stone cleaning

[BRY]

I've just purchased a T7. I'm very pleased. My query is regarding keeping the surface of the stone functional. I have 'cleaned up' a number of chisels and gouges but my last re-sharpening took an hour on a 1" bevel edged chisel. I've read about emptying the water vessel frequently, and removing wastage, which I will now do regularly. What is the best way to return the stone to pristine condition? Is it using the stone grader? Or do I need to re-dress the stone? Thanks , in advance

[Dakotapix]

The TT-50 diamond dressing jig is the answer. It will clean up the surface and, more importantly, will leave a true, square surface. It is an essential accessory for any Tormek.

[jeffs55]

You don't want to dress the stone after every sharpening session unless you damaged it in some way. If you do, you will soon be without a stone.

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, BRY.

With the new truing tool (diamond dresser) and the micro adjust with the universal support, you can adjust the tool to take a very fine cut. As the old saying about voting in Chicago goes, "vote early and often". A very light truing cut (often) will keep your Tormek wheel in top condition.

Even when I fall asleep at the switch and need more than a very light truing cut, I use a series of very light cuts instead of one or two heavier cuts.

The grinding wheel, like any other abrasive, is designed to be used and consumed. Try a light cut. You will know when you have trued enough by watching the cutting. Once you make a light cut over the entire wheel you are done.

Keep us posted.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

What is the best way to return the stone to pristine condition? Is it using the stone grader? Or do I need to re-dress the stone?

The diamond truing tool is used to change the shape of the grindstone. The stone grader is used to refresh it. Apply the coarse side with firm pressure. Use the corner of the stone grader and push hard, followed by the surface.

If you use the truing tool the grindstone will be too coarse for many tasks. I keep at least one dull chisel around for these occasions. I use the freshly trued grindstone to shape the chisel, then I can use the stone grader to get the grindstone in shape for the final passes on the chisel or to do other routine tasks like sharpen a knife.

[Ken S]

I agree with Herman's comments. However, the increased coarseness of the initially trued stone is not always a difficulty. With the chisel which took an hour to sharpen, the extra coarseness would have sped up the time. The stone would have probably been back to normal before the first chisel was done.

Ken

[grepper]

The responses so far could possibly be taken as to indicate that frequent use of the truing tool is necessary and recommended.  Especially for a new user, I would like to respectfully suggest limited use of the truing tool unless the grinding wheel is not flat, or not parallel to the control bar, or has significant metal buildup that cannot be removed using the rough side of the stone grader.

Most often using the coarse side of the stone grader should be sufficient.  It can take longer than you might think so spend enough time with the coarse side until the wheel is evenly coarse.  Like Herman mentioned, the edges of the stone grader are most effective.  It may take some time and a LOT of pressure on the stone grader.  Don't be afraid to press hard.

Overuse of the truing tool will prematurely shorten the life of your expensive grinding wheel.

There are conditions when using the truing tool is certainly appropriate, but for general sharpening give the stone grader a good chance before resorting to the truing tool.  The truing tool is not intended for regular surface conditioning of the grinding wheel.

For heavy sharpening it may be necessary to constantly refresh the grinding wheel using the coarse side of the stone grader, as the grinding wheel tends to get smoother quite quickly.  This can be somewhat annoying and time consuming, but necessary when using the Tormek.

The truing tool will leave a very rough and aggressive surface and it may be tempting for fast metal removal, but using it just for that will shorten the life of the grindstone significantly.  If you have a lot of that type of work, you may wish to consider using a bench grinder or other method for removing large amounts of metal and then finishing on the Tormek.

Spend some time experimenting with the stone grader until you get a really good idea of how it affects the grinding wheel before resorting to the truing tool.

[jeffs55]

You don't want to dress the stone after every sharpening session unless you damaged it in some way. If you do, you will soon be without a stone.

Overuse of the truing tool will prematurely shorten the life of your expensive grinding wheel.
That's two votes for not over truing the wheel, can I get a third?

[Herman Trivilino]

I use the truing tool ONLY to change the shape of the grindstone. If it's out of round or out of square.

A knife cannot be sharpened with a freshly trued grindstone. The grindstone is so coarse that it will remove too much metal from the knife and leave a ragged edge. Dressing the grindstone with the smooth side of the stone grader will not work because, again, the grindstone is so coarse. I try to keep at least one old dull chisel in the drawer. Reshaping it on a freshly trued grindstone, followed by the coarse side of the stone grader, will quickly smooth the grindstone so that it can be used to sharpen knives again.

It's also important to use the truing tool as soon as you see signs of an out-of-round grindstone for it quickly will get much worse and need more material removed to get it round again. You will actually increase the lifetime of the grindstone by doing this. Some people make the mistake of waiting thinking it'll be frugal. Instead the performance suffers and in the end you spend more time removing material because the low side of the grindstone does the lion's share of the grinding making the problem worse.

[Rob]

That is particularly true when using the elliptical grinding jig for deep fluted bowl gouges.  They combine the highest pressure of push with the most dished bit of the wheel and exactly as Herman writes, if you don't true that around the time that starts happening then the dishing effect accelerates.  In other words it wears your expensive stone even faster than normal.  So truly, truing is in truth, the true path to take for a true wheel....and that's no lie :-)