I'm new to turning and have been learning by roughing out bowls and even made a few strikers. I'd try a couple pot calls but I don't have any large enough dry blanks at the moment. I started out using a couple carbide tools I made myself. Then I tried a cheap set of lathe chisels and have an 8 inch bench grinder too, but I don't know a lot about sharpening. I feel that I should replace at least one of the grey wheels with either a white or blue aluminum oxide wheel. I'm not sure what grit would be best. Im your opinion what is a good brand wheel and where would be a good place to buy them? Any advice is appreciated
aluminum oxide wheels are the ticket. 60 or 80 for shaping and 120-180 for sharpening. If you can keep the speed low it's much easier.
For close to the price of two good wheels you can pick up a Rikon slow speed grinder with AO wheels already on it... Food for thought anyway. Www.woodcraft.com has them for $118.
Jigs are a big help. Wolverine makes a nice product, however, you can build your own at a fraction of the cost.
Belt sander works much better
A belt sander definitely has its place in tool sharpening. That's all I used for years. Last fall I picked up a low speed Rikon grinder and a Wolverine jig system. I can now sharpen my "roughing" gouges in a matter of seconds, remove less steel and have a sharper, consistent shape than I ever could before.
I found another trick that helps me touch up the edges on my skew gouges and my "beaver". A word of explanation - I used to use a parting tool to remove most of the wood from the inside of a pot. Last year I started using my skew gouge and cut my time significantly. This season I ground a thick "skew" gouge from a cheap set of tools to have a 90 degree edge on the end of the tool. This tool cuts straight on, like a parting tool would, but removes much more stock at a time. Kept sharp, it cuts ribbons out of a pot internals with great results. Back to the trick of sharpening them... I started using a pocket diamond sharpening stone for pocket knives to touch up my skew gouges, one high speed steel, the other has a carbide tip. The diamond surface WILL sharpen the carbide tipped tools. I use a "detailer" from Penn State and have not replaced the carbide insert since I bought it 3 years (and around 1,000 calls) ago. I just picked up a 2"x6" diamond stone with a different grit on each side.
I used a belt sander free hand for a few years then made home made jigs for the sander for a few years more. I picked up the rikon and wolverine. The wheel and jig works better much faster for me. Especially with fingernail gouge. Which does the bulk of my turning. The wheel is a little narrow for my larger skew but I manage. Eventually I will replace these wheels with wider wheels.