Topics

Hi all,

Sun Tiger and Naniwa make aftermarket wheels in various grits.  

http://www.fine-tools.com/Tormek.html

Does anyone have any experience with these or others?

I recall reading some grumbles posted somewhere in webland about aftermarket wheels but can't find the source again.

TIA,

Ern

ADDED: apologies, I had done a search on 'aftermarket' and scanned the last few topic pages.  But Google delivered this:

http://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=897.0;wap2

Ionut, how's the wheel worked for you?

Too wide for the closed seat on the SVD50.

Any tips?

Was wondering whether the clamp screw would be enough to hold it with no seat at all.

In my experience no-one else comes within a country mile of the support Jeff gives us users on this forum.

Take a bow Jeff!

I really appreciate the prompt and no BS advice you give us.

Recently I acquired 3 wooden Mujingfang planes - a real bargain in the world of new planes.

Each has a 1 3/4" HSS blade, with coarse machining marks on the back.  A sharp edge requires both bevel and back to be polished.

If I had a dime for every minute spent lapping blade backs on stones I'd be a millionaire, and buying premium planes ;-}

I read somewhere that this could be done on the side of the Tormek.  And practised with two chisel backs.  This was a bit hairy as landing them flat with the wheel turning takes some skill.

My son dropped over a few days ago and I enlisted him to control the on/off switch.  That allowed me to register the backs properly with the wheel stopped.  Side on the mounting bar and a finger on each corner of the blade pushing it against the wheel side.

Wow!  It took about a minute to get the machining marks out and leave something approaching a polished finish.  Magic.  Two blades done in short order.

Seeing that there was a good bit of steel grit in the wheel sides, I hit them with the coarse grading stone.

That dropped the cutting power big time when it was time for the 3rd.  In fact after 2 minutes there was still a lot of steel to be removed.

That sent me to read through posts on this forum and it seems that what may be required is to press hard with the corner of the grading stone.

Sound right?

I can see that some care will be needed to apply it flat and square to the wheel face.

Hi Jeff!

The manual says to condition the wheel with light machine oil, if memory serves, and then charge the surface with the compound.

I've done this.  The leather soaked up a good deal of oil.

I assume the point is to get a thick slurry happening so that the oil and compound together soak into the leather.

What's happening when I hone is that the compound balls up and drops off.  There's little blackening of the strop that would indicate metal coming off.

I gave the two profiled leather wheels the same treatment, and trying to hone out the milling marks on a turning gouge flute soon got the tell-tale blackening of the surface.

So what am I doing wrong with the flat edge wheel?  Too little oil?  Oil's too thick?

Would appreciate your advice.

Best wishes for Easter,

Ern

Don't know what the T yellow tube is full of.

Note that in Leonard Lee's book on sharpening he recommends Al. Ox. for HSS  steel.

I'm thinking of getting the profiled leather wheel less for burr removal and more for polishing out the machining marks left in some gouges.

Any comments?

I was looking forward to dealing with a bunch of second hand bench chisels.  The bevels were all over the place and edges were knicked.

So I starting reshaping the bevel on the first with the BGM and the square edge jig that came with the new T-7.  The BGM is mounted to the right of the grinder.

It's convenient to be able to do a pass or two on the dry grinder and let the tool hang in the jig til it cools.

What was disappointing was that when transferred to the T-7 the chisel was too far to the right to touch the wheel and had to be repositioned so losing the advantage of transferability.  In fact the jig had to be turned upside down as only one side of the slot is at right angles.

It may be possible to move the BGM mount further away from the grinder than suggested in the manual so as to keep chisels to the left in the upside down jig; will have to see how that affects the gouge jig.  There's about 50mm in it.

I also found that taking the sharpened chisel from the T-7 and placing it in the Veritas Mark II honing guide on a stone produced a pronounced skew.  Maybe the wheel isn't true from new - something else to check.

My favorite spindle gouge comes new with a fairly short flute so it's not long before there's none for the stepped brass block to fit into.

The manual suggests grinding a flat on the shaft for the screw to lock down on.

It's hard to place this accurately.  (Any tips?)

I wonder whether this would work better: a slight cove on the bottom of the stepped brass block to allow it to sit crossways on the shaft.  Or indeed a 2nd block with a V groove running lengthways on the bottom.

Hi Jeff,

Same settings on both. 

Spindle gouge, sharpened at 35 degrees on the wetstone.  Gouge jig set at #2, projection 65mm, hole B using the TTS.

Transferred to the newly mounted BGM  --> about 5 degrees more acute (by eyeball).  Takes two full turns of the mount bar adjuster screw to get it roughly the same ( = bar coming further away from the wheel).

Is this normal or is there something I have overlooked?

Would appreciate your advice.

Cheers,  Ern

I'm finding the instructions a little unclear.

Looking at p. 7 of the manual to determine the height of the block ...

The table lists 2" for an 8" grinder, but is this the gap between the top of the block and the wheel centre (given as S in the diagram) or the height of the block (the table title)?

S is said to be the same for 8 and 10" grinders, and grinder mount heights vary, so I'm guessing the former is the way to go.

How have other users set theirs up?