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For some reason the grinding wheel is "off center" or wobbles up and down while spinning.  It is very easy to see the wheel moving up and down when sharpening.

Is there an easy way to correct this?

I have been sharpening a lot of knives, and I rarely use the SVM-100 Long Knife Jig.  I do not come across many long, thin knives, although those knives do exist.  As long as the long knife is rigid, I use the SVM-45.  It is easier to make sure that the drop point is sharpened with a constant angle with the SVM-45 jig.

I come across a lot of baby knives that are just too small for the SVM-45 Small Knife Jig.  Many people carry pocket knives that are too small for the SVM-45.  The baby knives are also too small to get in the SVM-45 without the jaws interfering with the stone.  The universal tool rest, SVD-110, even when modified for maneuvering small tools does not seem to work well.  The nice micrometer adjustment capabilities of the SVM-45 and SVM-100 are also gone with that toolrest.

Is Tormek looking to make a "Baby" knife jig, perhaps a SVM-20?

This jig would have smaller, thinner jaws.  The thinner jaws could then clamp on the knife without hitting the stone.  The smaller jaws would allow the jig to clamp on the knife without overhanging the blade.

The distance from the "adjustable stop" to the jaws would have to be smaller on the "baby" knife jig, so the smaller radius drop points on the baby knives could be sharpened without a significant change in the edge angle could be held more constant.  The center of the drop radius on the knife should coincide with the adjustable stop location to keep the edge angle constant along the drop point of the knife.  Keeping the center of the radius of the drop point coincident with the adjustable stop location is much more critical with the baby knives.

The adjustable stop on that baby knife jig would need a more spherical surface than the SVM-45 and SVM-100 to allow the smaller knife to be maneuvered easily.  

The SVX-150 Scissor Jig and the SVH-60 Straight Edge Jig are mounted on the UTS with plastic bushings.

As the jigs are moved back and forth, they start to stick to the UTS.  This makes it difficult to move the jigs back and forth with delicate precision.

Is there a good lubricant that can be applied to the UTS to make sure that those two jigs do not "stick and slip" when moving back and forth?

The problem seems to be more common with the micro-adjusting UTS.

When cleaning up the tool sharpener, the water tray has to be emptied.  When the water tray is removed, the water that soaked into the stone drips on the table and creates a mess.

There is a trick to keep this water spillage to a minimum.

Stop the motor.  Lower the water tray.  Turn on the motor to spin the stone.  Remove the water tray.  Empty the water (not in the sink).  Place the tray under the stone.  Turn off the motor.

The water has a harder time dripping off the stone if the stone is spinning.

When honing on the strop, a black mess forms on the strop and falls off.  Those "boogers" fall on the table and smear when trying to clean them off the table.

Is there a good way to catch the "boogers" and prevent them from smearing on the table?

Since the "boogers" contain oil, dirt, honing compound, and some metal material, they are difficult to clean up.

The "boogers" come off at different locations, so the "boogers" end up under and to the front and rear of the machine.

When honing tools, the leather strop becomes "grabby".  If the strop is "wet" with oil, then the strop exerts an even pull while honing.  If the strop is unevenly "wet", the strop pulls when the tool hits a dry spot.

The solution is to keep the strop "wet" with oil or honing compound.  If I keep the strop "wet" with a light film of honing compound, that is way too much honing compound.  If I keep the strop "wet" with an oil, the oil oozes out while honing.

Is there a specific type of oil that can be used to keep the strop just slightly "wet"?

I have tried everything that I can think of as an oil, and nothing seems to work well.  Nothing seems to penetrate the strop to retain a slight film to prevent the strop from being "grabby".

When sharpening scissors according to the method in the book, there is a lot of chatter or instability at the grinding interface.

Is there a recommended method to keep the chatter down to a minimum?

The chatter happens in the region where the scissor is not clamped in the jig, AND it happens in the region where the scissor is clamped in the jig.

If there is no chatter, there are straight lines where the grinding wheel removed material or pulled out grains, depending on the material and heat treatment.

If there is chatter, the grinding marks leave a rough surface that does not have the normal grinding marks.  The surface looks slightly dull, and the surface finish will snag on newspaper when it is drawn across the surface.  The actual shearing surfaces do not cut well if the tool was ground while chatter was going on.

I keep on running into problems when I sharpen chisels.  The chisels sharpen to a nice edge, but the edge is not 90 degrees or square.  The chisels are mounted up against the two posts to keep the chisel straight, but the chisels end up crooked.

The toolrest is not remaining square to the grinding wheel, and the out of square angle shows up as a sharpened edge that is not square.

I end up tuning the chisel a little to the left or right to compensate for the toolrest not being square to the grinding wheel.

Has anyone found a good way to ensure that the toolrest is square or prallel to the grinding wheel?

I think that will cure the problem with the chisels being sharpened out of square.