Our clients have asked us to explain and demonstrate the axial constant alignment of the 2mm borazon-grinding wheel they purchased from us, however this article will aslo provide pertinent information for all profile knife grinder operators.
This informational article also contains knowledge that pertains to the Weinig R-960 profile knife grinder, those of you that have other grinders should still find this article benefitial.
Here are lists of things you will need to accomplish the task of axial alignment.
- Grinder arbor and spindle nut
- 10mm doughnut ring supplied with your machine
- 60mm spacer
- 10” straight edge
- Two Templates with tall shoulders
- New rough grinding wheel
- Borazon wheel
- Good working dial indicator on you machines template carrier.
First, shape a new rough grinding wheel vitrified or ceramic to 4mm exactly with the diamond dresser supplied on the grinder; make sure you place a 4mm tracing pin in the stylus holder. On later models of Weinig grinders, the distance between the template stop pins located on the template carrier is 260mm; your arbor distance with the spindle nut tightened is 240mm, leaving 20mm extra. (Unless you have a 12” grinder. However, the alignment is the same). There is 10mm extra for right and top knives and 10mm extra for left and bottom knives built into the axial constant system by the manufacturer.
Place the 10mm (measurement is from inside radius to outside radius) doughnut on the right pin on the template carrier; slide one of the templates up against the outer edge of the 10mm ring and lock the template in place with the clamp. Remove the 10mm doughnut, place it on the left side template pin, and then place a template up against it as you did on the right side, also illustrated in the diagram below. You should now have a measurement of exactly 240mm from the edge of one template on right to the edge of the other template on left, in reality this is the same distance as your grinding arbor with the spindle nut attached. As a reminder the doughnut supplied with the grinder is for alignment purposes only, be sure and remove the doughnut before you start the actual knife grinding process. This is explained futher in Moulding Knife Grinding Procedures , another one of our articles on our website.
Vitrified / Ceramic Grinding Wheel Alignment to Axial Constant Part 1
Now that you have accomplished the shaping of a 4mm rough wheel and you have 240mm from the right edge of template to left edge of your template locked in place by the template clamps. Place a 60mm spacer on your arbor, screw on the spindle nut by hand until tight, we are using these to keep the straight edge parallel while aligning the grinding wheel to axial constant position.
Place the grinding spindle on the arbor carrier up against axial constant stop pin as shown in the drawing below. Wedge the 10” straight edge between the left side of the spindle nut and the spacer. Place the edge of your template up against the 4mm tracing pin, the straight edge should lightly touch the very edge of the grinding wheel, if it does not, adjust your template carrier axially with the axial adjustment knob until it does. Now do the exact same procedure with the left side template, the straight edge should line up and lightly touch the left side of the wheel with no further adjustment to the axial carrier, keep in mind you have 240mm on both the arbor and the distance from the edge of you templates, perfect, you are doing great!
CBN/Borazon Grinding Wheel Alignment to Axial Constant Part 2
Now look at the dial indicator on the template carrier, the big needle should be on zero, the little needle should be at five as shown in the diagram in the middle of the page. The dial indicator has a full range of 10mm, 5mm turns to the right and 5mm turns to the left.
If your dial indicator is not in the zero position on the large dial and in the five on the smaller dial, it will require calibration. To calibrate the dial indicator loosen the 10mm hex nut, move only the hex bolt until it is set to “0” on the large dial and “5” on small dial, tighten the 10mm locking nut, now you are in the axial constant position for the 4mm rough wheel. Now dress the rough wheel to 3.8 – 3.9 millimeter, by performing this practice you ensure a little extra steel removal with the borazon wheel when you do the rough finish grind procedure.
Now place the 2mm borazon wheel on the R960 grinding flange and install it on the machine. You are going to have to place shims on the left side of the wheel .020” -.030” is normal. Place the 2mm tracing pin in the stylus holder and follow the above procedures, remember, this time to not move the axial carrier because it is now calibrated.
If the grinding wheel touches heavy on one side or another during alignment, you will have to add or remove shims until you get the straight edge to touch evenly on both sides. Remember, the most important thing is that your diamond dresser shapes your grinding wheel evenly on both sides; the axial constant is calibrated off the rough wheel. If you follow all the procedures listed, you will have the borazon wheel set in-line with the rough wheel. Now when you remove the rough wheel and switch to the finish wheel they will be correctly in-line with each other without having to move the axial carrier, this will save time but more importantly, this will allow you to regrind consistently between knife sharpenings.
We trust you have obtained additional knowledge in axial constant alignment of your R960 profile knife grinder, if you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact us.
