Sharpening gouges with Tormek - new videos with tips from Nick Agar

[marie]

Hello everyone,

Some of you I have already introduced myself for, but since I'm now posting in a new thread I would like begin to say: Hello, my name is Marie and I am working with Marketing Communications at Tormek. I want to let you all know that we recently published three new videos online (www.tormek.com) in which woodturning artist Nick Agar shows the following:

1. Gouge sharpening - From factory grind to a superior sharpness
2. How long will it take to sharpen a gouge?
3. Sharpening a roughing gouge

The films are available on the woodturning page: https://www.tormek.com/international/en/user-categories/woodturning/
I hope you'll enjoy these videos and that they will be helpful in your work.

Kind regards,
Marie
Marketing & Communications at Tormek

[Elden]

   Thank you, Marie. Those are nicely done videos.

[Ken S]

Marie,

I second Elden's thank you for posting the three Nick Agar videos. I tend to study Tormek videos, watching them several times and learning more with each watching. These do not disappoint.

I consider the TTS-100 turnng tool setter and the SVD-186 gouge jig combination to be Tormek's most advanced pairing of a set up tool and a grinding jig by a wide margin. I felt the same with the earlier version of the SVD-186, the SVD-185. , however, in my opinion, the SVD-186 is leagues ahead of the older model.

On a personal note, Nick's bowl gouge video shows the technique which directly inspired me to develop the kenjig. Note that Nick did not adjust the Distance between the universal support and the grinding wheel. For bowl gouges (or with the kenjig) the Distance is set once and remains constant. Readjusting is not necessary and is, in fact, unproductive.

As the Distance is fixed, the Protrusion of the gouge in the setting tool slot also remains constant. The video shows very well how quick and precisely repeatable resharpening can and should be.

The reshaping video was very informative for me. Frankly, I have never been a fan of using the BGM-100 and a high speed dry grinder. I have become quite spoiled with Tormek's cool, dust and spark free wet grinding environment. I have developed two methods around using the BGM-100/dry grinder method. A Norton 46 grit 3X eight inch grinding wheel costs about the same as just a BGM-100 and does a very respectable job of reshaping. So does a CBN grinding wheel. The CBN wheel, either 80 or 180 grit, costs about what an SB-250 costs. It is only single grit (no stone grader), but cuts much faster and can be used wet or dry. For resharpening, I would use the SG-250 as Nick does.

Nick's video clearly showed how much faster the dry grinder is than either of my two methods. If I was doing reshaping professionally, I would use the Tormek jigs with a Baldor grinder and CBN wheels. I found it interesting to see both the BGM-100 and the Oneway adaptor. (I am not sure which I would prefer.) For my very occasional need for a coarser grinding wheel, either the 3X or the CBN works quite adequately. The video made me see for the furst time how a production turner might prefer to use Tormek jigs on a dry grinder for rapid reshaping.

I liked the way the roughing gouge video stressed the importance of properly sharpening this useful tool. Without belaboring the point, Nick demonstrated the importance of good jig/tool holding and usage technique. Using the side of the TTS-100 was very clever, and new to me.

Borrowing a Tormek tip from Glenn Lucas, drawing a single bicycle spoke on the two wheels of the TTS-100 makes it easy to tell when the Distance is set precisely.

I was pleased with the three new videos and recommend them to all Tormekers, whether active turners or not. I hope they are the first fruits of more technique oriented videos.

Good job, Tormek, and thank you again, Marie.

Ken