Precision Ground Toolroom Stones

Janderso said:
Since you woke up this thread, I’ll add my $.02
I was fortunate to be invited to Bobs shop to grind my Norton stones.
We spent a few hours grinding them in as Bob is a persnickety devil.
I use my stones all the time.
They are an essential accessory to have in your shop.
Now that I have a surface grinder, I plan on grinding some smaller stones.
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Nothing wrong with waking up a thread.
As I've commented elsewhere, The Central Cali area hobbyist environment seems a lot friendlier than elsewhere.

I scored (3) 4" dia. stones at one of the sales, they're going to some attention. Along with the rest of my stones.

There's a gent by the name of Lance Baltzley that I came across on YouTube in an Abom vid, his website shows ground norton stones.
https://www.26acremaker.com (no affiliation, just passing on information)
Break out the pocketbook. . .
 
It looks like he charges about $100 for his time. I saw his set-up, he runs several stones at a time. As I recall, the stones ran about $100 for the pair.
I'm sure he does a good job.
I am fortunate to have a connection
Now that I have a good surface grinder all I need is a diamond wheel for it.
Hmmm, I wonder if I could sell a pair for $150??
 
middle.road said:
Nothing wrong with waking up a thread.
As I've commented elsewhere, The Central Cali area hobbyist environment seems a lot friendlier than elsewhere.

I scored (3) 4" dia. stones at one of the sales, they're going to some attention. Along with the rest of my stones.

There's a gent by the name of Lance Baltzley that I came across on YouTube in an Abom vid, his website shows ground norton stones.
https://www.26acremaker.com (no affiliation, just passing on information)
Break out the pocketbook. . .
Click to expand...
I got a chance to talk at length with Lance Baltzley at the last Summer Bash. Lance is doing a very nice job of making precision flat stones out of ordinary Norton sharpening stones. It is not a difficult job, but it does require understanding the process and being careful with the details. Lance's stones show better craftsmanship than mine do, very nice work. I only do them for my own fun or with friends, so it matters little. They work just fine. Robin Renzetti gets a much higher price than Lance does for his, as does the original maker of them that Renzetti copied (and improved) them from.

Dan, you said "I scored (3) 4" dia. stones at one of the sales, they're going to some attention. Along with the rest of my stones." Making precision flat stones from sharpening stones ruins them for being honing and sharpening stones. With flat stones, we can remove burs to a very accurate plane, while not changing anything else. If you tried to sharpen a knife with them, all you would have afterwards is some tiny shiny spots where burs and high spots were leveled. It would not really sharpen the knife at all. Also, rubbing a normal sharpening stone against a precision flat stone would only ruin the flat stone, too much pressure at the points of the random grains of the bench stone. The precision stones have a large parallel surface area and you cannot enough pressure per total area engaged to distort the metal and cut it. You also cannot make flat stones using bench stones, the surface must be made so that all the high spots are cut down into a flat and parallel surface with tiny recesses between coplanar grit plateaus, and the corners are sharp and do the cutting of things that get down into the recesses. It is important to properly understand the fundamental differences in what goes on with the precision stones compared to ordinary abrasive stones. Both have their places, but the kinds of work they do does not really overlap. -Bob
 
Yep, there definitely is a science to it.
I guess I should have clarified my statement a bit and detailed that I just need to get them cleaned up and usable for general use.
Nothing at the level like you, Lance or Robin do up.
One is in decent shape, the other two not so much. No numbers that I can make out on one the two.
I'll hold back the JB64 for special use, I believe that it is a silicone carbide stone. The other two I'm thinking are india stones.
R_IMG_20191212_203605171.jpg
 
middle.road said:
Yep, there definitely is a science to it.
I guess I should have clarified my statement a bit and detailed that I just need to get them cleaned up and usable for general use.
Nothing at the level like you, Lance or Robin do up.
One is in decent shape, the other two not so much. No numbers that I can make out on one the two.
I'll hold back the JB64 for special use, I believe that it is a silicone carbide stone. The other two I'm thinking are india stones.
View attachment 307759
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I have always liked those round stones for deburring stuff in the shop, especially machine tables. I now use my precision ground stones on machine tables and other precision surfaces, and use the few old round stones I have on less fussy stuff. Even when scraping metal, I like the precision stones more than the round stones with standard grains to deburr after each scraping pass. I want the scraper to define the surfaces, not the stone, and I think it gets better results, both with accuracy and with how nice the surface looks after scraping it in. I should probably grind a couple round stones into precision flat stones. I like the feel of them in my hand when using them for deburring larger surfaces, like machine tables. -Bob
 
I finally ordered the Shars diamond wheel for my Brown and Sharpe surface grinder. The last time I took the plunge they were on back order.
I did a show and tell at work for a couple of the line techs. They were so impressed how the stones will remove only the high points and leave the mirror finish alone that they wanted some for themselves.
I decided to have the shop pay for the diamond wheel and the Norton stones, I'll grind them. The benefit, I'll have the wheel :)
I hope I get a good wheel.
Bob, If you don't know a guy with a Norton dresser ($500+) what do you do to dress the diamond wheel?
 
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Janderso said:
I finally ordered the Shars diamond wheel for my Brown and Sharpe surface grinder. The last time I took the plunge they were on back order.
I did a show and tell at work for a couple of the line techs. They were so impressed how the stones will remove only the high points and leave the mirror finish alone that they wanted some for themselves.
I decided to have the shop pay for the diamond wheel and the Norton stones, I'll grind them. The benefit, I'll have the wheel :)
I hope I get a good wheel.
Bob, If you don't know a guy with a Norton dresser ($500+) what do you do to dress the diamond wheel?
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Interesting. Cold rolled steel cleaned up the radial runout. The lateral process looks like a real mess.
I'm not building rockets, I may just check and work out the radial issue.
 
Purchased shop stones from an ebay vendor, if you visit his estore and contact him directly you'll save a bit.
PM if interested. I am not associated nor sponsored by this vendor.
 
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