Re Gritting my paper wheel

V

volsgo1

Joined
Apr 28, 2011
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Richard J can you walk me step by step through this. My first attempt did not hold up. How many knives should I be able to sharpen between regritting?
 
i tried to call and i sent you a pm. send me a pm with a good time to call. make it in the afternoon.
 
you should beable to do a lot of knifes between regritting the wheels. It's pretty easy, apply a health amount of glue on to the wheel evenly and then dust/pour on the grit. then you can recollect the grit which fell off and then wait till it dries. dust the wheels after it dries for a day or two and recollect the grit and save it for future wheels and then apply some wax to the grit wheel and start grinding again.

what you should do is to use a wire brush to get some of the wax off if you used too much accidently. if that doesnt work, use some 40-50 grit sandpaper on a solid backing and tap the grit wheel a few times while the grinder is on to get back to the grit. I stupidly didnt take this advice from richardj and ended up having to regrit and waste a shit load of grit on the original wheel. it worked out fine but yeah, you can do a lot of knifes between regritting the grit wheel!

P.S. I used elmers carpenter glue. i think it works great but thats just me.
 
I've tried at least a half dozen times and always end up with the grit coming off in patches. If you figure it out I would like to know. I have actually made my grit wheel smaller trying to prep it for glue and grit without success. Good luck getting it to work as I no longer use mine and use other methods of sharpening.

Richard has tried to help me multiple times but mine are still a no go.
 
My wheels have not needed re-gritting yet but when they do, I will just buy a new set of wheels. Much easier and not really that expensive.
 
Railsplitter said:
My wheels have not needed re-gritting yet but when they do, I will just buy a new set of wheels. Much easier and not really that expensive.
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My wife would kill me. I've gone through possibly five set in the last 25 years and re-gritted them many many times.

Volsgo1, You may be putting the glue on too thick. Try thinning it down with water and painting it on. If the glue is thick enough to cause ridges it's too thick.

Just what works for me.
 
I realize this is an old thread, but it seems like the appropriate place.

I've lost the bag of grit that came with my paper wheels, and I can't find information on the proper grit of silicon carbide to use. I know it can be purchased directly from the manufacturer, but I get the feeling it can be had cheaper elsewhere.

Can anyone tell me what grit to use and the best place to buy it?

Thanks for the help.
-Steve
 
spketch said:
I realize this is an old thread, but it seems like the appropriate place.
I've lost the bag of grit that came with my paper wheels, and I can't find information on the proper grit of silicon carbide to use. I know it can be purchased directly from the manufacturer, but I get the feeling it can be had cheaper elsewhere. Can anyone tell me what grit to use and the best place to buy it?
Thanks for the help.
-Steve
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Steve, the grit is 180 on the original wheel. You can get it from any of the wheel dealers, or from your local Woodcrafters store if you have one.

I have re-gritted my wheel twice, first time because i over ground some old machetes and wore the grit prematurely. I used a good wood glue and it did not turn out very good. You need to grind the old grit and the old glue completely off down to clean paper. The second time I used just Elmer's white glue and it worked much better. Wound up with a good smooth coat of grit with no bumps or rough spots on the edge.

I pour a good amount of the grit on some newspaper and after applying the glue and waiting about 2 or 3 minutes I roll the wheel on the grit by holding the wheel with my fingers in the hole and rolling it on the bed of grit until it has a good layer of grit evenly spread over the surface. I then "bump" the side of the wheel to shake loose any loose grit, and then mount it back on the buffer shaft to dry for at least 24 hours. Take the newspaper and fold it in half and pour the leftover grit back into the grit container. When the wheel has completely dried, I take some 80 grit sandpaper and lightly touch the sides of the wheel while it is spinning to sand down the edge of the new grit so it does not slice open my knuckles while I am using the slotted wheel and get them into the edge of the grit wheel. (don't ask how I learned this)

I have found that the plain Elmer's white glue works better than the wood worker's glue. It seems to soak into the paper better giving a better bond that resists the peeling mentioned above. I bought a new un-gritted wheel from Steve Bottoff along with some grit to make up a spare wheel to have ready when I need to re-grit my existing wheel. It was nice and flat and round and needed only to be gritted.

Blessings,

Omar
 
Thanks a bunch Omar, very helpful information! Good tip about sanding the edge of the new grit. I learned that the hard way as well...
-Steve
 
I posted this in the Stickied thread, but thought I might as well ask here as it seems to be related to one of my questions.

I have a set of wheels, and I started to wear through the grit on them really, really fast. The first wheel I used now has what appear to be smooth patches and streaks. The smooth is still black, so I'm assuming that the layer underneath the grit is actually black, correct?

I have a couple of questions:

1. What might I be doing wrong where I'm wearing smooth patches in the wheels so quickly? For example, the 2nd wheel is already showing smooth patches and this is simply from practicing on a single old knife and the back end of a hacksaw blade (for less than an hour total). It really doesn't seem like I'm putting much pressure. There's no (or insignificant, occasional) sparking, and I was going light enough for awhile to where I couldn't even get a burr to form. I'm a bit stumped at this time.

2. If I regrit the wheel, how do I know when I've gotten down to the 'base' layer I need to reach? The smooth spots are black, so am I to assume that the base layer is black for the grit wheel?

Thanks for any help.
 
Mine has those smooth patches and stopped working a burr, turns out had too much wax on the wheel. I used a little sand paper or a file to knock some of the wax back off. Now it's working properly again. The paper underneath the grit should be the same color as the sides of the wheels.
 
Thanks for the reply. You were right, it was wax buildup. I didn't realize how quickly it would build up just from quick touches of the wax to the wheel when it's turning. As per Richard's advice, I'm now applying it lightly with my finger as I hadn-turn the wheel.

Appreciate the response.
 
Glad it worked out! Richard knows his stuff on these paper wheels.
 
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