Sharpening Question

[Mike Goetzke]

I'm pretty much a beginner. I had an old Craftsman lathe that I made a few pens on a couple years back but that's it. I bought a Wolverine system for my bench grinder but never have used it. I got tied up in a 2+ year house/kitchen remodel. I recently purchased a Delta 46-460 midi lathe and plan to get more serious about turning. Yesterday I got lucky and found a Tormek T-7 on CL. Now for the help, I see Tormek has a woodturners kit but was wondering if I could just adapt my Wolverine equipment to the Tormek. Any other help on the T-7 appreciated also.

Thanks,

Mike

[Roger Chandler]

I'm pretty much a beginner. I had an old Craftsman lathe that I made a few pens on a couple years back but that's it. I bought a Wolverine system for my bench grinder but never have used it. I got tied up in a 2+ year house/kitchen remodel. I recently purchased a Delta 46-460 midi lathe and plan to get more serious about turning. Yesterday I got lucky and found a Tormek T-7 for almost 1/3 new price and it has seen little use. Now for the help, I see Tormek has a woodturners kit but was wondering if I could just adapt my Wolverine equipment to the Tormek. Any other help on the T-7 appreciated also.


Thanks,

Mike

Mike..........those are two different animals in the way they set up..........the wolverine is made to use under a dry grinder.......preferably with 8" wheels..........it is designed for that. The Tormek is different [I have the Jet clone of the Tormek system] and it uses jigs that run off a rail up top of the wheel pretty much. I am not saying that a smart guy who loves to tinker, and adapt things could not find a way to make one work...........but it is not designed that way.

I have both the wolverine and the wet grinding system with the jigs..........I have used both, and I prefer the wolverine for lathe tools far and away...........with the possible exception of sharpening a skew chisel, and both do a good job on it. Others may differ in their opinion, but the wolverine jig is the standard when it comes to sharpening lathe tools.........good luck on what ever you decide.

By the way, in my last WoodCraft flyer, they had the WC 8 inch grinder on sale.........FYI!

[Bernie Weishapl]

You can adapt the tormek jigs to the dry grinder but not the other way. I have the Tormek and bought the woodturners kit. I use the jig with the tormek jigs if I want to shape a gouge then go to the tormek. The tormek IMHO does give a better edge than off the grinder and can be honed. I think my edges last longer than off the grinder but that is just me.

[Roger Chandler]

Bernie........your mileage may vary........but since I got the CBN wheel...........I see very little difference in the edge off both the wet grinder and the dry........I find no need to hone my gouges off the CBN wheel........I do hone the skew some however, when I use it occasionally.

[Jim Burr]

Stick with the Tormek. With a 1000 grit stone, it sharpens like nothing else. And you can sharpen anything else in the house with the right jig.

[Jamie Donaldson]

The Tormek is a fine but expensive option for honing some HSS turning tools, but not well suited for any shaping or significant sharpening desired. I haven't used my wet wheel Makita sharpener in years!

[Jim Burr]

+1 on horrible reshaping on the Tormek. Yes, it's expensive...but if you already have one....
It sharpens my Thompson's to a razor.

[Mike Goetzke]

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like the voting is 50/50. For some reason I thought the slow speed wet grinder would be the cleaar choice. I would maybe like to try the two systems out myself but the Tormek woodturners kit is $320. I did read that you can buy a jig for a regular 8" grinder that allows you to use the Tormek jigs (if someone has a link please pass it on). If this is true I could recover some of cost of the kit by selling my Wolverine system.

Mike

[Moses Weisberg]

I use a Tormek that I bought from a former woodturner. Consequently, it came with more jigs than I could have bought with the amount of money I paid for the whole setup. With that said, I almost exclusively sharpen my bowl gouges on it, so you may be able to buy far less than what comes in that kit depending on what you intend to do. I don't think that there is a gargantuan difference between systems so long as they are used frequently. I tend to think that wet grinders remove less material and prolong your tool-life, but I have nothing more than my intuition to back that up.

The adapter you're looking for appears to be called "Tormek TOR-BGM 100 Bench Grinder Mount" A quick search for that will pull up a few suppliers.

[George D Scott]

Don't sell your Wolverine. I guarentee you will regret it. I have both and yes, the Tormek is a nice grinder but.....expensive. I find it most usefull for "flat" tools such as chisels, plane blades, and I sharpen my planer and jointer blades with it (another pricey jig)...but for turning tools...not so much. Not that it doesn't do a good job but it is a slow process with the Tormek. Also not all turning tools fit in their jigs....the large Lacer skew being a prime example. Small turning tools don't fit well either. For day to day use I use the Wolverine. Much quicker.
Of course this is my experience.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Mike, I usually avoid these threads because they can turn into who thinks what way is better and who needs controversy when it comes to our hobby. Anyway, it is July 4th and I have time to play. Sharpening is different to various crafts and methods to achieve a sharp edge vary within each discipline. Let me begin by telling you the most admired turners here are probably not the best sharpeners. However, they sharpen well enough to produce amazing work. I make this assumption because to be good at turning you have to spend as much time as possible turning, not sharpening. David Ellsworth has probably tried every way possible but in his shop his students sharpen on an 80 grit wheel. I just watched a Mike Hosaluk DVD (highly recommended) and he hones by hand between grindings. It takes him a couple seconds and he never leaves the lathe. I've always tinkered with carving to embellish my furniture work. Sharpening carving tools is most demanding sharpening I know. A sharp edge is defined as two straight lines meeting at some angle with no shoulder and nothing on the edge that can reflect light. Of course, the sharpening angle will vary with the use. In order to sharpen a cutting edge to that level you must work both sides of the tool. When a gouge is manufactured most have ridges left by the grinding process. These must be removed or you will never have a truly sharp edge. Working the edge inside then outside, back and forth, produces a wire edge that eventually falls off with your finest grit leaving a buffed surface inside and out. But that edge is needed for carving not turning.
What does this have to do with your question?? Whether you use a jig, sharpen by hand, use a CBN wheel or an 80 grit blue Norton wheel, you are only sharpening one side of the tool. Therefore, you never get a truly sharp edge, even if you use the 1000 grit Tormek ( a wonderful machine). What you do get it an edge with a microscopic burr (wire edge) that can actually be helpful in wood turning.
I wish I had every known sharpening machine and hand tool available but I do not. My point is this; own all and as many as you can afford and learn them all if you really like sharpening. If you like turning, pick a sharpening method that will take you the least time necessary to do the task at hand and spend your time turning.
faust

[Paul Williams]

I use the torment and two jigs. I bought a long time ago, but have trouble believing that you couldn't get the jigs that you would actually use for $100 or so. I use the gouge jig and the flat table.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Just that $100+ Tormek jig would more than pay for the Woodcraft grinder, a sharpening tool that would meet the needs of most turners for a lifetime.

[Reed Gray]

I learned to platform sharpen, which is almost free hand sharpening. Never have to mess with a jig, and it is fast and simple. You already have the basic skills to do it if you know how to turn.

I guess the Tormek is fine for sharpening your turning tools. Theory is that with a finer edge, you have fewer teeth/serrations on the cutting edge to wear down, and your edge lasts longer. Mike Mahoney prefers 40 and 60 grit wheels as they cut better for him. I haven't noticed it to be any better than my CBN wheels though, and I admit, I have spend very little time with it. Will your tools last longer? Maybe. Most of the time, all they need is a touch up, not a grinding, and if you are light handed, there can be little longevity difference. Tormek is lousy for shaping. The Tormek, and any other wet wheel are the coolest running wheels out there. The CBN are second coolest, and I can sharpen my bench chisels on them with no burning problems, but they do need to be honed. The more standard matrix wheels run a bit hotter, especially if they are loaded/dirty. You can easily lose temper in your carbon steel tools like bench chisels, but it doesn't get the HSS tools hot enough to do that.

robo hippy

[Don Geiger]

Dear Fellow Woodturners:
Quite some time ago I was given a Tormek. It sat unused in my workshop for 3 or 4 years. Someone asked me to help them improve their usuage of their Tormek for sharpening woodturning tools. As a sharpening guy and an inovator, I couldn't resist the challenge.

I found that mounting a Wolverine reciever directly underneath the Tormek grinding wheel opens up some amazing possibilities. What I came up with can be moved between the Tormek and an 8" bench grinder in about 10 seconds, produces indentical grinds on either grinder (notice the adjustable stops on the vertical adjusting arm), very repeatible results and enables the use of conventional jigs such as the Ellsworth or Vari-Grind jigs etc. I've used this for quite some time and it works very well.


Don Geiger