I am excited to give it a try. Will be a while before my Pacific project is at the stage of turning wheels, but when I get home next, I will take some scrap metal and practice doing interference fits and give the tool post grinder a try.Harold_V wrote:In the hopes of enlightening you as to the use of a tool post grinder, please understand that it is not going to be a magical experience. Grinding produces heat, and heat is your enemy. Unless you have a junk lathe (I know you don't have), you won't be able to run coolant, so you're still going to fight sizing, although the one added advantage is the wheel will take what you toss at it, unlike a tool bit.
You will have issues with two things. One is taper. Precision grinders have an upper table that swivels and locks, so taper can be addressed easily. That design also allows for flood coolant, which never sees the ways. The other feature that will be troubling is that lathes don't have fine feed capability, unlike a precision grinder. When it gets down to removing a tenth or two, it's more by luck than by talent, although if you become very familiar with your machine you may be able to prove me wrong with that problem. A high resolution DRO might help, and I see you alluded to one.
Over all, you will find that you are more able to hit tight tolerance dimensions with a tool post grinder than with a turning tool, and it should yield a better finish, but don't lose sight of the fact that you'll still be operating a lathe.
I'm looking forward to a report on your success.
H
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