Tormek Skills

[Saint Simon]

Now that I am into the hollow grind and waterstones sharpening period of my life it is becoming apparent that I am not very accomplished with the Tormek.
When I sharpen plane blades I find that they end up about a millemetre out of square across their width. I have trued the wheel to the best of my ability and the support arm now sits flat across the wheel when dropped down and I am careful setting the blade into the jig.
Is this out-of-square acceptable on a 60mm blade? I am loathed to take a file to the side pegs of the jig until I am sure I am doing everything else right.
Help please.
Simon

 

[Henning]

That is very strange. Are you sure you register against the right side?
(Obvious i know, but for what it's worth i believe it could happen...)
If the stone is true and you have the jig right, it's very strange your planer blade is out, as mine were spot on first try (Couldn't see a gap with an expensive engineers square). Leads me to believe something is wrong with the jig if the above is OK.

 

[paulm]

The jigs and setup generally aren't entirely foolproof in my experience, there is still a little bit of scope (but much reduced) for operator influence.

Try giving a bit more pressure on the opposite corner when grinding, or offset the blade in the jig to compensate ?

That will mitigate the problem of course rather than stop the problem at source, but even perfectly set up it is possible to introduce problems with localised/uneven pressure, although they will be relatively small problems compared to many other systems/approaches I would think.

Cheers, Paul

 

[OLD]

I just square the item to the holder with a small engineers square.

 

[woodbloke]

Grinding squarely on the Tormek is a black art but one that's easily mastered. For plane and chisel blades a very small 50mm square is a 'must have', this is so that you can set it in the jig squarely and check progress as it's being ground...if you haven't got one, you're on a hiding to nothing!

'Skewed' bevels can be corrected by hand and finger pressure as the blade moves across the stone by pressing down on the high corner with one finger and lifting the complete jig against the underside of the bar with the other. It sounds complicated but it's not really. I'd suggest you practice with an old blade and see if you can grind it dead square...don't just rely on the jig to do it for you, 'cos it won't - Rob

 

[Chems]

I found this is also.

My solution was, make sure I locked down the wheel furthest away from the wheel. Also make sure you don't apply so much pressure that you bend the bar.

 

[Harbo]

I always mark a square line on the blade with a very fine point permanent marker pen.
You can soon see if things are going adrift.
I also check that the tool is square in the holder with a small engineers square.

Rod

 

[Modernist]

Me too! - You really shouldn't have to do this on a tool of that cost. :evil:

 

[matt]

The bar on mine rarely fixes square when tightened. I usually ease it a little until I'm happy. It's easier to do when you have a plane blade square to start off with by colouring the bevel with a marker observing where it gets ground off with the first few light sweeps.

 

[Lons]

Damn it....

Haven't used my new T7 in anger yet.
might have thought twice if I realised it wasn't as accurate as they advertise! :?

 

[Chems]

If you buy any tools and think its going to work 100% with any old monkey operating it then you are always going to be sorely disappointed. A £300 LN plane will only get shavings as good as the person operating it is capable of setting it up for that wood etc. That old saying, the right tool in the right hands.

The Tormek is a top bit of kit, and its accurate and takes careful setting up.

 

[Ironballs]

Rob is right with what he says about setting it up and operating, I have the Scheppach equivalent and it's just as bad. In fact it's one of those tools that's such a faff to set up it defends itself against being used and I only drag it out when I need to really do a re-grind.

For something that is used to sharpen an integral part of a precision woodworking tool it really should be better than a couple of knobs on some slidey round bar and a squarish piece of pressed steel

 

[Harbo]

With the Tormek it's not really a big issue with me as I only regrind when necessary or if sharpening my turning gouges. Normally I use my Kell/Veritas SS techniques. But marking a line and checking for square is very quickly carried out.

For the ultimate sharpening jig see Harold Hall"s book "Tool & Cutter Sharpening" in the Workshop Practice Series. He shows a grinding jig with a ball joint which can support at any angle!

Rod

 

[warrenr]

This was a problem for me initially with my Tormek T7 but after a time I got it right.

As the threads above indicate, careful set up and gradual and even tightening does the trick. I use a Veritas Honing gauge for the final polishing and this provides a check against the trueness of the set up on the Tormek as you can immediately see any out-of-alignment. I rarely have to return to the Tormek to get the edge true.

I do not use the small engineer's square but invest in one for this and other reasons

The Tormek was a great investment for me and I have sharpened my son's tools and various family members kitchen knives.
Richard

 

[eoinsgaff]

I've also got the Scheppach model. Also took me a while to get it right although it seemed to set up regular plane irons pretty well.

My current problem is trying to get a shoulder plane iron to setup squarely. Because the iron gets narrow at the point where it should sit against the fence it is proving a proper bother to get squre.

 

[woodbloke]

My current problem is trying to get a shoulder plane iron to setup squarely. Because the iron gets narrow at the point where it should sit against the fence it is proving a proper bother to get squre.

This is clearly one that you have to get dead square, so again the advice is to set up accurately and keep checking for square as the grind progresses. As I mentioned earlier, if you have a small 50mm square this can be done with the blade still in the jig. Once you know where it's 'out' you can use hand and finger pressure to bring it back to square - Rob

 

[David C]

Marking the bevel of the tool with black fet tip marker, can give valuable feedback as to the squareness of the grind, relative to the previous effort.

I think one of the great secrets of grinding is to inspect after only a few seconds.

At this point you will either see even removal of the black ink or lopsided removal.

If you go on too long the whole surface might be crooked but there will be no ink to guide you.

best wishes,
David Charlesworth

 

[Saint Simon]

Thanks to everyone for your advice. In general its good to know that my Tormek problems aren't unique and in particular the details of techniques to try are very welcome.
thanks
Simon