I have an old 10″ wet grinding wheel that I bought on ebay a while back. It needs some work to get it into good operating condition — new wheel, new bearings, and it spins too fast, so I will need to re-gear it (I mainly got it for the nice cast iron base/trough).
Anyway, I’ve never used a wet grinding wheel and I’m not sure which direction the wheel is supposed to turn. When I received it the wheel was set up to turn away from the tool (opposite direction of a typical bench grinder). Is that the way wet grinders are supposed to turn? I’m thinking it should turn towards the tool, but in that case, maybe the film of water on the wheel would be more apt to run down the tool and spill all over the place. As it is now, it spins so fast the water just flies everywhere, so I can’t really test it. I’m planning to build a dedicated sharpening station with this wet grinder built in, and I’m trying to figure out how to orient the motor.
Thanks
Replies
I have a Tormek 10" job. I have mounted the tool to run either direction but usually against the rotation. I can't remember the exact rpm but I do know it is considerably less that 100.
My meat powered grinder turns between 60 and 100 rpm. The wheel is 3" across and 20" in diameter. I prefer to turn the wheel so it is going up. This way, the wheel is still quite wet and the tool splashed the water down into the trough. When I turned the other way (like an electron burner) the tool shaved the water off the wheel and soaked me.
I think its better for the tool and your pants to turn the wheel up. Another issue is the lack of a tool rest. Since my wheel isn't that round, freehanding is pretty much the only way to go. So I feel a little more comfortable turning up.
I'm not sure if this will help you.
Adam
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled