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I decided not to glue in the new sleeve. I used POM and made the sleeve press-fit:

Have you trued the grindstone? Have you tried sharpening something to see if the sleeve doesn't slip?

If you do need to glue it you would of course need a water proof glue. And you would have to make sure the grindstone is good and dry. I'm thinking maybe gorilla glue?

This new stand has renewed my vigor for sharpening! I had a lot of tools sitting around waiting for the next sharpening session, and it was a long wait. In the last couple of weeks I have sharpened at least 20 tools and knives.

I ended up covering the top of the stand with adhesive-backed vinyl shelf liner, as it quickly became clear that a painted surface on a MDF board would never hold up. The nice thing about this stand is that it's easy to replace the top, so I suspect I'll be going with a piece of melamine plywood in the future.

Getting the grindstone off to lubricate the main shaft was quite a chore. The EzyLock nut was frozen to the side of the SG-250 grindstone. Ken, I know you don't recommend channel locks, but I have to tell you that in this case even that wouldn't work. I had to break out a pipe wrench and a hammer! Now I follow your lead and remove the grindstone after every session. I also take the USB out, and of course I remove, empty, and clean the water trough. Then I cover the machine with an old towel because I'm too cheap to invest in the cover.

While visiting my neighbor I noticed a wood chisel lying on a table in his garage so I offered to sharpen it for him. Then he starts searching through his tool cabinet drawers for more chisels. Two of his chisels were a combination chisel and wood rasp, and I told him I couldn't sharpen those. So I took three wood chisels home with me. They had been used heavily by the old man over many years but had never been sharpened properly in their lives, even when they were new. It took me a long time to flatten the back and grind the bevel on the first one, and I was starting to have regrets, but fortunately the other two were made of much softer steel so they went quickly. I couldn't catch him home to return them, but the next day I saw his garage door open so I went over there and left them on that table, along with a band-aid. He called me within an hour to thank me and tell me that they had never been that sharp, even when they were new. He got a good laugh over the band-aid, too.

It was fun.

Oh, it drives me nuts! Not the way to teach or demonstrate! A 52-minute lesson on how to use the MB-100, but it's 12 minutes into the lesson before I catch the vaguest of notions on how to use it. Seventeen minutes before the use of the MB-100 becomes clear, and 32 minutes into the lesson before the machine is actually turned on the MB-100 is used to grind an edge.

Don't get me wrong, all the information they provide is useful, but if I'm interested in a lesson on how to use a tool, I want to see it being used at the very beginning of the lesson. That can then be followed with an in-depth discussion of all the subtleties associated with its use.

Here's the story of my repainting of my Supergrind 2000. As I state there I wish I had used electrolysis to remove the old paint and rust. (You can see homemade set-ups for electrolysis on YouTube.) It's held up very well over the years.

I also had a lot of trouble removing the grindstone from the main shaft and ended up buying a new grindstone and a new main shaft. The new main shaft is stainless steel and comes with the EzyLock feature, definitely worth the cost of the upgrade. You can read about it here.

I doubt very much you could true the side of the grindstone with the grading stone. Perhaps a diamond plate?

Another option might be to use spray-on contact cement to glue a full sheet of sandpaper to a flat table top, remove the grindstone, and rub it on the sandpaper. A flat surface can be created with a scrap of 3/4-inch MDF. Cut it a bit larger than the sheet of sand paper and fasten it to your benchtop with a few drywall screws, countersunk, of course.

My wife and I both have progressive lenses, and they work, but my wife has noted that the angle she had to hold her head at causes neck pains.

The lenses are too low. They can be raised up by moving the nose pads closer together. If there are no nose pads then the only solution is to have the lenses re-cut. They will usually do that for free, whether you have nose pads or not, if the glasses were recently purchased.

Are they using a honing rod to refine the edge? They should be doing that on a regular basis. I hone mine every time I use it. I've heard good things about ceramic honing rods.

You might want to talk to other restaurant managers to find out how often they have their knives sharpened, and what practices they use to keep them sharp. Certainly the knives should never be washed in an automatic dishwasher. I knew a sushi chef who sharpened his knife at the end of every shift.

I'm guessing that you might want to lower the angle to 50^o, as 60^o seem too blunt.

Ken, have you never tried progressive lenses? They seamlessly transition from far vision to near vision and everything in between. I've been using them for about 25 years now, ever since I first developed presbyopia and needed bifocals. Prior to that I had needed glasses since I was teenager for far vision. And also for astigmatism.

Glad you found a solution that works for you.

Herman, you have at least two qualities I really admire. You are an experienced, educated physicist who is also what I call a practical "Popular Mechanics Home Workshop" worker (a high compliment!). Your sharpening table not only suits the Tormek very well, like my recycled child's table, it can serve many uses without modification. One humble minor suggestion: Lumber stores sell packs of around a dozen pre cut wooden shims. They are inexpensive and useful for many things, including keeping tables from wobbling on uneven floors.

Ken

Thank you so much for the compliments, Ken.

It just so happens that I always keep a stack of those shims in my shop. They are very versatile. I also purchased some Air Wedge Bags recently that are also very handy to have for all kinds of handyman activities, and the hands-free operation means far less bending over to reach the ground.

This stand comes with one, yes only one, adjustable foot pad that can be placed on any one of the four legs. I was really disappointed that there weren't four of them. All you can do with one is keep it from rocking on a very uneven floor. Fortunately I don't need it. Especially since I plan to move the stand to different places around the shop and yard when I'm working on projects. (That was actually the original intent of the purchase, but then I realized it would be a dandy replacement for my clumsy homemade Tormek stand because it would take up less space and also become a multitasker).

I need a place to set all my tools and fasteners when I'm working on projects as it's a pain to keep bending all the way to the ground pick things up or set them down. My younger self would never even think such a thing would be needed, but I'm not as young as I used to be. So I plan to have only the Tormek on the stand, and two trays on the lower shelf, one with sharpening supplies such as the honing compound, and the other with tools and knives waiting for the next sharpening session. That way I can easily move everything off the stand to my nearby workbench when I need the stand for other purposes.

I would substitute "adequate" for "inferior" in your first sentence. I would also classify your support bar threading as perfectly adequate.

Thanks, Ken. I should mention that in addition to threading the support bar, I filed the side that faces the set screw flat. The homemade adjuster nut spins freely with just a fling of the finger. Every time I see Tormek come out with a new modification I try to modify mine to serve the same purpose, buy that new part, or live without it. For example, I have neodymium magnets hot glued to the outside of the water trough, another modification not present in 2002 when I bought my machine.

I think the new stand will prove to be more than adequate. I have a wooden box (an "in box" from back in the day when we placed sheets of incoming paper memos on our desks) that I use to hold accessories. I forgot to put that on the lower shelf when I took the photo, also forgot the water trough. It's an overcast day here, perfect for photography, but it was starting to sprinkle just as I was getting ready to take the photo, so I had to rush things.

Most of my jigs hang from the wall just behind the sharpening station. I don't have a dedicated workshop. We have a two-stall attached garage so I have to roll my table saw out of the way if I want to park both vehicles. But I do have access to all my tools; and room to use the sharpening station, my dry grinder, and my workbench even when both vehicles are parked in the garage. It's just a few steps from my kitchen to my sharpening station, and I don't have to go outdoors.

Herman, did you paint your Tormek?

Yes, back in 2014. See the last paragraph of my post, Rich.

This is an inferior substitute for the TS-740 Sharpening Station, but it is a more compact and affordable alternative.

It's the PowerTek Universal Stand Model No. UT1002 available from Home Depot.

A word of warning: The table top and lower shelf are made of bare MDF and so have to be painted so they'll be waterproof and be able to stand up to use.

The top surface is at a height of 32 inches (810 mm), which is within the adjustable height range of the TS-740, and seems like a good height for me as I'm 73.8 inches (1.87 m) tall.

A few things you might be wondering about my Tormek. I purchased it new in 2002 and the original color was green. Due to my lack of care the finish was peeling and the steel was rusting in spots. Long time forum members might recall that I documented the refinishing here. I also modified the Universal Support by threading the shaft and adding my own homemade adjuster knob, which is the plastic top of juice container with a nut embedded in it with bondo.

I've had that happen a number of times. Fortunately, I never got hurt. My suggestion would be to wear a long leather apron and good shoes, but I doubt anyone (myself included) would be inclined to take that advice. Unfortunately, it takes a severe accident for people to become safety-minded.

Reminds me of my first teaching position. A year or two before my arrival a student was permanently blinded in the chemistry lab. She wasn't even a student in the class, but had just stopped by to wait for her friend, who was enrolled in the class and was just finishing up her lab activities when the accident happened. After that everyone was careful and safety-minded, and I carried that with me throughout my career at two other colleges.

Strangely enough, another professor at that same college had recently lost an eye while playing tennis.

I really do need to be more diligent about wearing my safety glasses when I'm in the shop or working around the house, or playing pickleball.

Get some mouse traps, too. Or at least some rat poison if you don't have pets. 

Hi, Herman. I am glad you posted. I assume your "homemade jig" is the famous "Herman's Homemade Small Platform" so familiar to the oldtime members of this forum. Sadly, your homemade jig may not be familiar to many of our newer members.

Thanks, Ken. Anyone can do a YouTube search using my name and easily find the video I posted many years ago. It shows the prototype, which I have refined a bit, but it gives the basic idea.

The main thing people need to understand is that you have to use the base of the scissors jig, because the tool rest leaves the knife too far away from the grindstone. The scissors jig base is still usable for sharpening scissors, you just have to remove the platform, which is easy to do.