Messages

Rich,

I agree with Ken to use aluminum and unthreaded as the FVB will be abutting the Tormek housing 99% of the time for most users.  If you are sharpening cleavers regularly, anyone could easily use a home made stop block to get even spacing on an alternative "wider spacing" for this purpose; thus threads are not needed for accuracy.

Beaker.

Thomas,

Those Moto-Technica wheels also are harder than the Durofelt version (at least advertised as such).  They are listed at 0.9 g/cm³ rather than 0.8 g/cm³.  I know that Vadim (aka "Wootz" R.I.P.) warned that the higher density felt wheels were too hard for mainstream knives, but worked good for very hard "negative burr" steels (see link below).  I can't say if this is true or not as I have only used the durofelt rock-hard wheel at 0.75g/cm³ and can say that it does work good on mainstream knives.

https://youtu.be/5iqnvD8_M2k?t=659

Beaker.

[writing up]

Further to what Ken and Rich said:

Most of my wheels are trued and installed with the writing up the same each time they are installed (SG-250 and Stun Tiger #800). However as Tormek acknowledges, the SJ-250 has looser tolerances than the SG, SB or diamond wheels.  I therefore found that to get the least "lateral wobble" with my SJ-250 stone, I actually had to use trial and error to find the "best position" for that particular stone.  As it turns out that ended up being with the 9 o'clock position actually configured at what would be the 12 o'clock location.  This gave me the least wobble, so I marked that location with a sharpie marker, and that wheel I trued to that position and always re-mount at that position.  Listen to what Sebastien says at t=20min 3 seconds of the Tormek Live tips and tricks linked below.  This worked well for me to get the least wobble on my SJ stone.

https://youtu.be/0htKSoTBjoI?t=1184

Beaker.

I have one of the 10" x 2" Rock Hard Durofelt wheels.  My observation and experience are as follows:

1. The wheel was well made, true and straight (See Image 1)
2. The wheel actual dimensions were 254.6mm diameter and 52.5mm thick
3. Wheel had a mass of 2,004 grams, volume of 2,667 cm^3 for a density of 0.75g/cm^3 (Advertised as 0.80 g/cm^3)
4. The wheel has a 1" (25.4mm) central hole diameter that is adapted to the Tormek shaft (12mm) via two pre-installed felt bushings (See Image 2)
5. The felt bushings fit very nice and snug on the Tormek shaft, so snug that I had to spin the wheel over the threads rather than just push it on the shaft (same upon removal) - I found this quite annoying when placing and removing the wheel, so I replaced the felt bushings with an aluminum bushing (OD= 25.4mm ID= 12.1mm) (Image 2)
6. The excess width of the wheel (52.5mm) meant that it actually could not fit on the Tormek with the standard spacer as there were no exposed threads to install the knurled nut (Image 3)
7.  I therefore replaced the standard spacer with a 12M stainless steel fender washer to gain enough space back to get some exposed threads (Image 4 and Image 5)
8. The wheel has a slight wobble, but nothing that affects the results of deburring.

Beaker.

In the event that the KGA video doesn't make it clear, you will need the TT-50 truing tool.  Tormek has excluded the TT-50 from the T-4 to get a lower price for the T-4 package (to optimize sales), but the reality is you will need the truing tool as a flat stone is fundamental to proper sharpening on any Tormek.  This reduces the price differential by the time you add in the TT-50.

See Sebastian and Wolfgang discussion on the Tormek Live Grand Machine Comparison:

https://youtu.be/tXO6YejYdck?t=1671

Beaker.

I find my water trough will vibrate and make noise somewhat randomly and that it is most certainly the resonant frequency of the setup that causes this.  A very simple (if inelegant) fix that has always worked for me is to take a "grip clamp" and simply clamp it onto the water trough as shown in the picture.  It changes the natural frequency of the setup and 90% of the time fixes the issue.  If I still have some noise/vibration I can usually just move the clamp slightly and it will work.

Beaker.

I clamped a few knives "askew" per Wolfgang's imaginary line after that Tormek Live episode.  It felt very unnatural to me to not have the back of the jig support in alignment with the knife edge. Perhaps because I just hadn't done it this way before.  I tried it on a few chef knives, but rather quickly returned to clamping in alignment with the blade edge.  I use the handle lifting technique up and slightly away, rather than any pivot for knives that don't have a very substantial sweep at the tip. To summarize, I don't see any benefit in the "imaginary line" clamping technique.

Beaker.

Our dimensional lumber in North America (2x4's) already have a bit of a natural radius on the edges, so they are not very sharp where they contact the stone.  The SJ-250 is somewhat brittle, but also plenty hard.  I have not had any issues with it chipping or breaking as it is placed (somewhat carefully) in the storage rack.

It seems to me almost impossible to properly use the truing tool and end up with a stone not parallel to the USB.  Please take some pictures of the stone and post them? Even better, take a video of your truing procedure with the SJ-250, post to Youtube and add the link to this chat.  If anything is wrong, someone here will spot it I'm sure.

How much would you say the stone deviates from true from one side to the other? 1/2mm? More?

Beaker.

[Planer blade sharpening & TT-50 Truing Tool]

Tormek Live Part 7 was titled "Planer blade sharpening & TT-50 Truing Tool".  There was a specific video segment on truing the Japanese Waterstone (SJ-250).  See the following link.  Among other things, they demonstrated how you should always true from outside to inside on the SJ-250 to avoid chipping of the relatively fragile edge.

https://youtu.be/_9izVW7g6uo?t=585

Beaker.

raixes. I have sent you a direct message.

Beaker.

I'm not particularly worried about any mold for the following reasons:

1) I have been storing my stones lying flat (think - stack of pancakes) on top of some scrap 2x4's with some wood spacers between them for the past several months and have never had any mold issues (note that they are stored inside the house in a heated basement)

2) The area of contact between the 2x4's on my new storage rack is very small.  It is maybe one cm² of contact area where the water could theoretically "wick" from the stone to the wood. Counteracting that moisture transfer is the large surrounding surface area of the wood, which is constantly drying out, trying to reach equilibrium with the (low) room humidity.

3) If I notice it to be a problem, I will add these foam corner protectors where the stones rest on the 2x4's (see picture).  These are medium density foam protectors that come in a roll and are sold to keep toddlers from bumping their heads on sharp table corners etc. (nerf the world!).

Beaker.

As CBWX described, the "push function" is merely to allow smooth movement between the preset indents where the trough locks into place. I suppose if this design were any other way it would require a two-handed multi step operation.  Release the screw, raise the trough, and then re-lock in place.  As is - a very good design. I never used the earlier T-7, but I understand the water trough was not so easy to remove + raise /lower as on the T-8.  By all accounts the T-8 is a marked improvement.

Rich,

A very good point.  As designed, my stones will start to "bottom out" once the hit about 8 1/4" (210mm) diameter.  Good thing the entire construction is with wood screws and easily disassembled.  I think when my stones start approaching that diameter I will, in fact trim down the struts and dividers to about 6 ½" as you suggest. Thanks for the keen observation.

Beaker.

On a few occasions I have inadvertently knocked over one of my Tormek stones during a sharpening session.  I just completed a small stone storage rack build that should avoid this problem in the future.  Very simple build and all made from scrap 2x4's and 2x2's.  Dimensions are shown in the attached picture.  Just thought I would share in the even someone else would like to build something similar.