I own both, so which should I set up a Wolverine or a Nova Sharpening Centre?

[Thomas Canfield]

I have the Wolverine, and it works EXACTLY as it is supposed to. No ifs, ands, or buts... My only sharpening issue is a slightly out of round stone that came from Norton (my 100 grit alum oxide wheel is out of round, and out of balance...). I have to wait until I get the $$ for the truing / dressing jig... Kind of spendy, but I need it to get going with my sharpening again...

Using the OE wheels from my grinder though gave repeatable, clean, SHARP results... Great for putting a touchup on the gouges as I was turning pecan...

I just bought the Wolverine dressing setup. The difference was like night and day. The wheels no longer give a "bounce" that was there using a diamond "tee" . The quality of the edge is much better. It only takes a slight touch to get the new edge and the grinding sound is much better. A couple of friends have borrowed it and had same reaction. Tools should last longer with the trued wheels.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

These photos should give you a better idea of my current (always evolving) setup.

Oh my word! Wow. Well when I said I was thinking about this kind of thing I was thinking about something like the following attached images. Mostly because I own both of them. Your system is... well... wow!

I did a bit of research last night and belt sander/grinder rigs like that are interesting. Beyond me at the moment but still pretty darn cool.

The magazine article I saw was focused around the small hand-held belt sander and I had quite mistakenly thought you had done something similar. I will have to put a rig like yours onto my Christmas List and see what santa can come up with.

Joshua

[Joshua Dinerstein]

I was going to comment that using a belt grinder gives a flat grind as opposed to the hollow grind from a wheel. That was before I saw Alan's pics .

A flat grind makes honing harder, and I hone my gouges.

Yeah. I had the same thought in my mind. I hone my skews and for the first time I honed my bowl gouge this week. I was amazed at the edge I could put on with a hand diamond hone. The bowl gouge got sharp enough that I put a nice nick in one finger. I wasn't being careful enough I guess mostly out of habit. It has never been sharp enough to be that dangerous before.

I have recently read a number of posts from various sources that indicate that they like flat ground bevels better. Jon Siegel and others. I have wondered if it is better or worse for cutting? It would clearly be work/worse for honing but I wonder about the cutting action itself.

I like the raptor setup gauges for getting a consistent angle with my wolverine.

I bought a set of these recently from CSUSA. I haven't put them into use yet but they seemed like a good idea. I had seen plans from Kirk DeHeer and others for making your own but I have realized for myself recently that I was trying to make so darn many things to help with the turning that I wanted to do that I didn't have enough time left to do any turning. So I started taking some shortcuts and buying things.

I think if I had both, I would mount one to each wheel as they both have their advantages.

I have thought about doing exactly that. But like anyone else with a slow-speed grinder from Woodcraft I have 2 grits of wheels. One is nice and fine and the other is... well not. It doesn't seem like I would get a very fine grind off of the one side. But then I suppose I could replace that wheel with another fine grit one, funny how that never occurred to me before. I believe from what I read when I got it that it was 60 grit and 120 grit. Oh man I just ran a check on woodcraft looking for details and found they no longer have this grinder on their site and a more details search said it was discontinued. That is sad news! I just about had myself talked into getting a second one. (A secondary search here on the creek reported that someone here was told they were just switching manufacturers and will have them back eventually.)

I believe I recall that you built an MDF honing wheel (so did I) and may have that mounted on one side, but depending on the orientation that may not matter, though you would have to change the wheel occasionally.

I did indeed make one. But I set it up from the get go to run on my HF 34706 lathe. I rotated the headstock around so that it was running up and away from me instead of towards and down. But I am about to give up on trying to use it. I get the most fantastically smoothly polished BLUNT tools you have ever seen. I am doing it wrong in some way I am just not sure how but it has gotten really annoying. What seems like it should put the most amazing edge on just sends me right back to the grinder.


Joshua

[Reed Gray]

I haven't used a gouge jig all year, and doubt if I ever will again. I have The Veritas tool rests, and set the table at one level. I have several wedge shaped plates to go on the table to change angles, so there is no fiddling around to guess the correct angle, and roll the gouges free hand. Really simple, and much faster than any jig.

robo hippy

[Alan Zenreich]

Joshua,

Take a look at the way a Robert Sorby ProEdge is set up. You might be able to adapt a belt sander into a similar configuration.

I don't know if I'm allowed to post a direct link to the Robert Sorby product page (I can never be sure if I'm violating the forum rules) but here's a photo from their page. There are additional configurations shown on their page.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Joshua,

Take a look at the way a Robert Sorby ProEdge is set up. You might be able to adapt a belt sander into a similar configuration.

I don't know if I'm allowed to post a direct link to the Robert Sorby product page (I can never be sure if I'm violating the forum rules) but here's a photo from their page. There are additional configurations shown on their page.

Oh interesting. I went and watched their videos after reading this last night. It is kind of what I was thinking I would try and turn the HF special I bought into. I think it is possible and I am going to spend some time soon looking to see what I can make work.

Thanks for sending me this!

Joshua