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It takes practice. I judge the angle by starting low then raising the angle until I feel it grip. Too high and it will definitely round over.

If you use too little compound then it will stop cutting the steel and just rub it. You only need a small amount but you need to apply it often. Every couple of knives I find is best. The idea is that the compound is just on the surface of the wheel. The particles quickly wear smooth, so you need to re-apply often to keep god sharp particles.

Finally, don't apply too much pressure. If the compound is fresh then it will do the job for you. If it is not then you can be tempted to apply too much pressure thus causing your round over.

Practice these skills and you will go much faster with time.

I found mine on AliExpress. I just searched for hand held digital magnifier.

I was watching BigClive's electronics channel on You Tube and in a recent video he was using this electronic microscope. I thought that it might be handy for sharpening so I bought myself one. It cost about $26 Australian including shipping.

Here it is looking at the micro bevel created using a 5000 grit shapton stone on my Narex Richter chisel.

The reason is because the grader is silicon carbide, the same material as the wheel. I seem to recall that they say that it can be used to grade the wheel but using a material of the same hardness would be problematic. You could also try a diamond dressing tool but not sure of the exact grit they use. They are only a few $$ on AliExpress. It does appear to be quite coarse.

I agree. I would freehand. Go very slowly and take your time.

Heavy cambering is usually used for rough initial planning.

Good summary Ken. A plane with heavy cambering is called a "Scrub Plane". I have a plane that was purpose built as a scrub plane with the length of a jack plane a narrowish sole and heavy camber with rudimentary settings. It quickly flattens boards ready for the jointing plane. Unfortunately the camber is too heavy for the SE-77 so I use the SVD-110 at the set angle and freehand the camber.

I have good shed lighting, but not quite enough when sharpening. I have two additional 18W rectangular LED lights over the sharpening area which helps a lot.

I am betting it is the same as the magnifying glass in the DBS-22 Drill Bit Sharpening Attachment

It is not. It has a separate part number and looks different in the product images.

I know in Australia the woodworking stores have several Tormek knock offs and I think the UK would be much the same. They come in at about AU$400 which is probably around 200 pounds or less. The wheels are interchangeable.

If it is just surface rust then I would use Ballistol as a lubricant on some wet&dry - 80-120 as rolsen says. Ballistol disolves surface rust and also lubricates and protects. As for flattening, it does depend on how out of flat it is. If it is way out then it may require a LOT of patience to flatten. You do really want it as flat as possible for best performance.

One of the better hand tool teachers is Paul Sellars. A man with a lot of experience and a great teacher. His plane restoration video is here.

https://paulsellers.com/2016/01/restoring-bench-plane-video-on-youtube/

If it were me ... at the risk of restating other people's posts! ... I would heel and tip grind on the SJ which is all you need really. It creates the secondary bevel with one advantage. You can hand sharpen just the secondary bevel on a hand sharpening stone between regrinds on the Tormek by placing the heel/tip on the stone. This gets you back to work much faster.

This is what I do with my woodworking tools. I use a 5,000 Shapton and leather strop to get me back to work without breaking out the Tormek. I rest the tip and heel on the stone which makes it easy to refresh the edge. It only takes about 30 seconds to re-establish an edge. The hollow grind makes this an ideal technique for keeping tools sharp. After a while I can break out the Tormek and re-establish the hollow grind on multiple tools I find this much more efficient.

It is nice to have if you are making YouTube videos.

Ha ha - too true.

Another use is if you are going after ultimate sharpness for some reason it gives you an idea of how various techniques work.

Absolutely agree. And well done.

Yup. That all the BESS is. A general guide. Indeed IMHO the BESS is over priced and over rated.

Tormek IT replied that according to our hosting service, we had an attack by a botnet.

My money weas on a DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack. All too common these days. Insecure smart devices making it easier.

Zinc machining must be a fairly new technology.

Not sure what you mean Ken. New to Tormek, or new in general. Casting zinc alloys has been around for many decades, see alloy wheels on cars, and alloy engines and parts. I think that it was more expensive than steel fabricated parts which may have been a disincentive. Also new alloys have been developed with more strength and resistance to fracture and this may have also been a contributing factor.

Perhaps someone on speaking terms with the Tormek people could ask them what their decision making process was.