Sharpening

One of the first things a woodturner needs to learn is how to sharpen woodturning tools. This is different than the sharpening of most other tools in the workshop but it is neither difficult nor expensive to setup and learn.

Many woodturners come form a background of flat wood work where chisels and planes are common tools. These require frequent sharpening although not as frequently as do wood lathe tools. However, the sharpening implements used for most tools are not used for lathe tools. The razor edge left by water stones or sandpaper systems and the like will not hold up to the abuse of quickly spinning rough wood, especially if there is grit in the bark. Woodturners move to the grinder and from the grinder to the lathe.

Most workshops have a grinder used to remove nicks in plane irons or chisels and the like. This can be altered to become a woodturner's sharpening station. First of all the wheels need to be replaced. For odd reasons of the metallurgical world harder wheels are needed for softer steels and vice versa. In terms of the workshop, this means that those grey carborundum wheels that came with the grinder need to be replaced with aluminum oxide to accommodate the high speed steel of most woodturning tools as opposed to the high carbon steel of other woodworking tools.

While a lot of space is giver over to the color and softness of the grinding wheels for high speed steel, color is added to aluminum oxide for the convenience of the manufacturer and most wheels available to the home workshop are sufficiently soft to be effective. In fact, the very expensive wheels promoted by many woodturners and woodturning suppliers are very soft which prevents overheating but wear quickly and need quick frequent replacement. Since overheating is not a problem with high speed steel, this is more an advantage for the seller than the buyer of expensive grinding wheels.

Now that aluminum oxide wheels are on the grinder with one of coarse grit around forty to fifty for shaping tools and one of fine grit around eighty to one hundred for shaping tools, it is necessary to think of holding the tools for sharpening. Usually the tables on home shop grinders are too small and not easily adjustable for good use. Replace them with either good after market tables or home made ones. An excellent idea is to use a table under the coarse wheel for heavy reshaping and a sharpening jig under the fine wheel for regular sharpening. If the grinder will still be used for other types of tools in the shop, frequent cleaning will necessary and a dresser should be used.

With these simple and inexpensive changes to the grinder, woodturners will be ready to meet the challenges of needing sharp tools. All that is needed is to enjoy the sharpening process amid the delight of turning wood.

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