New member, old Tormek

[Seapy]

Hello, new here, am an old guy with a shed (and a digger, also a roller, lathe and mill, etc...)

I live on the South side of the Duddon estuary in Cumbria, England.

I recently asked by one of my neighbours to go through her shed and sort out her late husband's tools because she felt it was time. He passed six years ago.

I was somewhat surprised to come across a Tormek 2000 grinder which seemed to work but looked a bit neglected.

My neighbour agreed I could have the grinder and today I found time to examine it. The stone seemed somewhat eccentric and the honing wheel only seems to be rubber? Is the honing part a leather belt around the rubber wheel?

I removed the shaft and mounted it in my lathe, the runout is (was) about 120thou on the radius. I clamped a segment of a diamond grinding disk to the tool post and removed most of the runout taking 10thou at a time, The wheel feels quite nice now but I stopped short of taking a final cut because the wheel is rusted badly onto the shaft. The nut was badly rusted and was very tight to remove, there was a robust washer behind the nut which I managed to remove but I am reluctant to dig any further without asking advice about best removal technique.  I have some perfect stainless shaft which machines beautifully to make a new shaft, that is not a problem, but I don't want to wreck the stone.

What I want to know is, is there a steel sleeve at the centre of the wheel, which mounts on the shaft, or is the stone in direct contact with the shaft?, It's very rusty and I'm concerned the expanding rust may have cracked or crushed the wheel. My inclination is to drill the shaft out, which is easy enough, but I am paused while I ask you guys what you would do in this situation?

If the mounting hole IS damaged and the wheel is very slack on the shaft I am wondering about diamond drilling the centre out to say 1" and epoxy gluing a short bronze sleeve into the hole, then re-dressing the wheel true, (on a new shaft) which is why having proved my dressing technique, I stopped short, because it might need doing again.

Thoughts and comments please!

Regards, Robert

[John Hancock Sr]

Nice find Seapy. The shaft is solid steel and the nut on the wheel side is LH thread. The shaft is 12mm. There is a bush on older wheels I think but depending on ho badly it is rusted it may be a write off.

There are two nylon bushes on either side of the machine into which the shaft runs. The older shaft is not stainless but the new replacements are stainless. Mine was the new stainless but it still rusted badly. The older one just had a nut on the grinding side, the new one has a larger dia flat knurled nut.

There is nothing stopping you making an new shaft, not sure of the threads, but I am sure you could work it out. Tomek has not changed the shaft dimensions so a new shaft will fir perfectly and it comes with the drive pin, spacer, washer, bushings and new nuts so it will save time and you get all new parts.

The older honing wheels were plastic with a leather strip glued on. There is a composite option which is a grit impregnated rubber but I doubt that is what you have. The drive wheel is rubber and the honing wheel fits over the drive wheel. It could be that the honing wheel need reconditioning. Scrape it with a steel edge, then use light machine oil (I use ballistol) to impregnate the wheel and wipe off any excess with a cloth. If the leather truly has come off then use contact to glue on another strip of veg tanned - 2.5 - 3mm is ideal - leather. I skive the ends to overlap by about 12mm or so. If there is a ridge left I cut away the ridge then sand smooth.

You can buy a trueing tool which is a diamond tip in a jig which fits to the universal support. It gets your wheel perfectly round and true.

If you can post some pictures which will help in identifying your issues.

[Herman Trivilino]

There is an assortment of jigs and accessories that come with the Tormek. The newer T7 and T8 machines use many of the same accessories or jigs, although the newer ones are a bit different. If you do some google searches you can find photographs, drawings, and videos of them. Go back in the shed and see if you can find them. In particular, there is a leather honing wheel that fits over the rubber drive wheel, and attaches with a threaded knob.

If you don't have the Universal Support Bar (USB) see if you can find the original in the shed.

All of these parts are still available, although they may be upgraded versions. They will all fit your machine. If the Tormek you found still runs, it may be worth it to you to buy some of these upgraded accessories. Especially the USB and the truing tool.

[RickKrung]

Welcome to the forum.  Nice acquisition.
 
The replacement shaft is stainless steel, so I believe it would behoove you to get it from Tormek, as it comes with the new, easy lock nut as well and won't corrode, even if your grinding wheel has rust embedded in it.  I love turning and milling stainless (at least some alloys of it), but I is not worth the work in this case, I feel. 

There have been several folks who have restored older Tormeks and there is extensive discussion around those threads that could be of great interest to you. And just spend some time, if you haven't already, just reading the long history of discussions, regarding all aspects of the Tormek.  Lots to learn. 

I highly recommend getting a Truing Tool.  Much easier and likely more accurate than truing on your lathe.  I have two lathes and I would not want the grinding grit getting on the ways or other moving surfaces. 

Rick

[Seapy]

Thank you for the kind welcome and helpful replies gentlemen.

The threads which retain both of the wheels on the shaft are definitely Right Hand, 12mm X 1.75mm pitch, a standard ISO 12mm nut screws on easily, I have just run a good 12mm X 1.75mm die on the threads at the stone wheel end AND the honing wheel end, which suggests to me that this is a home made (or improvised) shaft. The shaft is exactly 16mm diameter steel. Bear in mind, I am only 5 miles from the home of the British nuclear submarine shipyard, It's quite likely a new shaft could have been 'knocked up' during a tea break in 'The Yard', it's not unknown...

I need to clean off the various parts so I can see more clearly what I have. Given the age of this machine I will remove the motor and check the wiring, it has a white power lead which does not seem to me to be authentic.  What colour would the original power lead have been?

Have just had a quick look at the honing wheel, it appears to be plastic with steel mounting plate to fit the main shaft, a rubber tyre and some sort of skin on the flat side, very difficult to tell what it is but seems like the side layer COULD be leather stuck to the plastic wheel. Will clean and examine more carefully later today.  The material on the rim seems to be rubber with some slight radial cracks close to the inside edge of the 'tyre' the outer part of the 'tyre' seems free of cracks but is quite uneven across it's width, it had a worn line around one side about 14mm (9/16") wide.

I will drill out the shaft from the stone wheel later and see what the situation is with the remaining hole in the stone wheel, I am not expecting a good outcome, the crush effect of expanding rust has probably damaged the stone so I expect to have to sleeve the hole then bore the sleeve accurately to retain concentricity.

The stone wheel is 233mm in diameter and 48mm wide or thick.

I shall explore the method of uploading photographs and try to show you some features of the machine.

Enough chatting, things to do!

Regards, Robert

[RickKrung]

Thank you for the kind welcome and helpful replies gentlemen.

The threads which retain both of the wheels on the shaft are definitely Right Hand, 12mm X 1.75mm pitch, a standard ISO 12mm nut screws on easily, I have just run a good 12mm X 1.75mm die on the threads at the stone wheel end AND the honing wheel end, which suggests to me that this is a home made (or improvised) shaft. The shaft is exactly 16mm diameter steel. ...snip...

I believe the right hand threads you see are what was standard, back in the day. Thus, the shaft may or may not have been "home made".  That the shaft is 16mm dia. is curious and could be an indicator of non-standard. What part of the shaft is 16mm?

The "new" shaft version has the left hand threads and EZ-Loc nut, which a major reason for getting it instead of fabricating a new one with right hand threads.

...snip...

I will drill out the shaft from the stone wheel later and see what the situation is with the remaining hole in the stone wheel, I am not expecting a good outcome, the crush effect of expanding rust has probably damaged the stone so I expect to have to sleeve the hole then bore the sleeve accurately to retain concentricity.
...snip...

Good luck boring out the shaft and if you have to sleeve the hole, good luck boring out the stone to make space for that sleeve.  With the "price" of the machine to you, you may be better served just buying a new "modern" standard grinding wheel (SG-250). 

[John Hancock Sr]

The shaft is exactly 16mm diameter steel.

Sorry - my mistake. Yes the shaft is 16mm edge to edge and reduced to 12mm either end for the stone and honing wheel. Rick is of course correct that the older shafts had RH threads either end but the new one with the knurled thumb nut is now LH thread on the wheel side.

233mm is white good showing moderate wear. If you can get it working then it will still be a good wheel.

As Herman says, go back and see if there are any jigs. Tormek have made some really good improvements to some of the jigs, although they are on the pricey side they are excellent quality.   Also see if there was a grading stone. https://tormek.com/en/products/accessories/sp-650-stone-grader It is for grading between the natural coarse grit and the fine 1000 grit on the grinding wheel.

I am not expecting a good outcome, the crush effect of expanding rust has probably damaged the stone

I would not worry too much since the stone rotation is quite slow so there is not a lot of tension.