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11 Months later I was amazed this was still on the top few of the posts on here!

I bought the BGM-100 so I could do the re-profiling on my standard dry grinder, now all my tools are at the right profile to work with the Tormek Jigs I seldom need to use that any more, as discussed last year practice does improve results and I have been sharpening constantly with the Tormek once all my tools were the right shape. Back last year the rep did promise to call in and swap my grind stone for his demo one as I was convinced that mine was faulty due to losing so much diameter, he never turned up, so it never happened but by October I had to buy a new stone as mine was down to 7" (lost about ½" a month) and what a difference! the new one makes the tool work as expected, within days of fitting the new stone I knew why the Tormek was rated as a great tool. if only I had pursued the issue and taken the stone into the dealer or to a show the rep was at, then I would have had a great tool much earlier..

Thanks all for the replies, I am seeing a rep on Friday, maybe he can show me the error of my ways, stone is 7mm smaller than when I set it up, water tank is constantly full of grindstone, now with practice my main gouges are as sharp as they used to be freehand from a grindwheel (have only re-profiled a few so far).

Day 3 and I have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomache, the one you get when you realise you have been a fool and been conned out of your hard earned.

Looks like I will need to spend another $100 to get  $1 worth of stainless steel bent and welded to a 50c bolt, marketed as the BGM-100... so that I can shape my tools on my existing grinder so that's $1000 for a polishing machine and $100 for a piece of bent metal that I can then build into a jig support myself and use with my existing grinder which will heat the metal to damage point in the process of shaping it.... which will actually leave it sharp.... and a leather wheel on the other end of my grinder could have removed burr and polished the surface to a mirror shine for $10

Very annoyed and disapointed in myself for falling for the hype.

Hi Jeff

Thanks for the input, I have to learn how this system works, seems to take nothing off for ages then bites in and I get the point! I know, it's practice! and I have some old stuff to learn on!

Think I will be using the hand and eye milling process too, will be pretty close! ended up using a quadrant of timber to clamp the small gouges, Still not happy with the machine, but it is getting better. just a lot different to what I am used to so the "feel" is not there.

Have also done roughing gouges, and wide and narrow parting tools 6mm and 2mm today, actually pleased with the roughing gouge first edge I would say was better than I am used to. may have another go at the Skew tomorrow!

Confidence in new Tormek reaches new low, on sharpening a 10mm Spindle gouge just after redressing the stone for the 3rd time in 2 days both wings were just fine, rolling the entire gouge instantly gave me a pointed end not a curve, and worse than that it gave me a grove in the stone, is it supposed to be that soft?

I took delivery of my T7 with woodturners kit yesterday, cost as much as my lathe, but having seen some Tormek sharp tools decided I had to have it... previous method is Record 8" dry grinder with Sorby jig.

First tool I attempted was my Skew, BAD idea... 3 hours later and it was not as sharp as it gets off my Record in 2 minutes. needs reshaping by about 2degrees to work in the jig. have read a few posts on here and will have another go at it.

But just as I was about to give up and bin the Tormek, I reshaped and sharpend a bowl gouge. This one did work not much difference in the shape so after 15 minutes I have a very workable edge, not like the DVD mirror shine but OK for first attempt. So the investment is not going straight to the bin.

But then I tried my spindle gouges, OK on the large ones, absolutely many of the worn ones require clamping on the round as the flute is not long enough to fit the clamp into them. Have considered putting a flat onto the top of the gouge to make it clamp repeatably, but how do others manage?

Next problem is the Tormek jig won't hold the small 5mm spindle gouges at all is it only possible to do these free hand? or does someone have a solution?

I know new tools need learning, and I will give it more time, but have to say at the moment I don't love the tormek much at all.

Pete