Hi - I am a new Tormek T7 owner and these are a stream of comments after my very first use of the planer jig.
While this jig proved to be much more difficult and required far more TIME than I had hoped - I do believe that is simply due to my inexperience.
I have RAPIDLY sharpened my skews and chisels to a level of sharpness I am completely unfamiliar with and delighted about. So I believe in the tormek system....though I am yet to be convinced of this jig. Most woodworkers justify the purchase of this machine and jig partly based on the economics that they could sharpen their planer or in my case jointer blades in house. Time spent sharpening in my case was left out of that equation. I will return to the forum to update progress (read: the time it takes to sharpen (3) 12" blades, 1.125" x 0.125" thick) as I learn to use this particular jig and improve my technique.
Setup was pretty straightforward and seemed sort of clear according to the instructions. I was a little unsure how to best set the angle most effectively for converting my straight ground blades to the curve of the wheel...I fell victim in the beginning to having the gap between the angle set screw and the carrier....which from the forum seems common. I thought this at first was the transition necessary from flat to curved bevel....and the sharpie pen test agreed.
I tried at the beginning to sharpen the full 12" of my blades by adjusting the stops. I found the cantilever design flexes quite a bit - so I am unsure how much pressure to use with the jig. The carrier and base of the jig have quite a bit of play between them. My stone is flat but its kind of funny to stress about your stone being flat while the entire jig flexes? For the first and second blades I only sharpened 10" but then switched back to trying for the whole 12".
I also found that that it was easy at the far right edge to have the carrier push off the base at an angle - once in my case the blade chipped a 1/4" out of the right edge of my stone in the first five minutes when the carrier slipped off (I realize now this was because I had uneven pressure). But its actually really easy to do if you are sharpening for about 8 hours like I did on this set of (3) knives. I had this problem (falling off the base) a few other times when the carrier started to stick a bit. That stickiness has since been remedied with a drop of mineral oil (per the forum recommendations).
Why 8 hours: My knives had small nicks from a nail hit - and I believe this was also due to me not grading the stone frequently enough. Now I regrade the stone every 10 passes ...does this seem excessive? Doesn't all of that regrading take the stone out of true...I found my setup had changed due to the wheel diameter / and or uneven grading shifting from my first to my third blade.
It cuts much faster without the stone being loaded....trying to touch the stone often to get used to the feel.
What is the best technique for regrading the stone? I wish there was a way to re-flatten the stone (because its quite course) without removing the planer jig. I was tempted to leave the planer jig attached and regrade the stone with the truer attached to the horizontal support...
It makes me nervous to aggressively regrade in front of the base of the jig - I have visions of the grader catching and rotating up into the angled edge of the planer jig base.
Is there a rule of thumb for lateral traveling speed at which to move back and forth that I should follow?
It felt like with less water in the trough that it cut faster also...or maybe that just meant the stone was dirtier....
I have removed the roller pin so I can do the whole 12" but am a little nervous about running off the edge now - perhaps I did this too soon.
Mine had to be filed down..rather than pulled out. It is still possible for the carrier to fall of the base of the jig even with the pin in...so why not do the whole thing.
I'm surprised by how unflat the leather wheel is...and also don't really have a clue how to hone the burr properly. In the holder or out? I see for the disposable blades it being recommended in the holder - but for a wider blade?
After 8 hours I gave up (too early) and put the blades back on the machine with a few remnants of the previous nail nicks too...need to work. The $15-20 I routinely pay to have a service do a mediocre 80 grit flat sharpening seems like a bargain at the moment...but again this is my first marathon.
I will check this again and will leave comments after I have a bit more experience.
My third blade went much faster than the first two thanks to increased regrading...I am optimistic.
A secondary bevel seems like a good idea.
While this jig proved to be much more difficult and required far more TIME than I had hoped - I do believe that is simply due to my inexperience.
I have RAPIDLY sharpened my skews and chisels to a level of sharpness I am completely unfamiliar with and delighted about. So I believe in the tormek system....though I am yet to be convinced of this jig. Most woodworkers justify the purchase of this machine and jig partly based on the economics that they could sharpen their planer or in my case jointer blades in house. Time spent sharpening in my case was left out of that equation. I will return to the forum to update progress (read: the time it takes to sharpen (3) 12" blades, 1.125" x 0.125" thick) as I learn to use this particular jig and improve my technique.
Setup was pretty straightforward and seemed sort of clear according to the instructions. I was a little unsure how to best set the angle most effectively for converting my straight ground blades to the curve of the wheel...I fell victim in the beginning to having the gap between the angle set screw and the carrier....which from the forum seems common. I thought this at first was the transition necessary from flat to curved bevel....and the sharpie pen test agreed.
I tried at the beginning to sharpen the full 12" of my blades by adjusting the stops. I found the cantilever design flexes quite a bit - so I am unsure how much pressure to use with the jig. The carrier and base of the jig have quite a bit of play between them. My stone is flat but its kind of funny to stress about your stone being flat while the entire jig flexes? For the first and second blades I only sharpened 10" but then switched back to trying for the whole 12".
I also found that that it was easy at the far right edge to have the carrier push off the base at an angle - once in my case the blade chipped a 1/4" out of the right edge of my stone in the first five minutes when the carrier slipped off (I realize now this was because I had uneven pressure). But its actually really easy to do if you are sharpening for about 8 hours like I did on this set of (3) knives. I had this problem (falling off the base) a few other times when the carrier started to stick a bit. That stickiness has since been remedied with a drop of mineral oil (per the forum recommendations).
Why 8 hours: My knives had small nicks from a nail hit - and I believe this was also due to me not grading the stone frequently enough. Now I regrade the stone every 10 passes ...does this seem excessive? Doesn't all of that regrading take the stone out of true...I found my setup had changed due to the wheel diameter / and or uneven grading shifting from my first to my third blade.
It cuts much faster without the stone being loaded....trying to touch the stone often to get used to the feel.
What is the best technique for regrading the stone? I wish there was a way to re-flatten the stone (because its quite course) without removing the planer jig. I was tempted to leave the planer jig attached and regrade the stone with the truer attached to the horizontal support...
It makes me nervous to aggressively regrade in front of the base of the jig - I have visions of the grader catching and rotating up into the angled edge of the planer jig base.
Is there a rule of thumb for lateral traveling speed at which to move back and forth that I should follow?
It felt like with less water in the trough that it cut faster also...or maybe that just meant the stone was dirtier....
I have removed the roller pin so I can do the whole 12" but am a little nervous about running off the edge now - perhaps I did this too soon.
Mine had to be filed down..rather than pulled out. It is still possible for the carrier to fall of the base of the jig even with the pin in...so why not do the whole thing.
I'm surprised by how unflat the leather wheel is...and also don't really have a clue how to hone the burr properly. In the holder or out? I see for the disposable blades it being recommended in the holder - but for a wider blade?
After 8 hours I gave up (too early) and put the blades back on the machine with a few remnants of the previous nail nicks too...need to work. The $15-20 I routinely pay to have a service do a mediocre 80 grit flat sharpening seems like a bargain at the moment...but again this is my first marathon.
I will check this again and will leave comments after I have a bit more experience.
My third blade went much faster than the first two thanks to increased regrading...I am optimistic.
A secondary bevel seems like a good idea.