Topics

Storing the wet, used grindstones has been a bit of problem for me, until recently.  Previously, I laid them on a grooved, plastic work table and turned them occasionally as they dried out.  It took such a long time for them to dry enough to put them back in their boxes, such that, that began to not happen. 

A couple of months ago I needed to travel with them, so I stacked them, with towels between, in one of those plastic milk boxes.  I also brought along a long 12mm rod and placed them on the rod and hung them in the milk box when not in use.  I've been doing that ever since.  Takes up a little floor space, but could be put up somewhere.  However, I like keeping them as close to the floor as possible, should they ever get dropped or bumped and toppled over. 


I haven't thought about it much, but I'll need to figure out how to store the diamond wheels once they get here.  The milk box may be a good option for them, even though they don't need to hang and dry quite like the grindstones. 

What are some of the ways you guys store grindstones?

Rick

I just bought a new "low speed" (1750rpm) bench grinder with aluminum oxide wheels, meant for sharpening HSS wood turning tools, etc., in the absence of a wet grinding system such as the Tormek.  My use will be for rough grinding of drills and other HSS tools before taking them to the Tormek for finish grinding and sharpening.  I am in the process of mounting the grinder and installing Tormek's BGM-100 Bench Grinder Mounting Set on a base board to allow use of the Tormek USB and related jigs. 

The design purpose and installation instructions for the BGM-100 seem to be focused exclusively on sharpening of wood turning tools, based on the manual that comes with the BGM-100: "Shaping and Sharpening Woodturning Tools on Your Bench Grinder".  On page 7 of the manual are a  couple of diagrams and some text showing and describing how to make a base board, with dimensions for the board based and horizontal distance of the back side of the mounting bracket from the vertical centerline of the grinder spindle.  There is an adjustable mounting :block" that allows varying the height of the XB-100 USB bracket from 56mm (2.2") to 89mm (3.5"), based on the wheel size of your bench grinder. 



There is, however, no information about how high to mount the bracket so the USB is at a good height relative to the grinding wheel, based on the size of the wheel.  This seems strange to me as the USB height, relative to the horizontal centerline of the wheel seems like it should matter and the adjustable block makes that possible.  So, why not guidance from Tormek on (approximately) where the USB should be relative the the grinder centerline?  Particularly since jigs other than those for woodturning tools may depend on that vertical relationship. 

Who among us has already installed a BGM-100 and what did you do in regard to setting the USB height? 

I ask more out of sheer curiosity, as I believe it will not matter in my case because I will be using a version of the modification of adding an adapter to hold an XB-100 in a vertical position which is adjustable away from the front horizontal USB mounting holes. This allows both the height and horizontal location of the USB to be varied, in relation to the centerline of the grind stone. 



I want the USB bar to be as close to horizontal as possible, but using the provided "adjustable block", there is not apparent method of ensuring the top and bottom are parallel. To satisfy my internal need, I used an adjustable parallel placed between the top and bottom brackets to ensure parallelism of the bracket surfaces.  Anything of suitable thickness could be used, it sure doesn't need to an adjustable parallel.



I set the height so the USB bar clears the front lower lip of the grinding wheel housing so that the bar could be set to within a couple mms of the wheel.  That height is 58.7mm (2.3").  The resulting height differential between the top of the USB bar and the horizontal centerline of the grinder is 28.5mm (1.235").  Beside the practical clearing of the wheel cover, it looks and feels good (right) (refer back to the second photo).  I'll have to wait to actually get it all installed and tried out with some drill bits to find out if it really is. 

Rick

As part of sharpening things at my friend Bill's, last came sharpening some wood turning tools.  A bowl gouge, parting tool and a flat shew chisel.  Bowl gouge was first and went according to plan, using the Gouge Jig (SVD-186).  This is a sophisticated and well designed jig and the instructions were clear and informative. 

The Multi Jig seems so as well, but I ran into a couple of issues, both with the parting tool and the skew chisel.

First, the parting tool, used with the open seat of the jig.  Actually, the issue was with use of the assembled jig on the USB and not with setting the parting tool up in the jig (as is the issue with the skew chisel, below).  The parting tool mounts in the jig with its wide axis vertical, which presumably aligns it perpendicular with the horizontal bottom edge of the jig.  The jig is then held on the USB for grinding of the front face of the parting tool. 

The problem I ran into is that while the jig holds the parting tool perpendicular to the stone, there is nothing to keep the jig from rolling right or left, causing the long axis of the parting tool to no longer be vertical.  This results in a crowned front cutting edge of the parting tool.  Ever so slightly crowned, with concentrated effort to keep the tool vertical, but none-the-less, crowned.  It seems the jig is incomplete or improperly designed. 

I'm not a wood turner, so I have no idea if this is any kind of issue for parting operations, but it was frustrating as a sharpening exercise.  The machinist and tinkerer in me had me thinking of ways to modify or add to the jig in order to keep if from rolling so as to keep the parting tool vertical and the front face square. 

Is this a non-issue because it really doesn't matter and I'm just too detail oriented, or not? 

I'll go into my issue with the closed seat and the skew chisel in a separate post so as to help keep the responses focused. 

Rick

Still at my friend's (Bill) doing a variety of sharpening, knives, chisel, axe, and wood turning tools.  All have required enough metal removal that I have started with the Norton 3X wheels before cleaning them up with the SB stone and then finishing them with a polish on the SJ wheel.  The knives received stropping on leather as the final touch. 

I had trued the SB stone before leaving home and after eleven knives, one chisel and one axe and several coarse gradings, I was noticing a "tick" "tick" sound and a bit of a hitch in the gitup as the wheel rotated.  On looking and listening closely, I located the culprit.  A flat spot had developed. 

It is difficult to see in the photo as it is only very slightly darker than the rest of the stone, laterally across the stone, at a very slight angle up and to the right.   


I had not run into this before and do not recall reading about it.  I suppose it might be a weak or soft area in the stone that eroded away with all the grinding.  I was able to get rid of it with re-truing the wheel, but I marked the spot on the label on the side of the stone in case it recurs. 

It may not matter once I receive the diamond wheels, but  I hope I still can make use of the SB stone.  I feel sure I will continue to use the SJ wheel for finish polishing, but suspect I will not have much use for the SG wheel as I'm not using it now, only the SB and SJ. 

Has anyone else run into anything like this?  Anyone have any explanation other than a soft spot?

Rick

Hi All,

I'm at a friend's place, sharpening their stuff.  I cannot believe it, but I failed to pack my drill sharpening jig, and drill sharpening was the primary reason for the trip.  Arrrrgh!

I am working on the other stuff, like knives, chisels and wood turning tools, and I think there could be an axe in the queue. 

He only has one standard chisel, which I've roughed on his bench grinder, but taking it to the Tormek, I find it is too short to be sharpened using the Straight Edge Jig.  I've looked at the Multi-Tool, SVS-50, but the chisel appears to be too short for it as well. 


Has anyone been faced with this and found a solution using something else?

Rich

While I was working on grinding secondary facets on drill points recently (https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3601.0), I ran into a problem getting the large diameter drill bits (3/4") to align properly in the Drill Bit Holder. I had held somewhat similar drills (1/2", 19/32" and 5/8" in the holder and successfully sharpened them without misalignment issues.  I wasn't sure at first what was happening, but on looking closer, it was possible to see the misalignment.



Placing the misaligned drill on the jig platform and holding it near the grindstone made it more obvious that uneven grinding would occur on the facets.





Although the drill bit holder has several fingers on each side of the drill that should hold the bits evenly and straight, that was not happening for this drill bit.  The best I could figure out is that there weren't enough contact points of the flutes with the fingers. 



I could not get it aligned such that it would remain in place during grinding, so I devised a method of holding it, essentially a long, thin-walled spring collet.  It consisted of a length of stainless steel tubing, 3/4" ID and 7/8" OD, which I put in a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw and cut slits along its length.  One slit went all the way through one side of the tubing.  Several more went most of the way through, but not all the way. 







This allowed the tubing to flex enough to securely hold the drill in place by gripping the drill bit flutes all the way around each flute over the full length at all four locations at which the drill bit holder made contact.  Viewed on end. 



I was fortunate to have the appropriate size tubing on hand to make the slit spring collet.  Most of you will likely not have the right material.  I have not tried it, but I think it is likely that PVC tubing could be used instead.  It probably would require drilling out some pipe that isn't the exact right size and then cutting the slits.  This could work for several drill sizes close to the ID of the pipe.  The OD doesn't have to be exact, as the pipe could expand a fair bit, with a wide gap at the full depth slit, as long as that gap didn't fall right on one of the four clamping surfaces of the holder. 

It would be nice to understand better why this misalignment occurred and be able to correct it without resorting to additional gadgets or tooling.  In lieu of that, I found a fix that worked for my situation.

Rick

I am on a personal mission, to grind secondary point angles on drill bits.  I have mentioned several times in my posts that sharpening drill bits was a major factor in my decision to purchase a Tormek (T8) and more precisely, the grinding of four-facet points was the deciding factor. 

Last summer (2017), I had purchased a Drill Doctor, for the second time.  I didn't like it the first time I had one, but now they advertised being able to vary the drill point and relief angles, and to sharpen up to ¾" drills.  So I gave it a try.  No joy.  It did generally work as advertised, for drill point and relief angles.  But, the grind quality was so coarse, I could just not get comfortable with it, especially compared to factory grind quality with which I was accustomed. 

Factory Two Facet Drill Point


Drill Doctor 180 Grit Two Facet Drill Point

         
In my search for a more satisfactory alternative, I came across the Tormek.  It was in watching their videos on drill bits that I first learned of the four-facet point grind and I was very excited. I also liked very much the quality of the grind pattern.  That plus the fact that the Tormek was the very same machine the guy that I took my knives to used, and the Tormek's huge versatility, was enough for me to take the plunge.  I have not looked back.

My first four-facet drill bit sharpened on the Tormek


It was after joining the Tormek forum and reading posts on drill bit sharpening that I was introduced to the six-facet drill point geometry, or more correctly, Secondary Point Angle (SPA), via the very informative article by Joseph Mazoff, referenced in a forum post by Rich Colvin:

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3263.msg19351#msg19351

Elden posted regarding the benefits of SPAs:

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3265.0

Janne is the only member I am aware of who has actually ground an SPA, but he didn't really go into much detail about how he did it:

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3265.msg19491#msg19491

Now it is my turn to give it a go, which is what this multi-stage thread will begin being about, in a fair bit of detail.  The trial victims will be a group of ¾" drill bits that a good friend of mine has beat the heck out of, hogging through ¼" steel plate on a large lathe using power feed with a drilling attachment on the carriage.  See example photos below.  Some have split points, but all are worn out and some have significant damage to the outer lip corner.  Solving this latter problem is one of the key benefits of secondary point angles. 

The next installment will be about setting up two slightly used Norton 3X 8" high speed grinding wheels on the Tormek. 

Rick

Hi,

I hope this is not too off-topic to be tolerated.  But, as most who have read many of my posts know that I have come to the Tormek world more a machinist than a sharpener.  I am working on building my sharpening skills, etc. and hope to be more of a contributor on sharpening in the future.  But I have gotten swept up in applying my machining skills to several Tormek related discussions, hopefully to some benefit.

Along those lines, I have recently viewed a few machining related YouTube videos, by one particular guy, that I think are excellent and wanted to share them.  His name is Joe Pieczynski of Advanced Innovations.  The videos I have selected to share relate to some of the most challenging machining operations that I have experienced and therefore have been the most meaningful to me.  I have not viewed any of his videos on more basic operations, but based on what I have seen on the more complex ones, everything he says and shows has been spot, dead-true on.  I have not disagreed with anything he has said or shown (except for maybe the use of WD40 as a lubricant). I have learned something from every one, although some more than others.  I am confident that if anyone is interested in learning about machining, this guy should be a primary source.

The operations I have viewed are:

Knurling (I have always hated knurling. I feel confident I'll do much better at it after watching this video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zwi0ZAUCUc

Cutting Off (A basic yet very important operation. The one I knew the most about, so learned the least from.  Still, all that he says and does is the best info I've seen on the subject):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LtYzjR1JuM

Trepanning (this is where I discovered this guy, when I had the task of cutting 1/4"x1/4" rings at 2" diameter out of 1/4" thick aluminum plate.  Complete success.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edOt0gRH0Tk

Single Point Threading (I have single point internal threads upside down on the back side of the bore before, but his method of turning away from the headstock to avoid the stresses of trying to thread toward the headstock to a precise stop is very sound.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-dqOi_z5bk

Rick

 

Who can point me to a good site/service for posting videos that can then be linked into posts here?  I do not have nor want to have a Photobucket account. 

Rick

Has anyone found it necessary or useful to lubricate the knife jig "O" rings?  The original that came on the SVM-45 (medium sized jig) became dry and very hard to rotate the stop.  Just recently, the O ring disintegrated.  I've been wanting to find a lubricant for the O rings.  I know I have some with my old Nikonos V dive camera, but it is packed away and I just have gone looking for it.  Now that the one O ring has exploded, I will go find it.  Fortunately, several months ago, I ordered several more adjustable stops for doing modification work and O rings came with them, so I at least have a ready supply of replacement O rings. 

I expect there are other lubricants that would work besides one designed for O rings, but I am not aware of what they are.  Has anyone found something suitable? 

I am uncertain about how much to use, due to the length of sliding travel the stop may go thru and I don't want lubricant all over the place. 

Rick

P.S.   I do wish that folks would include a word description of jigs mentioned (as I have done above), not just the model number because I don't know them well and have to go look them up often.

I've been using a 6" digital caliper (inch/metric) for measuring and setting the knife jig projection, or using the caliper to set a marking gauge for the jig projection.  Works well because I can set it on metric and I don't have to do any conversions.

Not the case for things beyond 6".  I have Asian 12" dial caliper that I've been using to measure USB height, but the foot is not wide enough to reach the centerline of the USB, so I measure the USB height using an extended shaft marking gauge or set the USB height on the marking gauge and then use that set the USB height.  Because the dial caliper is only inch, I have to do the conversions.  PITA.  The marking gauges are what I call my "old reliables". 


I had been Jonesing for a 12" digital inch/metric caliper.  I recently found one I thought looked good, and so ordered it.  What caught my eye, however, when searching, is that it has available an extra wide foot attachment, which I thought would solve the problem of the caliper foot not reaching the centerline of the USB.  Shown are the 12" digital caliper with foot extension attached. 




The foot is set to zero by placing it on a known flat surface and securing it well.  It can be difficult because the 12" caliper is like a lever and it is difficult to get it all flat and tighten the screw at the same time. 


I can now measure the USB height directly, in metric, using the digital caliper, but I find it clumsy.


It is also better at setting the knife jig projection than when I could/would use the 6" digital caliper.  The foot extension does fit on the short caliper. 


I will know better after having used these for a while, but at this point, I believe I'll end up using the new 12" digital caliper for setting the marking gauges ("old reliables") and then using them to set projection distance and USB height. 

Rick

Wootz,

I know that your applet uses the top of the machine case as the reference point for setting the height of the USB. I also know a major interest in you developing that applet was to increase accuracy in setting the bevel angle. 

I have been somewhat casually setting the angle, using a pattern makers marking gage, not paying much attention to exactly where on the case top that I was referencing from.  Not having calipers long enough to work directly in mm, I use my 12" calipers, convert units, set the calipers and then set the marking gage and then use the gage to set the USB.  Pain in the ass, but its what I have.  I have tried using the calipers directly, but they don't quite reach the top of the USB.  Thus, the marking gage.  Nice big wide flange. 


I noticed today that the case from a very short distance away from the mount base is sloped.  Makes sense for water drainage.  Slopes from about 168.7mm at the top to about 172.1 at the edge near the stone.  That is a lot. 


I started trying different locations, to get away from that slope.  I settled on in front of it, between the mount base and the lifting handle.  There is a good flat area there, which is where I rest the end of the marking gage with the large flange above the USB.  To set the USB height, I start with the USB below and clear of the gage flange. Then start raising the USB using the micro-adjust.  I tilt the gage left and right as I raise the USB until the tilting stops.  That is top dead center and the proper height.  Then lock the screws.  I am much happier with this procedure.


Rick

When I first got my T8, I was so anxious to try it out, I didn't follow the sage advice here to practice on some junk or unimportant knives, such as can be had at thrift stores.  I did try out the DBS-22 Drill Bit Sharpener first, as that was my primary interest. But, I have two Leatherman Wave multi-tools.  One lives on my belt, the other should live on my nylon fishing fishing belt, but it has been hanging out on my workbench ever since I botched sharpening it and I've been procrastinating. I suspect I did not lift or pivot the blade as I got to the tip.

But, in the meantime, I've learned a ton reading the various posts about knife sharpening and feel that now might be a good time to try tro fix the botched job.  Basically the bevel at the curved tip is quite wide, a lot more so that on the main part of the blade.  I have not checked to see if the bevel angle at the tip is the same or not. I also managed to blunt the tip. 




I am wondering how repairing this should be approached.  I read one thread where a fellow named Magnus Sandquist put a new tip on a knife by drawing a new profile on the knife with a marker and sharpened it until that line was gone. 
https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3124.0

A am wondering if the front edge should be flattened and then sharpened, or if it should just be sharpened again using some of the techiques I've learned (perhaps Herman's free hand platform) until the bevel is the same from end to end.  The problem I have with using Herman's platform is that I felt it did not work so well with the shape of the sides of the Wave blade.  I am more inclined to use the regular knife jig where I have turned down and squared off the adjustable stop. 


I think before I tackle trying to fix the Wave, I'm going to practice some more on knives I've gotten from the thrift store and maybe some of my former father-in-law's that came my way after his passing.  I need to set up my laser and try out the turned-down/squared off adjustable stop and work out the degree of lifting and pivoting that is required to get a more uniform bevel width.

Rick

The motor on my very new T8 has shut down on its own a few times today.  Several times, it did so within seconds of it being turned on and a couple other times, after it had been running for short time. Breaker has not tripped and there are no other signs of electrical issues. 

Rick 

  There is no forum for this, so I'll ask it here. 

It is getting colder here (Pacific Northwest of the US) with clear skies and freezing overnight temperatures, snow overdue.  While very mild here compared to other places, it got down to -16 F last winter with about 4 ft of snow.  My windshield ice scraper took a beating.  I noticed it this morning when I went out for breakfast and had to clear my windshield of a thin layer of ice. A lot of streaks of ice not removed with each pass.  Looks a bit like the Jeff's chisel after being whacked with an axe.   

How to refresh its clean clearing character?  It appears to have two bevels, a primary bevel of about 40 deg. and a secondary of about 60 deg.  I don't know the blade's composition or temper, but I believe a wide (3") belt sander or disk sander (12") could handle it, followed by honing by hand with finer grits. 

Thoughts?

Rick

My daughter had not been very impressed with my new sharpening machine (just another of Dad's toys), until I sharpened some scissors, a couple stamped Fiskars and a beat up old Farr that I'd used in my shop for years (even cut carborundum paper).  She used the Farr for cutting my granddaughter's hair. 

So granddaughter will be four in early Dec. and they are preparing for it (first photo) - invitations.  My daughter off handedly commented that what I needed to sharpen is the paper cutter.  I said I probably could, thinking it would be like sharpening scissors.  But, in looking at it, I'm left wondering how to go about it (see photos below).

The bevel edge has not been ground like that of scissors.  It is crudely ground and appears convex.  What I thought would be the wide flat (vertical plane as mounted in the handle) is not flat or even hollow ground.  It is angled from both edges to a low point near the center.  A sort of very shallow "V", which I'm sure is meant for clearance. 

How do I sharpen this blade?  I have thought of coloring the flat part with a black marker and laying it flat on the wheel and dragging it across to see if a very light grinding would sharpen the edge without destroying much of the clearance "V". I've also though of sharpening the bevel edge just like scissors, but what that would do is create a very sharp, slightly convex bevel.  How is that going to work in cutting paper and card stock?  Improve it or ruin the blade? 

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Rick

I'm having trouble uploading photos in a reply.  Getting an error message that says the attachments didn't pass security checks.  Going to try it here on a new topic post. 

Rick

I've been wondering about this ever since receiving my T8 and using the Stone Grader. 

All the videos and the manual show using it with the long axis of the grader perpendicular to the wheel.  I've been using it with the long axis parallel to the wheel.  This makes more sense to me as it seems like holding it perpendicular can lead to tilting the grader, thereby causing the wheel to be made less true (square) (crowning it). It also seems like that uses the center portion of the grader more than the ends.  By holding it parallel and tilting the grader on the long axis, more of the grader surface is used for conditioning the wheel with less likelihood of causing it to become less true. 

Rick

I just received a laser module for setting up on my T8.  For those of you that have mounted one on a Tormek, I'd like to see some pictures of how you have mounted them, please. 

Thanks,

Rick

The self sticking metal plate for storing the AngleMaster is not sticking to blue plastic side of mt T8. Tried cleaning it with paint thinner but that didn't work. Adhesive wouldn't hold for even a second. Tried more pressure, no joy. Resorted to supersticky double-sided carpet tape.  Seemed good and secure but only lasted a day. Anyone who has had this happen found a solution?

Rick