Building Harold Hall's Simple Grinding Rest

[mattthemuppet2]

lovely work, I keep meaning to make a better rest for my grinder too. I second the suggestion for a better wheel. If you can get 2 wheels a 30 to 60 grit for roughing/ shaping and a 100 grit for finishing will work well. I only have 1 grinding wheel on mine, so went with a 100 grit Norton wheel and it works very well. I can always use an angle grinder for shaping

Also, chisels are often ground using the end of the wheel, holding the chisel at the top. That gives a hollow grind that works well with chisels. Grinding on the side will give you a flat grind, which is stronger but you won't be able to get it as sharp.

 

[stioc]

Time to get yourself a cup wheel. Dressed surfaces do so much better than the sides of a standard wheel. Set up that rest to work like this pic, and you've really got something:

lovely work, I keep meaning to make a better rest for my grinder too. I second the suggestion for a better wheel. If you can get 2 wheels a 30 to 60 grit for roughing/ shaping and a 100 grit for finishing will work well. I only have 1 grinding wheel on mine, so went with a 100 grit Norton wheel and it works very well. I can always use an angle grinder for shaping

Also, chisels are often ground using the end of the wheel, holding the chisel at the top. That gives a hollow grind that works well with chisels. Grinding on the side will give you a flat grind, which is stronger but you won't be able to get it as sharp.

Thanks guys. I'm a total grinding newbie so I'm just soaking up all the feedback. Sounds like a cup wheel will be more useful (than say a flared or these disc wheels)? Is there any reason to even have disc wheels? I do use them for grinding tungsten rods for tig welding but I could use my belt+disc sander for those.

Perhaps I'll buy one cup and one flared wheel - and hopefully those two will cover everything I could possibly want to grind? I could buy another bench grinder too. That way I can have 4 different wheels for various things...the possibilities are endless but before all that I need to feel comfortable with the rest first. I'm finding the ball joint on it while gives compound angles it's hard to set it dead level in x, y and z planes but I'm sure it's all about practice and technique.

Anyone have links to their fav wheels on Amazon or ebay?

 

[hman]

OK, guys ... maybe off topic ... butI have a severe case of carborundum conundrum. As far back as I can remember, it was always "NEVER use the side of a grinding wheel." Then a while ago I bought Harold Hall's "Tool and Cutter Sharpening" (Workshop Practice #38). And right there, within the first few pages, he was saying to use the side of the wheel. What gives????? Was the "conventional wisdom" I'd been taught simply a bunch of hooey ... or was Hall making a grave error?

An enquiring mind wants to know!

 

[pontiac428]

Anyone have links to their fav wheels on Amazon or ebay?

You have entered the "real world" of grinding, and are now playing with the big kids. Sorry, there will be no more deals to be found on Amazon or stale, crumbling, old stock from Ebay. You gotta buy Norton, AKA "the real thing" from a supplier now.
https://www.mcmaster.com/grinding-wheels

 

[pontiac428]

OK, guys ... maybe off topic ... butI have a severe case of carborundum conundrum. As far back as I can remember, it was always "NEVER use the side of a grinding wheel." Then a while ago I bought Harold Hall's "Tool and Cutter Sharpening" (Workshop Practice #38). And right there, within the first few pages, he was saying to use the side of the wheel. What gives????? Was the "conventional wisdom" I'd been taught simply a bunch of hooey ... or was Hall making a grave error?

An enquiring mind wants to know!

One should only grind on dressed surfaces that do not undermine the structural integrity of the rapidly rotating rock. A little touch here and there is okay, hence Harold Hall's use of it, but it's not a quality surface and it will eventually ruin your stone.

 

[hman]

Makes sense. Thanks!

 

[stioc]

You have entered the "real world" of grinding, and are now playing with the big kids. Sorry, there will be no more deals to be found on Amazon or stale, crumbling, old stock from Ebay. You gotta buy Norton, AKA "the real thing" from a supplier now.
https://www.mcmaster.com/grinding-wheels

LOL I don't know about that, I'm having a love/hate relationship with the grinding rest right now. I think I need to get the techniques down and see what tools I can realistically sharpen with it before I go spend the $150+ on a nice grinding wheel.

Here I decided to turn an old screwdriver into a scribe. I set the fence to a 45 deg angle and then tilted the table down to a 'looks good' angle. This worked to create a tiny point...I guess I was expecting a long taper but it's a small diameter so a 45deg on it should be a short taper ending into a point, right?

This was during:



This was when I stopped:



I will post more of my trials and tribulations.

 

[stioc]

So in using the rest I realized that the slightly over sized knobs were getting in the way. So turned them down. I bolted them into another round chunk of aluminum slug with a threaded hole (already had this from another job) and chucked the slug up in the 3 jaw.



Made for a quick 5 min fix.

 

[stioc]

Also made a small accessory for sharpening slitting saws. For the tooth stop on the side I couldn't find any spring steel strip so I cut off a piece of a cheap pocket ruler. However, I think I'll need to make it an infinitely adjustable tooth stop as per Harold's design. This guy is a smart cookie, everything he mentions in his design has a purpose behind it. Every time I tried to 'simply/lazify' his design I found myself redoing it his way.

 

[pontiac428]

I think I need to get the techniques down and see what tools I can realistically sharpen with it before I go spend the $150+ on a nice grinding wheel.

A good, USA 60-grit white wheel should only set you back $40 or so.