Alternatives to Tormek Grinding Wheel

[Alan Turner]

Are there any Creekers using replacement wheels for a Tormek that are not the official Tormek wheels? I googled for awile, and found a UK woodturning supply company, Peter Child I think, who sells a pink AO wheel in 120/150 grit, but won't ship to North America based upon the unavailability of products liability insurance, and another UK fellow/company who makes a replacement Diamond wheel. Is anyone using these? Any good? Are there others?

My search is a result of wearing down the original wheel on my Tormek. I have sharpened a ton of chisels and plane irons for my students over the years and the stone is now down to an 8" diameter, and it cuts pretty slowly, so I am thinking of a change. Many of the tools I rehabbed were rust bucket finds. I suppose I should have used a high speed grinder more for the rough shaping, and I do so now, but did not used to do that.

I would be well satisfied with a coarser wheel. I do not use the leather honing wheel much at all because I think it rounds over the edge a bit, which I do not like on fine irons and paring chisels.

Thanks for any help.

[John Piwaron]

I thought the King japanese waterstone people offered a wheel for the Tormek. I don't recall where I saw that, but you might check with the usual suspects (Lee Valley, etc.) as well as Garrett Wade.

[Alan Turner]

John,
You are correct. I forgot that one. From Woodcraft. It will cut slower, not faster, so I did not give it serious thought.

[Noel Hegan]

Hi Alan, have you considered a diamond replacement wheel?
http://www.t-jtools.co.uk/grindingwheel.htm
Don't know if there is a source on your side of the Atlantic.

Edit - Just re-read your post and you actually mentioned a diamond wheel which I presume is the above one. I know of one person who has this wheel and he wrote:

"I appreciate that this will have a limited appeal (Tormek users only), but my gripe with my Tormek Supergrind was the amount of waste involved in re-truing the wheel after gouge sharpening in order to sharpen a flat chisel, so I bit the bullet and ordered the diamond wheel retro-fit from T & J Tools of Willoughby, Warks.

Mr. Osborne (the inventor) is a woodturner and applied himself to making the wheel after he had retired. He's interesting to talk to and obviously dedicated to producing a good product. He warned me that there would be a delay of between 10 and 20 days for delivery, as he needed to make a batch rather than individual wheels. He did not hit my card until the day of dispatch, which - as it happens - was only 11 days later.

The wheel arrived superbly packed, with a good instruction sheet. The only difficulty I encountered was that I needed to shim the inner face with a single washer to prevent rim contact when the wheel was tightened on the shaft.

Where I differ from the Phil Irons review is that I don't remove and replace the small amount of water from the trough in order to prevent the wheel from sitting in water when not in use - I simply lower the trough from its working position to its storage position - job done.

To summarise - this wheel has transformed my gouge sharpening and remains on the Tormek within easy reach of the lathe. It has turned what used to be a bit of a chore into an easy and quick operation and no "sludge" to clean out of the water trough. My gouges are, consequently, performing better because I can re-sharpen them so simply and quickly now, without bothering about making grooves and lands in the Tormek wheel. For flat sharpening, changing wheels takes about 90 seconds.

Not cheap, I grant you, but WHAT a difference in ease of use and the results are superb. No connection with T & J Tools, other than as a satisfied customer. The Phil Irons review is to be found off this page."

I can put you in touch with the guy that wrote this if you want. Let me know.

Noel