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I see,  being young and ignorant I've tend to not think too much about dust safety. The dust collector is more as a means to keep the shop tidy. To my credit I do also have a trend airpro helmet. Although it's a bit heavy on the neck after sustained use.

Thanks for the advice!

Coming at it from a newbie angle the lack of suction gives me the impression that it won't suck up alot of shavings behind a lathe. I'll just have to give it a go and see the effect for myself

Hey guys, dunno if anyone can help me but I've have purchased a dust extractor a few months ago. Ive hardly used it tbh and only just realised that I don't actually know if it works correctly.

It is a record power cx3000. 0.560kw motor.

Thing is, how strong is the suction supposed to be? I never have had experiences with dust extraction systems before (home garage hobby) and so the only references are from vacuum cleaners. Tbh the suction feels rather underwhelming. For a woodworking shop vac, it doesn't feel that much stronger than a household hoover so I'm worried if the machine is faulty.

Any advice will be appreciated guys.

Unheeded?? Ken you pretty much pushed me into a business venture lol to be honest it's not that big of a risky investment because I use the tormek for my own personal gain as most of us here do lol

Hoping to keep posting and asking for others for sharpening advice!

Ah yes, I don't use the tormek for scissors, I used another machine but can't remember if we're allowed to discuss other products on here per the rules.

However I do exclusively use the tormek for knife sharpening though

Rather than starting yet another thread, but can anyone trouble shoot my drill bit sharpening woes?

I can now make my newly four faceted bits look good, they look like what theyre supposed to look like. HOWEVER, my drill bit still wanders when I try to drill with it.. Anyone wiser than me know why? I'm thinking if it's beside the bits are cheap Chinese ones or that shouldn't be a major factor.

Cheers,
Andrew

Heya guys,  I disappeared off for a good few weeks to go training at the encouragement of some of you lot on here. Have to say for me it was an expensive investment and that's exactly what it is, an investment! I'm now seriously considering a side venture as a tool sharpener in my local area and to be honest the whole thing is terrifying me! Worst of all is not being able to keep the standards up that I'd expect from my sharpening skills.

Strange how life takes weird turns and I hope this works out for me~

Teo things I need to focus on though regarding sharpening. One is to get good with the drill bit sharpening. I'm still hopeless with the DBS22 and I need to get good with professional scissor sharpening lol

Got my Japanese stone through the post this morning so very excited to try it out tonight after work

Is there a point to further honing a drill bit to 4000 grit with the SJ250 or will the regular stone suffice?

I got caught up in the whole wood expanding discussion and didn't want to deal with building a jig, and having to deal with the sliders not working right due to seasonal humidity changes.

Anyone know if all wood expand due to moisture or does it depend on the type of wood?

I bought a heavily discounted Birch chopping board for this very reason and I hear it's one of the hardest hardwoods around

Hey guys,

I'm turning on and off at the moment but I find my sanding and finishing very lackluster. I'm sure I'm doing it wrong but have a look at what I'm doing and advise me on what to change/improve:

I sand at 80, 220,  400 grit - this is due to sheer laziness and lack of grits in between

I rub sanding sealer all over the piece, leave to set for 15mins

I then rub carnauba/ beeswax onto workpiece, turning lathe speed as fast as possible, buffing with lint free cloth until the wax melts into the work piece.

There's a few dings here and there and some sanding marks. The result is passable but definitely way off for a professional finish. A little tackiness too on the work surface

I'm also using pine so maybe that's another factor? I turned a bit of oak the other night with the same methodology and the results weren't perfect but he'll of a lot nicer than with pine.

Firstly she's not my wife, she's a long term live together girlfriend which pretty much means the same thing minus the ring I'm supposed to spend money on (is it just me but I find it hard to justify spending hundreds on a little bit of circular metal?)

Plus I work on two adages

- what she doesn't know won't hurt her.

Failing that:

- it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

Either way I'm totally dead if she comes into the garage and decides to Google the words tormek plastered all over these machines. I'm even going as far as avoiding the word altogether and saying "a water grinding tool" when I discuss woodworking with her lol


I'm writing down plenty of questions to ask but don't want to completely inundate Robin with a list either.

Besides it's interesting getting responses off the guys here, everyone seems to know alot of indepth stuff when it comes to even the smallest thing sharpening related lol

Another problem just popped into my head. Does anyone know if wood glue would adhere to hdpe plastic?

I'm not familiar with plastic as a material but I'm sure that I read somewhere that pp plastic is notorious for not working with glue. If so I would be able to glue plastic runners to the board for a tablesaw jig..  I don't think screws alone would suffice

Sure Mark, I'll have to try it out once I get hold of some chopping boards. As luck would have it, someone chucked out the only thick chopping board I have in the house.

I'll have to source some somewhere. Quick check for hdpe plastic boards will end up setting me back £16 for the smallest ones including delivery. At that point I'd be better off treating myself to come baltic Birch plywood instead for runners.

When it's for myself I think I'll try to keep my tools are sharp as possible. Tried a bit of woodturning yesterday and have to admit, sharp tools make it so much fun!

Sorry ken, I know Ive been rabbiting on about saving money but I've dipped into my funds meant for buying nice things for the missus and ordered myself the SJ250!

Since I committed myself to getting professionally trained as a tool sharpener, one big question I would ask is whether we should be sharpening customers tools up to 4000 grit. I can't imagine changing the wheels around all the time as being very fun.


Hatchcanyon mentioned that a 4000 grit stone is more like 8000 grit if it's on a wheel. Can anyone care to expand on that? That sound very interesting to me. 

Hey guys,

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of using cut up strips of chopping board to make runners for tablesaw jigs.

Is it safe to plane down a little bit of plastic or will it seriously dull the blades on a thicknesser?