Hi,
I'm new to the Tormek world, and I am sharpening all my woodworking tools. While sharpening my chisels I found the stone cut very rapidly. I understand this is due to the width of the blade. When I transitioned to the plane irons it seems after re-truing the stone it got fairly smooth rather quickly. I used the stone grader to keep the wheel course, but it still seemed to not cut as fast as "I think it should". I have never graded the wheel to 1000 grit. How frequently do I need to regrade the stone?
Welcome to the forum, Huang.
Just a quick reply before I take my grandchildren to school: The coarse side of the stone grader is not as coarse as a freshly dressed wheel using the TT-50 truing tool. If your coarse graded wheel is not cutting fast enough for your task, try using the truing tool with a very light cut. I generally use a third to a half of a microadjust number. This exposes fresh, sharp cutting grains with minimal wheel wear.
More later.
Ken
Quote from: Huang on February 28, 2019, 06:32:29 AM
Hi,
I'm new to the Tormek world, and I am sharpening all my woodworking tools. While sharpening my chisels I found the stone cut very rapidly. I understand this is due to the width of the blade. When I transitioned to the plane irons it seems after re-truing the stone it got fairly smooth rather quickly. I used the stone grader to keep the wheel course, but it still seemed to not cut as fast as "I think it should". I have never graded the wheel to 1000 grit. How frequently do I need to regrade the stone?
I don't sharpen these... but did a search and ran across this post from Jeff Farris in another forum... (used to be the Tormek rep/demonstrator)...
Quote from: https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/faster-grinding-tormek-79636/#post85197Hi Bob. Someone linked me to this message, and I thought I might try to help. I sell the TORMEK system and provide all of their service work for the United States. I really think that you already have what you need, except a little knowledge.
Get a little more aggressive with the stone grader. Really lean into it, and tip it up so that only the corner is engaged onto the wheel. Scrub it hard. You should not be able to see any residue on the surface of the stone -- that is no black, brown, or rusty colored streaks on the stone surface. It should feel considerably more abrasive at this point.
In demonstrations all over the country I beat up a Marples 1 inch wide bench chisel with an Estwing hatchet, and have the nicks out in just a couple minutes.
I have heard from my UK counterpart that the Peter Child wheels aren't that keen, particularly for bench tools. I may check them out myself and see if I want to bring them in. I'll report back here if they look promising, but until then, try getting a little more aggressive with the grader -- it'll work.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/faster-grinding-tormek-79636/#post85197
Thanks to all who replied. Using the corner and leaning into the machine with the stone grader did the trick
I did a small set of chisels this week that were in pretty bad shape. Leaning into the grader did help and the job went by pretty quickly.
The result was a set of very sharp wood working tools.
This was a barter job. I got some great marinade/sauce from a small Tennessee company for the chisel work.
I do feel a little bad that I did not restore the rest of the tools so that they looked as good as the ground edge. But I think that will cost him another bottle.
John,
I see you are whetting their appetite for more !
Kind regards,
Rich