First questions: grinder & bench height

[fcs]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post. Recently bought a Sherline lathe for small jobs related to building split bamboo fishing rods; I have a million questions but I'm gradually finding answers at this forum & online. Here are two that bubbled up.

1. For grinding HSS bits; what grit wheels should I have on my little Delta 6 inch grinder? I should mention that I have no spare room in my shop; when the grinder comes out something else has to go away. No room for a bigger grinder at this time.
2. What height do people recommend for a bench for the small lathe? For woodworking, I like a bench around 36 inches (I'm 5'11', or was before I got old and shrank.)

Thanks; glad to find this forum.
Frank

 

[mickri]

Welcome to the forum. Lots of great knowledgeable people on here that will help you out. Don't be afraid to ask any question no matter how trivial you may think it is. Years ago my son and I made a couple of salt water fishing rods as a father/son project. We still have them.

Bench height is a pretty personal choice. It all depends on what would be a comfortable height for you. I would error on the side of being too high. For trial and error I would put blocks of 2x6 lumber under the supports until you find a height that is comfortable to you.

A must read is Mikey's very, very long thread on grinding HSS tool bits. I have read it several times from start to finish. You will find recommended grits in that thread. Mikey will probably chime in here with that info.

 

[ttabbal]

I haven't used wheels for grinding, but 36 grit belts work great and I would expect that wheels would be similar.

I made my lathe bench a bit high. It's pretty easy to just use a step stool when I want to be over the work. Most of the time I just work from the side and it works great. Just remember that you want to be able to see from the top sometimes, and when doing so you need to be stable. Slipping while you are over a running lathe would be bad.

 

[mikey]

Welcome to HM, Frank. The fact that you own a Sherline lathe shows that you are a man of discriminating taste and fine judgement!

I agree with @ttabbal - a 36 grit wheel works for shaping HSS. It is coarse enough to cut but not so friable that it is gone in a week. You should have an 80-120 grit fine wheel on the other side to remove coarse grind marks or you'll be honing each bit for a month. Sometime in the future you might consider replacing the bench grinder with a belt sander; it will make tool grinding much easier for you. I also agree with @mickri - come join us on the model tools thread and we'll give you a hand with tool grinding so you can really wake that lathe up.

I don't know about you but I prefer to sit down when I work with the Sherline lathe. This isn't just because I'm lazy; its mostly because I often work to rather tight tolerances on that lathe and I use the handwheels to do it (yes, I am DRO-less). Sitting gets me closer to the handwheels so I can see without bending over too much or too often. Sitting also allows me to work longer without tiring.

If you prefer to stand then I suggest you mount your lathe so that the handwheels are at elbow height. You are going to be doing a lot of hand turning on this lathe and having your forearm and hand being able to twist while having your upper arm hanging down and relaxed will help keep you from tiring.

If you don't own Optivisors yet, you will - them little index marks are small and interpolating between the lines to take a 0.00025" deep cut is tough without magnification.

I built saltwater fishing rods for about 25 years and I enjoyed it but split bamboo is a whole other game - respects! I own two split bamboo Ulua rods that are antiques now. They are light, strong and beautiful. I couldn't find the name of the guy who made them but I was told by the original owner that it took 2 years to get a rod built by that guy due to the long wait list. Wish I had a chance to meet him but like so many of our cherished elders, he had already passed.

 

[bradells]

When running my sherline, I too like to be close and over top of the work.

It’s small, so having close eyes is handy as dials and controls are that much closer to the work envelope than other machines.


Brad

 

[Aaron_W]

I like to have a little bit of a height advantage over it, as mentioned you will find yourself wanting to be able to look down on the dials and look over the top of the work from time to time. Originally I had mine set up on a 32" bench and sat in front of the lathe. This worked fairly well but I was just learning so what did I know. . Then I moved it down into the basement and had the lathe and mill set up on a large steel table, probably at a similar height. I currently have them set up on roll around tool boxes and either stand or use a tall stool depending on my mood. I am a fan of tall stools in the shop.

Not a great picture but shows the two machines sitting on the tool boxes. These US General boxes are one of the best deals at Harbor Freight. I like the height it puts the machines at and having the tooling right there is also handy.



Another nice thing with little machines like these is you can always make the base you mount them to taller without impacting their accuracy if you don't like the height on your existing bench.


I have a similar issue playing musical machines. I use an 8" grinder to grind tools, but do it outside, so I made a quick release for my grinder to protect it from the weather and people who might try to liberate it. Just a board bolted down to the bench, with a couple of captive bolts and wingnuts to hold the grinder down. I'm still using the 60 and 120 grit wheels it came with which are working for me, but it came with some nice Norton white wheels, not the cheap grey wheels. When these wear out I'm contemplating a set of CBN wheels, expensive but supposedly they can out live the grinder if cared for.

Making a 2" belt sander is also on my (very long) list of projects.

 

[mikey]

I need to build a bench for my Sherline machines one day. So far, I just pull them out and throw them on a Workmate, then put them away when I'm done. There is a lot to say for machines that can sit on a desk until they're needed.

 

[Aaron_W]

I need to build a bench for my Sherline machines one day. So far, I just pull them out and throw them on a Workmate, then put them away when I'm done. There is a lot to say for machines that can sit on a desk until they're needed.

Yeah, not many machines small enough to be stored out of the way and just pulled out to use. One could legitimately keep these machines in a cupboard on the top of the refrigerator and use them on the kitchen table (although that is probably a way to stay or become single ).

I think the Taigs are about the same size weight, but even the 7x14 are about 100lbs which wouldn't be fun to deal with in over head storage.

For a very short time I had a shelf for the mill or / lathe (whichever wasn't being used) under the bench, but I realized very quickly the mill was too messy to use in the carpeted spare bedroom I was using at the time. The lathe is much more courteous about where it deposits its chips so the first year that bedroom was fine.

 

[mikey]

I meant to mention that the dream Sherline lathe has a variable speed DC motor with speed control turning the leadscrew. This allows you to dial in a cut on the fly by varying speed and feed. If you have the threading attachment then you already have the hardware installed to activate an outboard feed motor attached to the leadscrew. This is most useful when turning long work pieces but it can also come in handy whenever you use the lathe. Accordingly, it would be wise to include some real estate behind the headstock to mount such a motor. It can be removed and replaced quickly and you will be so glad you have it.

 

[Janderso]

fcs, welcome to the forum.
The aluminum oxide wheels Aaron shows in his pic are made to cut HSS.
One thing I did see on a YouTube video, cut the bulk of material off with an angle grinder.
That way you don’t waste your wheel and dressing time is reduced.
Of course cutting the 1/4” blanks aren’t as grueling as the 1/2” or 5/8” blanks.