Stone honing

[tedn1]

Hi All,

I am really starting to dislike the honing device for the tormek. The reason being is that I am relying on the metal bar that goes over the wheel in order to true the stone. The problem is that the bar is not straight, so every time I hone the wheel, it makes the wheel uneven no matter what I do, and, not to mention, screws up my valuable planing blades, and wastes my time.

Is anyone else having this problem? Is there a solution? I need VERY PRECISE sharpening for my plane blades, so that I can plane curly maple. And when I say precise, I mean PRECISE. They need to be sharper than a razor, perfectly flat, and the angle of the blade needs to be square. I'm coming to the conclusion that the Tormek is just not designed for this level of precision due to the bar used for honing. It's too flexible, and the nature of the bar is just lacking the for precision honing. I think if they used a stronger metal and made it square instead of round, then you could get precision honing, but I just don't think you can achieve precision honing with the current setup. 

Am I wrong? Am I missing something here? Maybe there's something I can do?

Thanks!
G

[Rob]

your universal sppt bar shouldn't be bent.  Has the machine been dropped or had some other major trauma?  That's a dealer issue for sure.

Having said that...when you true the stone with the diamond truing tool the stone will end up exactly parallel to the bar even if that plane is not truly plumb (with the earth). When you then mount your jigs on the bar they should still present the edge exactly parallel to the stone (I think??)

But....a bent bar isn't right and needs checking back with the dealer. I put a lot of pressure on mine when sharpening tricky HSS blades and its never bent

[Jeff Farris]

Ted,

Rob is correct that it doesn't matter if the Universal Support is square (though I would be surprised if it was out by very much), since once you true the wheel, the stone surface and the Universal Support are parallel, which is all that is needed.

We need some more detail on what is happening to your grind.

Oh, and what type of plane do you have that has absolutely no lateral adjustment?

[MakerUnknown]

True but if the universal support is moved to the front of the machine, there's no guarantee that it is now parallel to the top supports.

[Jeff Farris]

True but if the universal support is moved to the front of the machine, there's no guarantee that it is now parallel to the top supports.

Sure there is. If it is not parallel, loosen the bolts that secure the horizontal support to the frame, align and retighten.

[MakerUnknown]

Smacks forehead!

[tedn1]

Hi All,

I took a couple of pictures to illustrate my point. Is there a way to upload images to this thread?

Thanks

[Jeff Farris]

Yes. they need to be uploaded to somewhere like photobucket. Once you have a URL for the photo, it can be posted here.

[Mike Fairleigh]

Here's a little tutorial in case it helps.

To post photos, you first have to "host" them on a photo hosting site.  Many use photobucket.com, where you can get a free account very easily.  Once you have an account there, you upload your photos to that site.  It has all kinds of features so that you can organize your pictures into directories, etc.

Once uploaded, each picture will have a line of "img" (image) code which you can copy and paste into your post here.  Here's the photobucket window showing what I mean.  This is a photo of my Greenlee drawknife, which I uploaded to Photobucket long ago.  If I want to post the pic here, I just go to that picture in Photobucket, copy the contents as shown by the arrow...



then, back here in my Tormek (or any other) forum posting, I just paste that IMG value into my post, wherever I want the picture to appear.  When I click the "Post" button you magically see...



Trust me, it takes 10 times as long to write this up as it does to actually do it.

[Rob]

Just to add to that.  I found when I experimented with this some months ago that in photobucket there are various (5 or so) options/choices on how to copy the url link.  If you want the image to be directly rendered inside your post you need to click the option named "direct" rather than "img"

That copies the url to your clipboard....you then choose the icon in the post button menu (far left 2nd row down) that looks like a little mona lisa, and paste the link from photobucket in between the bracketed characters it creates.  Basically the mona lisa button creates the two slices of bread in a sandwich....your copied link from photobucket is the pastrami/egg salad, turkey, coronoation chicken, BLT, cheese n tomato, steak.

Blimey....I'm starving now and it's only 8:15am!!!

[Jeff Farris]

Sounds like baloney to me. 

Hope that translates for our non-U.S. audience.

That's a joke. The instructions are spot-on.

[Rob]

What the hell is baloney anyway? I appreciate its slang for rubbish and also a food. I've long known the slang but never actually known what the food is?  Some kind of meat maybe?

[Mike Fairleigh]

Yes.  "Some kind" being the operative phrase.  Kind of like "all beef" vs. "all meat."

[Jeff Farris]

Well, technically, the sausage product is bologna. The nonsense spread about is baloney. Pronounced identically (at least in the U.S.). I wonder if what Oscar Meyer sells would even be recognized in the city of Bologna? 

[Rob]

I see...so its like the kebab meat they sell here from roadside vans.  I think its loosely based on lamb...apparently they butcher all the decent cuts off and then the remaining carcass gets "jet washed" to blast the remaining scraps of meat, gristle, lips and ringpiece.

That gets reconstituted in a process not dis-similar to making plywood (and probably with similar resins added).

Its then formed into conical shapes and skewered around a tonking great metal spike which sits on a vertical rotisserie.  They slice the cooked outsides off and serve it in pitta bread with chilli sauce and salad.

No wonder the Greeks are in such a mess!!