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Thomas Crawford
04-22-2009, 12:07 PM
Looking for pics on how to set up my sharpening station. I have a 24x60 old workbench that I want to use, 1.5" plywood top.

My main method is waterstones, so trying to figure out how not to get water everywhere and ruin the bench. This is in my garage so I don't have any type of sink. Last night was my first attempt at sharpening - just threw a towel on the bench and used the waterstones on top. This didn't feel like a long-term option although it worked fine to hone some chisels.

I'm open to modifying the bench as necessary. Should I add some type of material to the top, or some type of laquer, etc to seal the plywood? Right now I have a cheap piece of 1/4" board (can't remember what it is called - smooth on one side, rough on the other, dark brown) on the top right now.

John Schreiber
04-22-2009, 12:17 PM
I don't have a picture to show you, but I've been thinking about the same thing recently. One thing to be sure of is to have it low so that you can get your body weight over the tool. One of the best positions I have found is sitting astride a bench with the abrasives in front of you on the bench.

I think the brown stuff you are talking about is tempered hardboard.

Danny Thompson
04-22-2009, 1:48 PM
Consider A sheet of laminate (e.g., formica) or a plastic tub. Otherwise, a towel has a secondary benefit of holding the stones in place.

Wilbur Pan
04-22-2009, 1:50 PM
Here's mine:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2014/2213757188_910cbc3376.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/2212962869_397978f95b.jpg

It's a lot less clean now than it was when I first built it. I just used some Waterlox on the top of the table for a finish. And I echo John's comment about keeping the table low.

Matt Wilson
04-22-2009, 4:32 PM
here is mine. I've been using it for a while now and I'm pretty happy with it. When I grind I just have to make sure to put the stones away. Elastics hold everyting in place. It seemed easier than wedges since some of my stones are bigger than others
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb279/mwilson_24/P9020097.jpg

I haven't had a chance yet to start using the saw sharpening side yet...
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb279/mwilson_24/P9020094.jpg

David Keller NC
04-22-2009, 4:52 PM
I don't have a picture to show you, but it wouldn't be all that impressive anyway - it's my kitchen counter next to the sink. To hold the stones (waterstones) still, I use a piece of the router pad that Woodcraft sells. It's extraordinarily grippy stuff, and will hold an 8000 grit waterstone still even when it's trying to rip the back of a plane blade out of my hands from the "stiction".

I suppose someone might consider this less convenient than something located in the shop, but I prefer it this way - I flush my waterstones every few minutes with running water, and that'd be difficult to do without installing a sink in my shop.

For touch-ups in the shop, I use a strop - it's way faster than any sharpening stone.

Joe Hardesty
04-22-2009, 5:34 PM
I don't have a picture to show you, but it wouldn't be all that impressive anyway - it's my kitchen counter next to the sink. To hold the stones (waterstones) still, I use a piece of the router pad that Woodcraft sells. It's extraordinarily grippy stuff, and will hold an 8000 grit waterstone still even when it's trying to rip the back of a plane blade out of my hands from the "stiction".

I suppose someone might consider this less convenient than something located in the shop, but I prefer it this way - I flush my waterstones every few minutes with running water, and that'd be difficult to do without installing a sink in my shop.

For touch-ups in the shop, I use a strop - it's way faster than any sharpening stone.

That is exactly how I do it too. I do plan to put a utility sink in the shop someday, but until then, the kitchen sink or the strop is the best option. It is simply too much mess for the workbench and without running water.

george wilson
04-22-2009, 5:36 PM
You might eventually find your drain pipes getting clogged with water stone mud,which may settle to the bottom of the pipes,and tend to stay there.

Joe Hardesty
04-22-2009, 6:12 PM
You might eventually find your drain pipes getting clogged with water stone mud,which may settle to the bottom of the pipes,and tend to stay there.

Good point. I use a catch basin in the sink which (I hope) catches most of the stone and filings.

David Keller NC
04-22-2009, 7:29 PM
George - That's certainly possible, particularly with older cast iron drains. PVC drains are a lot less susceptible.

That said, George makes a good point, and I'll add this from the perspective of a chemical engineer that has a background in surface chemistry, settling, and the dynamics of small particles:

It's important to use detergent (and detergent - not soap, they're not the same thing) when flushing just about any debris down a kitchen sink, including waterstone "mud". The detergent adheres to the small particles and prevents them from clumping together and forming a sludge. Once that sludge forms, the detergent isn't all that effective at re-solubilizing it, so you have to use it simultaneously with the rinse.

I'm not suggesting that you wash your waterstones with detergent, but I've done that accidentally ;), and it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

Jim Barrett
04-22-2009, 9:52 PM
I am on a septic system so I am very careful about what goes down my drain...my waterstones are rinsed in a bucket which gets emptied in my backyard....
Jim

george wilson
04-22-2009, 10:03 PM
I'll tell you a story about the millwork shop in Williamsburg,a behind the scenes woodworking shop for making and repairing all the wooden stuff all over town.They have a big 36" Timesaver belt sander.They have a system for cleaning the ground in wood and resins from their belts. They use a lot of reclaimed heart pine for outdoor benches,windows,doors,etc. For years they had rinsed their residue down the drain,until last year,it got clogged completely up. It had to be completely dug up,and new 4" pipe installed. The old pipes looked as if they had been packed tight with ground up MDF !!

David Gendron
04-22-2009, 10:46 PM
I like the rince bucket and the dumping outside idea! I just redid most of the plumbing in the bassment and I don't want to get back at it any time soon!!

Jim Koepke
04-23-2009, 3:31 AM
I went to a large department store and looked at the bath, kitchen and automotive sections for rubber mats. The automotive section had the lowest price on floor mats at the time, so that is what goes under my water stones. It would help to put a shallow baking sheet under it to fully contain water, but since right now it is on its own workspace, this is not done.

jim

Derek Cohen
04-23-2009, 1:09 PM
Hi George

Thanks for the warning about waterstone sludge and drains. This probably doesn't apply to Shaptons, since they use a ceramic binder, but I do also use a couple of natural waterstones.

Thomas, my set up will not help you much since I recently rebuilt my workshop and, while I was at it, I added a sink.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Sharpening/Sharpeningstation2.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Sharpening/Sharpeningstation1.jpg

The waterstones are worked on the draining board. Since these pictures were taken, I have built a holder for the waterstones. It is basically a smaller version of this "waterstone board", which may interest you ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Sharpening/waterstoneboardWC.jpg

This has a strip of 220 grit drywall screen pinned on the left for flattening waterstones (as the time I was using Kings). I now use a Shapton diamond plate.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Sharpening/Waterstoneboarddetails.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

Doug Mason
04-23-2009, 10:35 PM
Here is my set-up:

116475116474

I only use grinder/oilstones/buffer--it works for me; the tormack has pretty much sat dormant for the last two years.

Tom Henderson2
04-24-2009, 1:20 AM
Hi George


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Sharpening/Sharpeningstation2.jpg



Dang.... why didn't I think of that? <slaps forhead...>

I have the HF Scheppach clone sharpener. When grinding plane blades, a lot of water gets shipped about and it makes a mess.

Until I saw your photo, I hadn't thought about putting the entire doggone grinder into a tub! Sure beats having a bunch of wet towels...

Thanks for sharing.

-TH

Mat Ashton
04-24-2009, 6:31 AM
This is a few pics of what I have evolved over the last 28 years. I've pretty much turfed the stones, unless I'm re-honing a chipped carving chisel. It's driven by a VFD to a 3 phase motor so I have 0 - 120Hz of control. The mandrel is the one sold by Lee Valley. It's the best one I've found as it uses ball bearings, instead of bushings, and can mount two wheels at once. It has a standard fine gray grinding wheel (as I've found white, pink, blue wheels or even polka dot wheels for that matter! are of no advantage because of the much slower rpms I grind at) and a MDF wheel for honing. When I bought my first lathe I mounted the grinding wheel on the outboard side. It wasn't long before I realized that grinding at 300 or below rpm pretty much eliminated any over heating and allowed the me to take heaps of time to get a good grind on even the most complex bowl gouge. Over the years I always had a sense that the grinding process was quicker even though the rpms were way down. When I did a side by side test, a few years back, with a standard grinder did I realized it was about 40% faster without risk of de-tempering. At present I grind at about 5Hz or so which is a bit below 300RPM.

For honing I charge the MDF disk with white buffing compound. I find green and red too fine and therefore take too long for what they give in results. I can go straight from grinding to the MDF disk and hone to a razors edge in no time - no need for stones. For lapping the backs of blades there's nothing better - absolutely dead flat in no time with a mirror finish. I bump the speed up to around 25 Hz for honing. I don't use the hone on the out edge of the wheel (even though it's covered in buffing compound) I use the side as it gives me a nice flat surface area to work on. Obviously the wheel needs to be spinning away from the edge or you'll have a hell of a catch. Seen that happen! (wasn't me that did it!)

For gouges and stuff I pull the MDF disk and put on a cotton wheel and run the speed up to 55 Hz or so. Any less and the wheel feels too soft as the centrifugal force needs to be high so that the cotton wheel resists conforming to the bevel profile. That way the gouges bevel rounds over less than at slow speeds and it goes much quicker. Come to think of it I might start pulling the grinding wheel off and bump the speed up some more and see how the bearings react on the mandrel. I think the higher speed will improve the results even more.

The tool rest setup allows me to grind planer and jointer blades with great ease. I just eyeball the bevel angle so the bevel is just touching the wheel then give the rest a little tap in and then push the blades across the grinding wheel however many times is needed till theres little or no grinding happening and I'm done (how's that for a run on sentence). Then chase up with a very fine diamond hone to get things real sharp. And because the wheel is spinning so slow there's very little heat buildup so you can use your hands to hold the blades. Takes about half hour to do 3 real dull blades.

The wheel is spinning so slow that when you get good at it you can actually grind with your eyes closed. You can feel when the grinding wheel is positioned in the hollow of the bevel correctly and the noise drops off significantly.

Over all it's an expensive way to go but the results, versatility and user friendlyness (if that's a word) of the low rpms are way better than any other method I've seen.

Steve Thomas
04-28-2009, 1:52 AM
here's mine.

The stones are steped so i don't have to move them to do the backs of the blades this idea was taken from Frank Kalus (sp) from an old fine wood woring book (maybe volume 1 -7) of the bound edition... it's great, wedges hold the stones in place.

6" ginder with the Veritas jig.
and the MK1 honing guide :)

Oh and a peice of 10mm glass sits in front and is used to flaten the stones. every other time