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Not to be pedantic, but the German company that made the bF-109 and the KR200 car was Messerschmitt (no "d" in the name).   

You're absolutely right! 

Thanks for the correction.

Rolf

Messer" is the German word for "knife", as in "Messerschmidt", "meaning a smith who made knives".

Partially right, partially not.

"messer" means "knife" but "Messerschmidt" is not a man making knifes. This would be a "Messerschmied". "Schmidt" is a common German name. There was a company by this name famous for its 2 seated microcars in the 1950ies and infamous for WWII fighter planes.

But its right "Schmidt" comes probably from a misspelling of "Schmied".
German is a bit tricky - of course!

Rolf

I see your point about the potential for large savings from buying chemicals in bulk and mixing your own from scratch. I did this for years in my photographic darkroom.

Sorry that is not exactly my point.

It is more about such a large difference between prime cost and selling price. Someone could offer something equal to ACC 150 for a third of Tormeks price and still make a reasonable profit.

My opinion: ACC 150 is totally overpriced. Simply unfair to Tormek customers.

Rolf

My personal feelings about ACC-150 are not very positive but lets look at the facts first:

The Security Data Sheet declares the product as a solution of Dodecanedioic Acid at >1 <10% concentration. This means one Liter of the ACC - fluid holds in between 10 to 100 grams of the acid which comes as a powder.

The chemical itself is a common one which can be easily buyed at chemical dealers (Merck for example). I got prices of about $70 for 100 grams or about $280 for a 500 gram package.

Considering a medial conecntration of 5% one can manufacture 2 Liters for $ 70 (resp. 10 Liters for $ 280). That means approximately 4.5 to 6 $ for a bottle. (Considering the minimum specified concentration of > 1% makes it much cheaper!)

I suppose Tormek gets much better conditions buying in larger quantities.

Do I have made an error? If not the price for the ACC-150 seems to me more like a robbery than a fair deal.

Just my five cents!

If I recall correctly, Fernando was mobile sharpening... so may have been outside.

Ok, sorry, thats an argument!

Rolf

I have a question, what is the average temperature in degrees Celsius of the city where you live?

Not having a T8 but a T7.... and it never became too hot.

But I think not the average temperature of the outside is important, it is the room temperature that counts. My old shop was fairly constant, not below 12°C in winter and not above 25°C on a very hot summer day. (~54°F - 77°F). With the new shop I have not enough experience.

Rolf

What a beautiful view to look at every day.
I spent 12 of my formative adult years in northern Vermont and now live in flat Florida.
I miss everything but the 20 below zero.  Enjoy those awesome hills.
Best Wishes
Tim

Tim,

I understand that very well. We love the warmth too but more that found in the semiarid regions on the Colorado Plateau. Southeastern Utah is something like second home to us

Nevertheless - this is our first home in the so called "Odenwald". The castle is more than 800 years old and fortunately we don't have snow that often. But it is definively good for the pictures. 

Rolf

Good luck in the new place... snap a photo or two of the setup if you can!

Thanks a lot!
What is meant with setup? Workshop or sharpening station or both? 

Welcome back, Rolf. I am glad you have returned.

Thank you for the warm greeting!

At the moment I'm building a small table made from a waste piece of kitchen counter top and some metal feet to support the Tormek. The new sharpening place will be beside a rinse. There is also a a tiled wall behind. Bad thing - it is within another room. Good thing - it is only some steps away and separates water and wood(working)

Rolf

Sorry, I missed the Tormek forum for quite a long time. Reason was that we bought a home and moved. There were a lot of other things to do including to bring up another shop.

But now we are up and running again. And we got an inspiring new view from the shop window.


In the meantime we experienced something strange:
Last year in April we bought one of the new diamond wheels at the woodworking fair in Nuremberg, Germany. They told us delivery might be in June or July. Far away from that what really happened. It needed more that 8 months to get the wheel. It arrived more or less as a "Christmas present".

Does anybody know about reasons? The company from which we bought the wheel told us something about an "overwhelming demand" but for us it looked mmore like a technical problem?

The next day the new sharpening place will be used the first time. I am courious!

Rolf

Lieber Tormek,

Wir brauchen ein Messervideo auf Deutsch!

I hope Rolf or one of the other German speakers on the forum will post a translation of this for me. My German class was in 1971. Danke in advance.

Several years ago, we had requests for the handbook and DBS-22 manual in Dutch and Russian. My solution for this is that the handbook, etc. should be translated into every language where there is a Tormek agent. Every Tormek agent should have at least one knowledgeable employee and one secretary. I do not think it unreasonable to expect the agent to translate the handbook into the language(s) of the area he serves. This could be a PDF or a Worddoc. I would not expect this to be completed overnight, but it should be accomplished in a reasonable time period. Once this is completed, future requests would just be copy paste.

For today's customers, Tormek now has a studio and teaching area. A well done in depth knife video would not involve much time or expense. It could be done with a digital camera, ipad or even a phone. Removing the sound in the original language, presumably Swedish, and overdubbing it with any one of several languages should be quick and easy. When someone like our own Wolfy, the Israeli agent, was visiting the  factory, he could record the sound in Hebrew, or whatever language he and hus customers spoke. Tormek sales, which happen in many currencies should rise.

Just a suggestion............

Ken

Translation /Übersetzung:
Einige Jahre zurück gab es Anfragen wegen Handbuch und DBS-22 Maqnual in Holländisch und Russisch. Meine Lösung wäre, dass das Handbuch in jede Sprache übersetzt wird, in deren Bereich ein Tormek-Agent sitzt. Jeder dieser Agenten sollte zumindestens einen kenntnisreichen Mitarbeiter und eine(n) Sekretär(in) haben. Ich denke nicht, dass es unangemessen wäre zu erwarten, dass der Agent das Handbuch in die Sprache(n) übersetzt, die in seinem Vertriebsgebiet verbreitet sind. Das könnte als PDF- oder Word-Dokument erstellt werden. Man kann nicht erwarten, dass das über Nacht geschieht, aber in einer vernünftigen Zeitspanne. Wenn das geschehen ist, wären weitere Anfagen nur ein Kopierjob.

Für aktuelle Kunden hat Tormek ein Studio und einer Lernarea. Ein gutes, umfassendes Messervideo würde nicht viel Aufwand und Kosten verursachen.. Man könnte es mittels Digitalkamera, iPad oder einem Telephon erstellen. Wenn man den Ton der Originalsprache, wahrscheinlich Schwedisch, entfernt und mit einer anderen Sprache überschreibt sollte das leicht zu machen sein. Als jemand wie unser eigener Wolfy, der Agent in Israel, die Firma besuchte, konnte er den Ton in Hebräisch aufzeichnen oder auch in jeder anderen Sprache, die seine Kunden sprechen. Der Tormek-Verkauf, die in vielen Devisen erfolgt, sollte steigen.

Nur ein Vorschlag....

Hoffe das hilft / Hope that helps!

Rolf

Thanks!

The stone tray was photographed on top of my workbench. In real life it is sitting on the shop floor.

Rolf

Recently I had  difficulties changing the stone due to the fact that the EzyLock nut did not open. Only brute force broke it free!

Some "research" showed threads filled with debris (sludge). Cleaning with a Nylon brush. To prevent further problems with the nut I used some copper brake paste. Until that the the nut opens much more easily.

But be warned, the paste can make a mess! Use only a small amount.

Rolf

This is my solution:


The stone is no longer stored on the wall - see next picture!

For stones:

Below is an old small cat litter tray.


Parking position for the Stone Grader while working

Rolf

That said, the newer led's while more energy efficient, and providing instant lighting, have another advantage IMHO, that is the led bulbs are more shatter resistant (plastic).

I haven't seen anymore glass housed LEDs within the last 2 years, no matter if they are replacements for bulb types or fluorescent tube types.

The last replacement we made is not for sharpening or woodworking. We hibernate some large oleanders in our basement and the plants need light. The years ago we used special fluorescent tubes (Osram Fluora or similar), now we replaced these with LED with spectral maxima in red and blue. Reduces power consumption by 59% and the plants are looking healthier than before.

Since there were 8760 hours during the year 2005, your consumption of 6300 watts of power works out to over 55 000 kilowatt-hours of energy.

Take a typo "K" in front of the Watts and it works.