Thread: Problem - Micro Bevel setting on Veritas MkII Honing Guide

There is at least one other thread round here, where someone else raised this issue, as did I.

I was then of the opinion as you are, that I didn't want to trouble LV for something trivial, and as far as I can tell, apart from aesthetically not looking perfect, it all sharpens well.

My experiences are as yours; the microbevel is remarkably out of parallel in some instances.

I have wondered if it is the blade, perhaps the back face is not parallel to the front, but then you'd have to start thinking that with plane blades that's not the case.

I've been too embarrassed to take photos, but maybe I should.

I want to stress though, that the blades are beautifully sharp!

Cheers,

P

silent,

Read this thread starting at post #57
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...t=17561&page=4

There's three of us!

P

Is that a polite way of saying "do a search"?

I suppose my only concern is the amount of grinding you have to do to get it all the way across, and it naturally gets worse the wider the blade. I have no problems with the sharpness of the blade (despite being crippled by a paultry 4000 grit stone). However, I do worry about these things. For a short time any way. When my mind is not occupied with other things. Do you have any idea how long it takes to paint the inside of a house?

Silent - I think that this came up on 'Woodcentral'. Ping the Dark Lord, as he may have been talking to RL by now. I have'nt tried mine yet, only had it 2 months but will do so on my new Berg chisels and report here.

Maybe it's the 4000 grit stone we have in common that's the cause?

My ever so simplistic view is that I'd like to know if it's me, but once the bevel is there for the first time, hopefully (if I don't let Mik near my blades ) a quick touch up will see them at the same angle anyway, so the grind becomes an annual (or greater) event.

Once again I'll ask: Is there anyone within playing distance of the Sunshine Coast who isn't experiencing this, that is prepared to do a comparison?

I'd like to get to the bottom of it, just because.

Cheers,

P

I'm still waiting for you to fix up the link in your post above so that I don't have to do a search....

I thought you were being a bit harsh, moaning about having to find a post half way down the page.

I suppose it will be easier now that the link is there!

Cheers,

P

OK, so Rob's response was to send a replacement. I'm reluctant to go down that path because I'll have to post it to LV since that's where it came from. Probably cost a bit more from here than from Arizona...

Yep.

That's why I'm keen to find a way of establishing if there is a problem and what's the cause.

It seems that the axle for the roller is ever so slightly off-parallel, but I haven't devised a means of measuring it.

Now that I think about it, it would be easy to turn it round would it not? If it's something physical, that would soon show it up!

Cheers,

P

Originally Posted by silentC

OK, so Rob's response was to send a replacement. I'm reluctant to go down that path because I'll have to post it to LV since that's where it came from. Probably cost a bit more from here than from Arizona...

In my experience, If LV satisfy themselves that there is a fault, they will Express a new one, and pay for the return post of the faulty one in the same packaging.

D

I'm all anxious that I don't put them(LV) to unnecessary trouble, but I'm also finally curious enough to have now attempted to measure the "error", if in fact there is one. (One of the benefits of living close enough to the office to go home for lunch!)

I will upload a picture when I get back to the office, so anyone can determine if my methodology is flawed, but I plonked the jig upside-down on my bandsaw table, locating it in the rebate, and set up a dial gauge over it.

In the "normal" (12 o'clock) position the roller appears to be .025mm out of parallel, which I would have thought could easily have been my measuring, or a speck of dust for that matter. In the 6 o'clock position (the microbevel) the roller is out of parallel by .08 mm in the other direction, leaving a total of close to one tenth of a mm.

IF my measurements are correct, and IF (I don't understand the maths so stand to be corrected) one can interpolate Lee Valley's figures from silent's post above to mean the relationship between the off-centricity and the out of parallel is 1:50, that would translate to a 5mm out of parallel on the microbevel, which seems to be exactly the number silentC has pulled out of the air.

As LV pointed out, the out-of-square deviation is not at all significant in the context of woodwork, so is this a problem?

Cheers,

P

If you only hone the micro bevel when you sharpen, then I suppose it's not because once you have it established, then the jig will faithfully repeat the error each time. However, if you ever regrind the secondary bevel, then you must remove more metal establishing that angle again than you would if the two were parallel, then you go through the same process to re-establish the micro bevel. So I suppose over time you are removing more metal and it is taking more time.

If you only hone the micro bevel, then it is going to get bigger and bigger until it is no longer a micro bevel and you will have to start again anyway.

I say it IS a problem but maybe not a significant enough one to warrant losing sleep over.

I didn't mention, that on mine, the 3 and 6 o'clock positions have almost no deviation.

Tonight I'll use one of those possies for the microbevel and all should be sweet eh?

Cheers,

P

I await your findings with bated breath.