T7 with SE 76

[AndrewG]

Hi all,

I'm a new member here. Just wanted to say thank you for having me, I've been a long term lurker here.

So I've got a T7 with the SE 76 jig to use to grind primary bevels on my plane irons and chisels when the secondary bevel gets too big or damaged. From the tormek I'll use my shapton stones to hone the primary bevel.

I jumped straight into it and attempted to grind a 50mm wide plane iron at 25 degrees. After a while I noticed it was not grinding one corner of the plane. The wheel is square, I'm pretty certain I applied even finger pressure so I assume it's out of square in the SE 76.

So I tried to compensate by undoing the knobs on the SE 76 and angle it to make it cut square. The issue is it's a real hit and miss, I either loosen it so much that I got too far in one direction, or it's not enough.

How do others micro adjust the SE 76. I started looking at the upgraded SE 77 which appears it does have micro adjust?

And how should I grind the plane iron to get it back to square. Should I grind one edge more then the other and keep checking with a square to ensure I'm fixing the problem?

Many thanks in advance.

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, Andrew.

The famous words of Hippocrates come to mind, "First, do no harm".

Two essential parts of your Tormek kit must be a black marker and a small, accurate square. A fine tip marker is a useful third item.

With the bevel blackened, put your plane blade (or chisel) in your jig. Using your square, note whether your blade is square or, if it is skewed, which side is the longer side. Take one pass across your blade and carefully examine it. If your blade is square, the area where the black marker is removed will be parallel to the edge. If skewed, only the long side will have the marker removed. If you are not grinding square, compensate, either by finger pressure or by slightly loosening the jig screws and gently tapping. Do not move on until you get this step right.

Be sure to watch the Tormek online class video covering chisels and planes. Getting a two inch wide plane blade properly aligned in the jig should be less finicky that aligning a narrow chisel. With today's computer assisted machining technology, I would be surprised if the square fence on your jig was out of square.

Too many users do not stop to check until they have ground the whole blade, often out of square. All this presumes that your grinding wheel is properly trued square. Use your square from blth sides of your blade. The process becomes faster with experience.

Keep us posted.

Ken