Newbie T7 owner questions

[Wannabewoodworker]

Well I got pretty lucky and purchased a used T7 w/ Hand Tool Kit for very short money this week and received it yesterday. I have been following these threads and others researching the Tormek and was really excited when I got the chance to purchase this new T7 for less than $500. It is virtually brand new and other than having to true up the stone it was perfect.

The only problem and this may be my problem and not the machine is when I put the Universal Support in the vertical brackets it is very difficult to insert it into the two uprights? I was wondering if this is normal or do I have an issue with the housing that has caused the brackets to lose their geometry?

My other problem after sharpening several knives is that I am having a really hard time determining the edge angle to sharpen at. I am using the angle master and it just doesn't seem to be very intuitive to me. In the book and the instructions it says to lay the guage on the bevel of the knife to acquire the edge angle. Well none of the knives I have done so far have enough of a bevel for that to take place. So I have to set the angle master on the flat side of the blade to get an angle reading. I know this is not the actual edge angle so how do I interpret the reading so I set the angle correctly. In the book it says to sharpen the big butcher type knives to 40 deg. but I cannot seem to get the Universal Support to stand high enough to get this acute angle?

So far my newbie efforts on the first few knives are still light years better than anything I have been able to achieve in the past using much more crude sharpening techniques. What I am seeing is that I can get the edge angle pretty consistent across 90% of the blade but the tip is where I am having a little trouble. I would assume that this is normal as it seems that some practice is definitely in order. I am getting the tips very sharp but the bevel seems to be wider than the rest of the blade and I know this is due to my improper movement of the blade at the very end of the stroke across the stone.

So far I am really excited and impressed with this machine. I sharpened several of my wifes kitchen knives Farberware and Henckels and they are sharper now than they have ever been even when new. Thanks and I am psyched to be the new owner of a T7.

[Jeff Farris]

Soak a paper towel with penetrating oil like WD-40.  Feed it through the sleeve.  Reach inside the frame and grab the bottom of the towel and ream it back and forth to clean the sleeve thoroughly. It's gummed up.

Whatever included angle you want on your knife (typically 40 degrees), divide that by 2 and set that on your AngleMaster (typically 20 degrees).  Now, instead of aligning to the bevel (very small area), measure to the body of the blade immediately behind the bevel. 

[Wannabewoodworker]

Jeff,
        I will try your suggestion but it feels like it is physically binding not just "gummed up". Plus what would gum it up? This thing is virtually brand new.

[Jeff Farris]

I have had this happen dozens of times with demonstrator machines.  It is mostly a very, very slight oxidation.  Try it.  If it doesn't work, let me know, but I'm reasonably confident that it will solve your problem. The tolerances are very tight, so it doesn't take much to feel like much more than just gummed up, but it usually is.

Sitting is possibly the largest contributing factor, which it appears your machine has done for some time.

Edited to Add:

Clean and polish the bars on the Universal Support, too. 

[Wannabewoodworker]

Jeff,
      I appreciate your time and attention to my issue. I checked it very closely last night after reading your original post and it is virtually brand new. There is no gumming or other type of obstruction in the mounting brackets for the vertical support. I inserted each leg individually into each support bracket and they both slide in and out perfectly. But when I insert both legs together they go in about 1" and then bind up. It seems that either the support brackets (tubes) or the universal support bracket legs are not square and parallel to each other and they interfere with each other as I can feel significant resistance while inserting the support into the vertical mounts. I am going to loosen the mounts and see if that has any effect on the situation. The Universal Support is perfectly clean and polished and the mounts on the machine are in the same condition. This is definitely an alignment problem with either the machine mounts/chassis or the Universal Support bar. The Uni Support does slip freely into the horizontal support bracket strangely enough but that kind of makes sense as that is a solid (connected) bracket so the alignment is perfect which as I think about this points to the chassis mounts as being the culprit of my problem.

[Wannabewoodworker]

As a followup I loosened the nuts that mount the vertical posts to the machine chassis tonight and the tool rest moves perfectly no binding at all. When I tighten one post up still smooth and easy as soon as I tighten both nuts on both posts it binds like crazy. So there is something amiss on this particular machine. I left one of the nuts just finger tight so I could keep the tool rest bar smooth moving up and down but this is not ideal as you know.

[Jeff Farris]

Very good work.

What this tells me is that it is an issue with the top plane of the chassis.  This is usually carefully adjusted at the factory, and since your machine has been around a bit, there's no way to tell if it wasn't done properly to begin with or has suffered a fall or something similar in use or in transit to you from the original owner.  Whatever the cause, here is the alignment procedure.

Secure both sleeves firmly.

Carefully insert the Universal Support and observe if the sleeves appear to be too close together or too far apart.  In either case, it will be an issue of angle, rather than one of absolute position (the punch in the frame is done very precisely).  Once you have estimated the misalignment, put the long leg of the Universal Support into one of the sleeves so that it extends slightly below the inside bottom of the sleeve and secure it with the locking knob.  If the sleeves are too close together tap on the Universal Support so that they will be further apart.  If they're too far apart, tap on the Universal Support so that they are closer together.

It sounds crude, but it works, and they will stay aligned once you have tweaked them into shape.

[Wannabewoodworker]

That is what I was thinking but have not had a chance to torque the mounts on the top of the machine chassis. I will give this a whirl when I have a minute after i do some measuring and figure out where the misalignment is.