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Thanks a lot for the helpful reply, John - and sorry for taking so long to react. Life has a tendency to get in the way of the important things, for instance sharpening on a Tormek or checking this forum

I will try the procedure you recommend and hope that with a bit of practice, my results will improve and I will get square edges.

Best regards and thanks again!

Are we sure though, that the support is exactly perpendicular to the side of the stone ? Because we true parallel to the support

I tried to take measurement this weekend. On an admittedly reduced sample consisting in the two T-8s I own. I tried to measure with both a digital protractor and a machined square.

Here's my take on this : though USB and inner stone wall don't seem to be *perfectly* perpendicular, they are perpendicular within the precision of the digital protractor, and meet at an angle that is ever so slightly obtuse on both machines. About barely enough to let light shine through the tiny gap between the square and the USB on the side opposite to the housing. So as far as I am concerned, I'll consider those two are perpendicular.

EDIT: I just realised that the out-of-squareness of my plane blades does not have anything to do with my grinding wheel not being perpendicular to the USB, since the grinding surface should at any rate be parallel to the USB and thus, the SE-77. However, I refrain from deleting my post in case someone has another troubleshooting suggestion.

Dear all,

I am new here and consider myself a beginner when it comes to sharpening with the Tormek. I own a T4 that I bought used. Upon purchase, I noticed that the grinding surface was not square to the sides of the stone. I figured that was an error on the part of the previous user and proceeded to true the stone as per the many instruction videos on YouTube.

Now, the issue is that none of my blades come out square. I fact, they are so much out of square that the lateral adjustment on my planes is insufficient to get a straight cut. Of course, user error on my part is highly likely, and I hope we can work out what I am doing wrong.

First, I noticed the two lines on the SE-77 were not aligned, though the discrepancy was minimal. Changing that didn't help.

Then, I re-trued the grinding stone, seeing as I had sharpened some knives and other non-square edges in the meantime. When finished, I noticed that the again, the grinding surface was out of square. I do not remember whether it was out of square in the same sense as when I bought the T4.

Then I tried pushing down on the threaded section of the USB when locking it in place, as I have seen in instruction videos. That did not seem to improve things.

After reading this thread, I began to wonder whether the USB was not perpendicular to the stone, and voilà: looks like that is the case. I notice that pursuant to tgbto's description, a bit of discrepancy is probably normal. However, in my case, the gap is quite significant. Granted, I am using an old square, which however appears to be somewhat true. Also, the 'slant' of the stone corresponds to the non-squareness of the grinding surface (hope that makes sense).

Could the positioning of the USB relative to the stone be the cause of my problem? As far as I can tell, the USB is not bent and perfectly straight. I am reluctant to remove the stone because the last time, changing the position of the wheel resulted in considerable truing and I don't want to waste more SG than necessary.

I am confident that I clamp my edge properly in the SE-77, ie there is no light shining through between the back of the blade and the jig and I make sure the blade is firmly pushed against the 90 degree stop of the jig.

Thanks a lot in advance for any thoughts and suggestions you might have 

Ken,

many thanks for your kind and helpful replies. When confronted with the fact that the wheel was substantially more worn than advertised, the seller offered to refund me the value of a new SG-200 grindstone. That lowered the overall price of the T-4 with all jigs to less than half that of a new machine, so I decided to keep it. Many thanks for your encouraging remark, which was seconded by the Tormek support. However, the support restated that the warranty is only valid with the original receipt. I do not think this will be an issue down the road, as the machine and motor seem perfectly healthy.

It is funny how psychology works: now I regard the installed grindstone as a practice piece, so I was not afraid to begin truing it straight away. I have to admit that I followed common sense more than instructions; I had watched some videos on the subject in the past, though. It worked out fine, and the stone now runs true, although I ran into some minor issues.

First, the truing jig that came with the T-4 is indeed the new model. However, it chatters quite horribly when engaging with the center portion of the stone. This has left a very uneven,chipped surface. I did start at the highest spots, shaving off the high spots and then gradually lowering the tip with every other pass. On the first runs, the tip engaged the stone evenly; then, it started to chatter towards the middle. The part holding the diamond tip seems to brace against the universal support, yet there is some play nevertheless. Is that OK? At any rate, I suspect that user error may play the largest part here. I did take my time for every pass (will watch the clock next time) and lowered the tip ever so slightly with every other pass (will watch the digits next time). My suspicion is that I might have been too aggressive in setting the diamond tip in the first place, because it engaged with the grinding wheel on two passes without lowering it (hope this makes sense). This notwithstanding, the play in the jig itself has me worried a bit.

Anyway, I was able to restore two horribly mis-ground plane irons and a 1/4" chisel with a chipped edge. I had been eager to do so for months, and I felt an exuberant joy at finally being able to grind my tools on my own Tormek. The chipped portion in the center of the wheel was slightly annoying when grinding the narrow chisel, but hardly noticeable with the wider plane blades.

Since the machine immediately saw some serious use, I was confronted with an unexpected question: what to do with the water trough while the machine cools down after the 30-minute intervals? Is it OK to just leave the stone soaking? I made sure to turn the wheel manually every once in a while so the stone would not soak unevenly. Is that even necessary?

Thanks a lot for your help in getting acquainted with the T-4. Judging from my first experience with the machine, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Best,
Julius

Dear Tormekeers,

many thanks for your quick and helpful replies!

The seller says he bought the T-4 at a local store 3 years ago and does not have the receipt. Since the photos looked as thought the machine was hardly used (as he claimed in the description) and Tormeks have a reputation of being bombproof, it felt it was a good offer still. I am getting in touch with Tormek support as per your suggestion, Ken S.

Concerning the price, the machine came with a nice package of jigs, including the revised version of the TT-50. That places it about 2/3 of a new T- 4;including the jigs it is the best price I have seen on the local market for used Tormeks in over 6 months.

What puzzles me is that the seller claimed to have sharpened only a few kitchen knives and trued the wheel once, taking off less than 1mm. That obviously does not check out, hence I am worried something else might be off with the machine.

Any additional thoughts would be much appreciated!

Best,
Julius

Dear Tormek community,

I just bought a used Tormek and mounted the wheel. It has noticeable radial wobble and is out of square (see attached pictures). The seller claims the wobble is due to the relative position of the stone on the axle. I have not received an answer on the fact that the stone is out of square yet.

Edit: I have tried changing the position of the stone on the axle, but that does not seem to do anything; in fact, the high spots do not migrate as I change the position of the grinding wheel.

When I take off the stone and turn the machine on, the axle seems to run perfectly true. The motor sounds fine, with an even sound.

It looks like the stone has not been taken proper care of. The machine itself seems OK, but I am worried it may have hidden defects as well. I have about 20 hours to decide whether or not to return the machine.

My questions are the following: What do I need to do to make sure the machine is healthy? Is it worth truing the stone? The outer diameter is about 189mm, while the diameter on the machine side is 186mm.

Many thanks in advance!
Julius