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For some reason the grinding wheel is "off center" or wobbles up and down while spinning.  It is very easy to see the wheel moving up and down when sharpening.

Is there an easy way to correct this?

I am personally under the impression that the scissors should be ground with the stone turning away from the scissors to remove the chatter.  The only trick is to make sure that the scissors do not slip or move while grinding.  I have not tried that method at this time.  My scissors are still sharp.

I have been sharpening a lot of knives, and I rarely use the SVM-100 Long Knife Jig.  I do not come across many long, thin knives, although those knives do exist.  As long as the long knife is rigid, I use the SVM-45.  It is easier to make sure that the drop point is sharpened with a constant angle with the SVM-45 jig.

I come across a lot of baby knives that are just too small for the SVM-45 Small Knife Jig.  Many people carry pocket knives that are too small for the SVM-45.  The baby knives are also too small to get in the SVM-45 without the jaws interfering with the stone.  The universal tool rest, SVD-110, even when modified for maneuvering small tools does not seem to work well.  The nice micrometer adjustment capabilities of the SVM-45 and SVM-100 are also gone with that toolrest.

Is Tormek looking to make a "Baby" knife jig, perhaps a SVM-20?

This jig would have smaller, thinner jaws.  The thinner jaws could then clamp on the knife without hitting the stone.  The smaller jaws would allow the jig to clamp on the knife without overhanging the blade.

The distance from the "adjustable stop" to the jaws would have to be smaller on the "baby" knife jig, so the smaller radius drop points on the baby knives could be sharpened without a significant change in the edge angle could be held more constant.  The center of the drop radius on the knife should coincide with the adjustable stop location to keep the edge angle constant along the drop point of the knife.  Keeping the center of the radius of the drop point coincident with the adjustable stop location is much more critical with the baby knives.

The adjustable stop on that baby knife jig would need a more spherical surface than the SVM-45 and SVM-100 to allow the smaller knife to be maneuvered easily.  

The SVX-150 Scissor Jig and the SVH-60 Straight Edge Jig are mounted on the UTS with plastic bushings.

As the jigs are moved back and forth, they start to stick to the UTS.  This makes it difficult to move the jigs back and forth with delicate precision.

Is there a good lubricant that can be applied to the UTS to make sure that those two jigs do not "stick and slip" when moving back and forth?

The problem seems to be more common with the micro-adjusting UTS.

When cleaning up the tool sharpener, the water tray has to be emptied.  When the water tray is removed, the water that soaked into the stone drips on the table and creates a mess.

There is a trick to keep this water spillage to a minimum.

Stop the motor.  Lower the water tray.  Turn on the motor to spin the stone.  Remove the water tray.  Empty the water (not in the sink).  Place the tray under the stone.  Turn off the motor.

The water has a harder time dripping off the stone if the stone is spinning.

When honing on the strop, a black mess forms on the strop and falls off.  Those "boogers" fall on the table and smear when trying to clean them off the table.

Is there a good way to catch the "boogers" and prevent them from smearing on the table?

Since the "boogers" contain oil, dirt, honing compound, and some metal material, they are difficult to clean up.

The "boogers" come off at different locations, so the "boogers" end up under and to the front and rear of the machine.

When honing tools, the leather strop becomes "grabby".  If the strop is "wet" with oil, then the strop exerts an even pull while honing.  If the strop is unevenly "wet", the strop pulls when the tool hits a dry spot.

The solution is to keep the strop "wet" with oil or honing compound.  If I keep the strop "wet" with a light film of honing compound, that is way too much honing compound.  If I keep the strop "wet" with an oil, the oil oozes out while honing.

Is there a specific type of oil that can be used to keep the strop just slightly "wet"?

I have tried everything that I can think of as an oil, and nothing seems to work well.  Nothing seems to penetrate the strop to retain a slight film to prevent the strop from being "grabby".

When sharpening scissors according to the method in the book, there is a lot of chatter or instability at the grinding interface.

Is there a recommended method to keep the chatter down to a minimum?

The chatter happens in the region where the scissor is not clamped in the jig, AND it happens in the region where the scissor is clamped in the jig.

If there is no chatter, there are straight lines where the grinding wheel removed material or pulled out grains, depending on the material and heat treatment.

If there is chatter, the grinding marks leave a rough surface that does not have the normal grinding marks.  The surface looks slightly dull, and the surface finish will snag on newspaper when it is drawn across the surface.  The actual shearing surfaces do not cut well if the tool was ground while chatter was going on.

I like the tool grinder, except there is no way to make sure that the UTS is parallel to the grinding wheel's cutting surface.

The single point-dressing tool can "true" the surface of the wheel with a taper to the side or even to an out of round condition.  There is no way to true the wheel flat or parallel to the UTS.  I can true the grinding wheel on a surface grinder just fine, because the parts are rigidly held in alignment during the truing process.  The XYZ table ensures that the alignment is square.  The UTS can get out of alignment when the screws are loosened to move it up or down.  I can measure how crooked it gets, and it is significant when sharpening chisels.

If the UTS is moved up or down to adjust the height, the UTS to wheel relationship can go out of parallel.  There is nothing to ensure that the UTS and grinding wheel are parallel.

That condition is not a problem when sharpening knives or scissors, but it shows up time and time again when sharpening chisels.

Thanks for the reply.

I am not sure how to ensure that the UTS (Universal Tool Support) is parallel to the stone every time.

The UTS can be mounted in the two supports and clamped down with the knobs, but that does not mean that the UTS is parallel to the stone.  I can make the UTS slant to the left or slant to the right, and it can be different each time.  There is nothing to force the UTS to remain parallel to the stone or at least ensure that the UTS is canted the same way each time.

In theory, I can true the stone every time I reattach the UTS or even adjust the the UTS up or down, but truing the stone that often takes its toll on the stone.  (The stone is expensive.)  Also, the diamond cutter does not ensure that the stone is parallel to the UTS.  The diamond cutter is a point, not a line, so the diamond cutter does not force the stone to be parallel to the UTS.  I can use the diamond cutting tool to make the stone tapered to the UTS, because it cuts one point at a time.

In other words, the mounting mechanism for the UTS allows the UTS to be out of parallel in a different way each time the UTS is mounted or adjusted.  That out of "parallelness" is then projected to the chisel.  The chisel is out of square the same amount that the UTS is out of parallel.

You can see the same thing for yourself when you put the UTS in the two mounting holes.  The UTS can be canted to the left or to the right.  There is play between the UTS and the mounting holes, and that play makes the UTS out of alignment.  The misaglignment is different each time the UTS is mounted or adjusted; that is the problem.

That is not a problem when I sharpen knives or scissors (due to the design of those jigs), but it is a problem when I try to sharpen chisels.

I am looking for a good way to mount the UTS and ensure that it is parallel to the stone.  There has to be some sort of gauge design that can be made to ensure that the UTS is parallel to the stone.

I will try the adjustment procedure that you mentioned again to micro-adjust the chisel.  Maybe I was missing something?

I am still pleased with the Tormek sharpener.  I think that an improvement can be made to ensure that the UTS is parallel to the stone via some sort of gauge.  Moving the chisel to the left and right can correct for SOME misalignment of the UTS, but it cannot correct for all the misalignment.

Thanks for the advice.

The chisels are square in the SVH-60 jig.  I checked that with a machinist's square.

Thr problem is that the universal tool support is not held square when it gets clamped to the machine.

I tried Torgny's advice to tweak the tool in the SVH-60 jig, and the "simple adjustment procedure" in the third paragraph of the tech sheet.  The procedure does not work to change the angle of the tool in the jig, nor does it change the "short point", "long point" thing to make the chisel square.

The problem is that the universtal tool support is not held square when it gets clamped to the machine.  The clearance between the universal tool support and the location where it gets clamped into the machine allows the universal tool support to be out of square.  If there are any tolerances with the machine, that can also cause the universal tool support to be out of square.  If the universal tool support is out of square, adjusting the SVH-60 jig to be square is hopeless.  The chisel will be out of square to the same amount that the universal tool support is out of square.


*This is NOT the problem that I am described above; it is a suggestion to improve the SVH-60 jig.

The SVH-60 jig could be much improved if the two things to hold the chisel square were lengthed to be taller.  A lot of chisels have clearance cuts on the side, so the two little posts to keep the chisel square are too short to contact the chisel.

Thanks

I keep on running into problems when I sharpen chisels.  The chisels sharpen to a nice edge, but the edge is not 90 degrees or square.  The chisels are mounted up against the two posts to keep the chisel straight, but the chisels end up crooked.

The toolrest is not remaining square to the grinding wheel, and the out of square angle shows up as a sharpened edge that is not square.

I end up tuning the chisel a little to the left or right to compensate for the toolrest not being square to the grinding wheel.

Has anyone found a good way to ensure that the toolrest is square or prallel to the grinding wheel?

I think that will cure the problem with the chisels being sharpened out of square.