- Joined
- Feb 9, 2017
- Messages
- 5,249
I feel like you limit yourself if you don't embrace the whole enchilada that is machining. And a big part of that is understanding how to sharpen your tooling yourself. It does require skill, time and it does branch off of the main goal of actually doing the machining but it is crucial especially to the home shop IMHO. It may seem like more outlay at first but if you don't want to be tossing tools all the time like a jobber shop does, it will save you time and $$$ in the long run. Not to mention being able to custom grind when you find a configuration you like and works for your machine. Not to mention not having to stock extra's or getting stuck when all you need is to sharpen a bit.
Benmychree has a point about the new bench grinders but I feel like a major part of the problem is the new wheels. Even US made as I went through that whole thing. Even Baldor grinders have problems with balance and wobble. So you can expect to use your tools to make and repair tools as part of machining. I ended up finding a great setup for balancing the wheels on my new 8" grinder on Amazon which went from scaring me to death to use and shaking the whole bench to running smooth as glass. It has more than made itself useful for rough sharpening HSS while my 6" Baldor clone is set up for carbide and a Deckle clone for sharpening HSS endmills, drills and HSS lathe bits.
Benmychree has a point about the new bench grinders but I feel like a major part of the problem is the new wheels. Even US made as I went through that whole thing. Even Baldor grinders have problems with balance and wobble. So you can expect to use your tools to make and repair tools as part of machining. I ended up finding a great setup for balancing the wheels on my new 8" grinder on Amazon which went from scaring me to death to use and shaking the whole bench to running smooth as glass. It has more than made itself useful for rough sharpening HSS while my 6" Baldor clone is set up for carbide and a Deckle clone for sharpening HSS endmills, drills and HSS lathe bits.