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Grinder rotation

B

Bob R

Joined
Dec 6, 2005
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Location
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I just purchased a new wheel for my grinder and it came with a note saying to always make sure that the rotation of the wheel is going away from the tool i'm sharpening. My grinder is quite old and the direction is towards my tool. I can't reverse the guards, so my question is are there grinders out there with the correct rotation or was the note that came with the wheel wrong. Any help or suggestions on grinders would be helpful.

Thanks in advance
Bob
 
Bob I've seen strip sanders that you use with the belt turning so that it runs up but in all my years of playing with many, many grinders I've never seen one that spins with the wheels going up. I've always sharpened my tools with the wheel spinning down with no problems. Can't say it would hurt anything. When sharpening and honing carving tools many people rig up a grinding/honing system with the wheels spinning up. This keeps from rounding the edge.
 
What kind of grinder do you have and what kind of wheel did you get? That can make a big difference in the answer. If it is a honing wheel, then the rotation should always be away from the tool. Or, perhaps it is a water wheel. If you are talking about the typical dry bench grinder that runs at 1750 or 3550 RPM and the wheel is silicon carbide or aluminum oxide, then I do not understand the requirement. Also, is it a wheel specifically made for your type of grinder?

Bill
 
Bill, the grinder is an old Black & Decker Jr.and the wheel is a felt wheel. I talked to customer support person at Lee Valley who told me to use the bottom part of the wheel. I guess I'll make a jig.

Thanks for the help.
Bob
 
Felt Wheel?

and the wheel is a felt wheel
Click to expand...
That means your going to us it for honing;

support person at Lee Valley who told me to use the bottom part of the wheel
Click to expand...
That is exactly what was done in the turning class I took. The tool was held to the wheel with the handle up so the wheel was turning away from cutting edge rather than into it.

An earlier thread (MDF for Honing) has a pointer to an article by Alan Lacer on honing
http://www.alanlacer.com/pdf/ Honing.pdf
 
Bob,

The fact that it is a felt wheel is a very important bit of information. Now that we know that it is a honing wheel, you always hone away from the edge. There are a couple very good reasons for honing away from the edge -- if you were to hone towards the edge, it would round it over ever so slightly and more important is that the tool would be cutting with the wheel coming towards the edge. In that case especially with a soft felt wheel, it would not be possible to keep the edge from digging into the felt. Next, the tool would be doing cartwheels across the shop.

BTW, it is possible to reverse the rotation of your grinder motor if you feel the inclination to take it apart and dig into it. The motor will have a run and a start winding and usually the start winding can be identified by its connection to a centrifugal switch. To reverse the rotation, it is necessry to identify the two leads of the start winding and swap their connections. Probably, you will also want to be able to run it in both directions which will require a DPDT switch to have the start winding either in the normal forward rotation connection or the reverse rotation connection.

Bill
 
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