I have now owned a CBN wheel for a short while and after previous comments by members members thought you may like some feedback.
I realise one of the pleasures of woodturning is to make something for very little cost and I have just smashed this concept as my wheel cost just over £200.00 , I do carry a sense of guilt particularly as I am not a professional turner- so was it worth it ?
Have a look at my grinder- I have owned it for some 30 yrs and could never eliminate the vibration from it, it had to be bolted down. When I fitted the new wheel things got a whole lot worse! The wheel was a precision tool yet I couldn't dress the wheel radially, this meant in use the tools bounced on the cutting surface. It was obvious the grinder needed looking at if I was to achieve the perfect edge.
There were two things causing my grinder to vibrate- wheel flanges that were not machined accurately and a poor quality white wheel fitted to the other side. At this point I felt worse, I knew I had to replace the other grinding wheel as well. I took Nick's advice in an earlier thread and bought a good quality ceramic wheel, the total cost now was £240.00!
My bench grinder now purrs- you can balance a coin on the tool rest and it will stay there, what I have I learnt?
There is no need for an expensive grinding wheel to remove vibration or achieve a sharp edge- look on u- tube to see how this is done if you have a problem with your grinder. The CBN wheel does produce an excellent edge and doesn't wear, this means my jig can be indexed without ever needing to compensate for radial wear.
You can also use the edge of the wheel to produce a flat grind.
It is a mistake to buy bottom end wheels - in my case I couldn't eliminate bounce and vibration from them and believe me I tried!
Owning a precision tool such as the CBN wheel highlighted it was my bench grinder that was the problem and ultimately the other wheel. I could have solved this problem by not purchasing an expensive CBN wheel, but i can honestly say it is a pleasure to use and the speed and ease you can achieve a perfect edge is second to none.
Regards. Haggy