Can a crooked stone be fixed?

[mdelgado]

After months of out of square plane blades and nothing but frustration, I think I've hit upon the problem.  When the plane blade contacts the stone, it hits it in one place, near the left side of the stone.  I've trued the stone numerous times, but every blade hits the stone at the same spot.  Eventually, it wears down the blade at that one spot, resulting in (you guessed it), an out of square blade.  On larger plane blades, it wasn't as noticeable, because I was moving the blade back and forth across the stone.  But when I went to a small plane blade--with smaller movements across the stone--I noticed that it was grinding in one place on the blade, while the rest of the blade was untouched.  Any suggestions (new square edge jig?) before this thing becomes an $800 paperweight?  Thanks. 

[Ken S]

By now you must be very frustrated..... Let's try to solve the problem by eliminating some variables.

1) Is the face of the wheel square to the sides? If you hold a square against the side of the grinding wheel, does the face show to be square to the side? (Do this from both sides and at several places round the wheel.)

2) Is there wobble in the wheel? You say the wheel cuts on the left part of the face.  When you hold a tool lightly, is the cutting intermittent or steady?

3) Is your Universal Service Bar positioned parallel with the face of the wheel?  Sliding a piece of wood or metal from side to side between the bar and the face of the wheel (like a feeler gage), the resistance should feel the same.

My suggestion at this point would be for you to contact your dealer.  If you purchased your unit from an online dealer, get on the part of this Tormek site for locating a dealer nearby to you.  You may be able to either take your unit to the dealer or an experienced user the dealer might recommend.  Assuming this person's unit is in good working order, this gives you a "known good" unit.  The experienced person can try sharpening some blades with your unit.  You could try using his unit.  This would decide if the problem is in your unit or "operator inexperience". 

If the problem is in the unit, swapping stones will reveal if the problem is in your grindstone of another part of the unit.

If the problem is operator inexperience, hopefully the experienced user can identify the problem and help you correct it.  You should get up and running better.

Tormek regularly has demonstrators at woodworking shows.  Your dealer of local dealer should be able to put you in touch with an experienced demonstrator or user.

You may get some good advice from this forum.  That's fine.  I think you would benefit from being with a good coach.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Ken

[jim Mathis]

Why don´t you contact Tormek by mail?

support@tormek.se

Jim.

[Jeff Farris]

Okay, let's start with some fundamentals, and we'll figure out where the problem lies.

First, Bring the Universal Support down very close to the grindstone and examine the gap. It should be parallel.  If it is not, true the stone. Don't judge by a blade, because if the blade is out of square to begin with, it isn't going to be parallel to the grindstone. Always judge the squareness of the grindstone relative to the Universal Support. Let's get a solid answer to this before we move on.

[Herman Trivilino]

After months of out of square plane blades and nothing but frustration, I think I've hit upon the problem.  When the plane blade contacts the stone, it hits it in one place, near the left side of the stone.

Rotate the edge of the tool clockwise so that when the blade contacts the stone it hits not in one place, but all across the cutting edge.