Messages

Speaking of switches.  My family has two cars.  One has the wipers on the right of the steering column.  The other car has a column shift on the right.

So, I turn on the spray and wipe and gun the engine while looking back when I try to back out of a parking space.  The car does not go.  I spray and wash and gun the engine more until I figure out what's going on by looking forward.  Or I shift into neutral when it rains.  Luckily, the computer is smart enough to prevent me from shifting into reverse when I'm going 50 mph. 

Or when I set up the GPS, it shows me two routes and my wife tells me to go on a third unmarked route that is faster. I drive the third route (guided by my wife) and promptly gets lost with the GPS constantly saying "U turn" "U turn". I tell her, why did we get the built in GPS advanced technology package for thousands of dollars if we never follow it.

People thought I was smarter when I only had one car and no GPS.

That's why I prefer knives, BBQ and woodwork.   I am the only one doing it and its all set up the way I want.

Thank you so much.  I'll give both your advice a try.  I think it will be a fun project to make something crazy sharp for paper.

I want to sharpen a small knife as sharp as can be for showing off.  Just for fun.  It will be for show only.  I guess it would be for cutting paper, tomatoes and other demonstrations.  I won't use it on meat, bone and I won't let it cut an orange seed or an apple seed.

So just for the purpose of showing off, what angle should I use?  I suppose I can use a single bevel blade - like a Japanese knife and maybe 15 degree bevel on the bevel side.  So that would be a total of 15 degree angle at the cutting edge.

If anyone have a good suggestion for demonstrating sharpness - for showmanship, not for practical purposes like cutting wood or even food - please let me know.

Just having fun this summer.

Your web page looks so cool.  Can't wait to see the pictures of your workspace/studio/warehouse.  I would send you a picture of mine - but it is just a desk and a lot of paper - not interesting

Opps.  I misread the original post.  You are right, it refers to being too short in the horizontal dimension.    I need to read more carefully.   I have nothing to contribute in this dimension - never thought about this question.

Get the SVD-110 and a c-clamp.  Or get 2 of each.  I find them to be a lot of fun and useful.  Mount them so that the long part is up.  This will effectively lengthen the universal support a few inches. 

If you only buy 1 SVD-110, clamp a ruler or a board or a 2x4 on with a c-clamp. 

If you clamp a clipboard or a big board, you can extend by 6 inches or 10 inches depending on your clipboard.

The good aspect is that you don't have to machine or fabricate anything.  You just have to buy some stuff and use off the shelf items.

You should judge the safety of these designs yourself. I am just providing suggestions.  You have to be responsible for your own safety.

Just got a $15 carbon steel paring knife from Sabatier. It has been many years since I've used a carbon steel knife. It is so sharp and I can sharpen it so easily.  There is something to be said about a knife that is easy to sharpen.  A few strokes on the diamond honing stick is all that is needed to sharpen it to my taste.  The blade is already stained from cutting apples and oranges yesterday.

Next year, I'm buying a whole new set of carbon knives for myself. My wife can use the stainless steel set.

I guess my days of dishwashing knives are over.

Just sharing my thoughts.  It would really depend on your customers or friend who made the request. Sharpening for an elementary school or a regular office is maybe forgiving but sharpening for a business require much precision.

On a lot of cheap paperbacks, you can see marks from a dull bulk cutter blade.  This would be unacceptable in a medium to high end business.  Even if you buy a $5 magazine, when you look at the edge, they should all be cut in a perfect straight line with no tears.

If you are sharpening for a Christmas or other card maker, a photographer, a graphic design house, etc, they are expecting perfect blades.  People sometimes pay $3 or more for a Christmas card or they are making layouts for magazines.  They don't want to see a nick in the middle of a cut or a small tear anywhere.

Take a look at this site.  http://www.comemachines.com/html/parts.html
The commercial paper cutter blades are about $100 to $200 or more each when you figure in shipping.  The machines are more expensive.
This is a site for one of the more reasonably priced machines.  Other machines/parts are more expensive.

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See, this on the same site:

"For paper cutters equipped with metal cutting bases, a common problem is that there may be a gap between the bottom of the back support arm and the metal cutting base. This is due to the fact that metal may expand/shrink slightly due to temperature changes. Consequently, sheets on the bottom of the paper stack may slip through the gap."

This means any uneveness in the blade is not acceptable in a regular machine.
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See also this:

" In addition to the features of the COME®-2700, the COME®-2770EZ is equipped with a High Speed Steel blade that can be replaced in just a few minutes.  All you need to do to change the blade is to remove five screws - that's it."

This means that on a machine not equipped with these features, taking the blade out and putting it back in can take some times - especially if you have no experience and involves more than 5 screws. 
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Rotary blades are $10 new, so I do not recommend trying to sharpen them.

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I think the blade on a bulk cutter is about 10 to 20 pounds.  The machines are 30 to 100 pounds.

Be careful.  You have a guillotine, with a 20 pound very sharp blade 18 inches long, and a big gap for 500 sheets, a fine heavy solid steel handle for leveraging, a mechanism designed to allow a weak person to cut with gravity without electricity reams and reams of paper in one stroke all day long, and a safety you have to remove to get at the blade.  Be careful removing a 10-20 pound razor blade which does not have a handle and which is all greased up inside the machine.  I am paranoid, of course.

So why do they need their bulk cutter sharpened - possibly because some intern nicked the blade cutting through a staple.  So sometimes, the work involve quite a bit of grinding.  Make sure to charge more for a nicked blade.  And, the customer may be expecting the blade to come back perfect.

So that's my experience that I am sharing. 

I wouldn't do it.  It is big and complicated and the risks outweigh the benefits especially if the cutter is really dull and you have to take off a lot of metal.

On the other hand, if it is not really dull, maybe a little honing will help.  All cutting edges come to a point and eventual this thin bit of metal gets bent over. Honing the blade, by what ever method, knocks off the burr and the cutter becomes sharper.

I suggest a circular trimmer for low capacity or a bulk paper cutter for high capacity cutting - I have both.  They can both be sharpened.

I got a generic generator too.  During a blackout I tried running it and the neighbors made me shut is off.  The neighbor was one of those complaining people but I guess she has a point too.

It is louder than a push lawnmower in use.  It sounds like your neighbor is cutting grass on a larger riding mower.

It is really not about how much you can stand, it is how much your neighbors (who is not getting any benefit from the noise) can tolerate.  If it is a business, it is how much your customer's neighbors can tolerate.

Also the weight.  I can lift the 2000i onto a pickup.  I cannot do so with the larger generator.  The oil change on the larger unit is once in 24 hours.  The oil change in the Honda is once in 70 hours (don't quote me on that).

The Honda 2000i can be used to charge your car battery.  But it is really an unregulated 30 volt output.  It it like one of those manual battery chargers in the old days.  Overcharge your battery and it will fry.  I tried to charge a friend's dead battery once, after 10 minutes, the battery still did not have enough juice to crank over.  I think you may need 30 minutes to charge a battery to start a car.

If noise and weight is not a problem, I say go for it.  It is a lot cheaper.

I have a Honda 2000i and I love it. 

My only complain with the generator is that, if you don't plan to use for a few months, you got to drain the gasoline.  There is a valve for this.  Do it religiously.  It has a very small idle jet that is used in the economy mode.  If the jet clogs, then it will idle rough in economy mode.  If you just stick with regular mode, everything is fine.

You can take out the carburetor and clean the jet.  It is not hard if you are used to that type of thing.

I have a suggestion but maybe it is not a solution.

Basically the small knife jig is too thick.  You need something to clamp just a little bit.  I found good success using utility blades as shims.

like this:

ssssssssssssssssssssssssss
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
                            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
                            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Where K is your knife.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is your utility blade or shims.  You can add as many as you want to match the thickness of your knife.  And you can add any additional as engineering requirements demand.
ssssssssss is the small knive jig clamping down hard.

It is not as strong as a think clamp of steel but with some care I've had good results sharpening many small blades.  I like my method because there is no metal work involved, and the utility blades are readily available at any hardware store and is cheap, and you do not have to permanently alter anything (like drilling a hole).

never mind.  I misposted.

I use a day care/kindergarten/nursery plastic table.  You can buy them from, for example, IKEA, cheap.  Or maybe a relative whose kids are grown would have one. The one I have is all plastic, won't rust, and is maybe 20 to 24 inches high, so sturdy I can sit on it.

For me it brings the working part of the Tormek to about 30 inches - which is about where a bench stone would be if you put a bench stone on the bench.

Thank you for the advice.  I placed an order for a 6 inch carbon chef's knife.  It has been many years, decades, since I used a non stainless blade in the kitchen.  I'll use it in the kitchen/lunch room where I work.  If I like it I'll get more.  Thanks.