Tormek T-7 help from the group?

[Deeptree]

Hmm...where to begin...

So, I have always freehand sharpened all of my knives and tools. I have always used a grinder for my larger items such as axes, machetes, and any other blade over about 6" long. For my smaller items, I have always used table stones.

Recently, I was amazed to see a demonstration of the Tormek system, and went out and purchased one. It is an amazing peice of hardware, and very well put together. The jigs are top notch, although, they are made from very inexpensive metal (what my grandfather use to call "pot metal"), but they do the job just fine. However, like sharpening by hand, I am finding that just having the hardware and the jigs, don't make for an "instant-win" in my sharpening technique.

I sharpened a few of my knives with no issues, but with a combination of the jig and my personal experience with sharpening stones. However, when I sharpened my first chisel, I got a much different result. I grabbed a new medium-grade Stanley 3/4" full-tang chisel, measured the face angle (single angle 25 degree, which fortunately is what I wanted anyway for mild work), and just wanted to clean up the face and back. So away I went...I measured the main bracket against the wheel...perfect parallel with the bracket and wheel. So, I ground the wheel with the 1000 grit side of the stone...measured the face of the wheel (again, lined up great)...and away I went. So 60 seconds of wet-stone grinding later with a 1000 grit wheel... and here is what we get ...

[insert "awe crap...I don't know how to imbed a photo...the button only says "insert url"]

OK...so it ground one side of the face of the chisel, just slightly off 25 degrees...but not flat across the face. So I pulled it and reset it in the jig...and this time, a slightly different result...more flat across the face (not perfect still) but at a slightly different angle...

SO...all of my long-winded typing...anyone have any experience with this issue? Suggestions? Comments? ****, even "wow...you are an idiot if you can't sharpen a chisel right in a jig!" :gar-La;
William

 

[Sealeveler]

Bas has good instructions for posting a photo in his signature line.
Tony

 

[Tarhead]

How are you truing the stone? I have an older version of the truing tool and could not get it to make the stone flat. The stone will wear unevenly and cause your grind to go off. The new one looks like it has been changed and has an advance screw on it. This adapter helps me get my older stone near to flat: http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/trutooladvrvu.html
(It looks like the Tallow Tree website is down so I don't know if they have survived this mess of an economy or not)

The other thing is there is enough play in the straight blade holder to cause some skewing of the blade at the stone. You have to apply even pressure and hold your mouth just right just like when hand sharpening.

The head person for Tormek in the US and other people more experienced than me are very responsive to customer questions here: http://www.tormek.com/forum/index.php

 

[JWBWW]

When I first sharpened chisels in my Tormek I noted some skew to my work. Disappointed that such an expensive luxury would yield such a repeatable error I decided to troubleshoot. In pretty short order I found that the stops at the right side of the standard chisel jig were not square to the support arm or guide holes. By way of trial and error I filed the nibs that constitute stops until the jig yielded a square grind on the chisel. That was six or seven years ago and I haven't had any other complaints about the setup. Interestingly, I was at a trade show some years ago and mentioned my experience to the Tormek guys at their booth and you'd think I told them their children were ugly. One guy went so far as to tell me that that "pot metal" was precision cast and any alteration would ruin its accuracy; he went so far as to say that the stops were never meant to be square to the support (which would mean square to the wheel as well). I left the guy and his booth and decided to chalk it up to marketing guys who were attending the trade show "to get closer to users" and not actual product or engineering guys.

 

[CDPeters]

I use a Tormek-esk wet grinder, shop made based on the HF Wet grinder. From the demos and videos I've seen, and my own practice, here are some suggestions:

1. After setting up the chisel in the jig, mark the face of the bevel with a sharpie, and then rotate the chisel to the wheel and lightly grind for a second or two. Inspect the sharpie mark for even contact heel to toe and left to right. Correct any unevenness heel to toe my moving the chisel in or out of the jig. Correct left/right unevenness by tightening/loosening the thumbscrews on either side of the tool. Correct squareness issues by angling the chisel slightly in the jig left/right.

2. Once you have an even grind using the "sharpie test", then do your final grind. Be sure to move the chisel back and forth across the face of the stone to keep the wheel wear and the grind even.

A couple of quick passes over a hard whetstone to take off the wire edge and your done!

With a little practice, you'll be able to nail the setup down and perform the final grind in just a couple of minutes.

Hope that helps!
C.

 

[Deeptree]

Bas has good instructions for posting a photo in his signature line.
Tony

Thank you Tony. That definately helped. However, the option to pick a photo from your uploaded photos does not appear when you try to edit a post. So, I am using this reply to your post to post my pictures for my original post. Man, that's a LOT of posting! :BangHead:

View image in gallery​

 

[Deeptree]

How are you truing the stone? I have an older version of the truing tool and could not get it to make the stone flat. The stone will wear unevenly and cause your grind to go off. The new one looks like it has been changed and has an advance screw on it. This adapter helps me get my older stone near to flat: http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/trutooladvrvu.html
(It looks like the Tallow Tree website is down so I don't know if they have survived this mess of an economy or not)

The other thing is there is enough play in the straight blade holder to cause some skewing of the blade at the stone. You have to apply even pressure and hold your mouth just right just like when hand sharpening.

The head person for Tormek in the US and other people more experienced than me are very responsive to customer questions here: http://www.tormek.com/forum/index.php

Tarhead...thanks for this info. The forum is rich with people with similar issues...and creative ways to solve them.