Thread: Bench grinder wheels for sharpening tools?

Hi Ern

I read your earlier thread and have been planning to reply there. But here is as good as any place.

The question I wanted to ask you is "what difficulty you are experiencing"?

I can replicate angles satisfactorally. As no doubt you are aware, the wheels are a different size (for others: 10" Tormek and 8" Grinder) and the radii of the wheels create different depth hollows on the blades. So the 8" wheel may be used to remove waste, and then the 10" wheel will need to regrind within the deeper hollow. It should not bottom out, but the grind angle will be the same.

Do you get that?

I will run my through again this weekend and confirm mine is set up correctly (rememeber that I modified the base for the grinder rest).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Yes, I can replicate the angles too, but it's an irritation having to remount the chisel in the jig when transferring from BGM to the Tormek (invert it in the jig so that the blade lines up with the wet wheel).

I had wondered whether this was necessary with left side mount BGMs as well as my right side as the mount instructions have them located differently on each side. Think that was to accommodate the gouge jig but may have an incidental benefit.

Hi Derek in your photo do both jigs slide so that a 2" wide plane bevel gets an even grind? And what grinding jig/tool rest would you recommend? Many thanks

Hi Ern

When I bought the BGM, I was not expecting more from it than you are getting now. More specifically, I did not expect to swap over from one machine to another without adjustments - that would be unrealistic since we are dealing with two different wheel sizes.

Even if you had two Tormeks alongside one another, a swap over would require tuning the bevel angle grind sinmply because the wheels will wear differently and the diameters will change. (I have read of some who swap the standard wheel for a waterstone wheel to sharpen on and expect not to re-tune!)

Tuning for grind takes a few seconds. What is more important is that you can take the same blade to two machines.

Hi John

A good commercial grinder rest available locally is the Veritas (try Carba-tec). This will enable you to freehand or use a few jigs. On my BGM set up on the grinder the flat rest was modified so that I could use it as a rest for plane/chisel blades. It is actually designed as a scraper rest and, in its standard form, will not work in the way it is now used (the modification involved moving the screw and changing the direction the rest faces).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek.

I'm using the Turning tool setter so that sets the mount bar compatibly between dry and whet stones despite their diff diameters. So the only variation as you pointed out is in grind concavity, which is no big deal in the kind of work I do.

But for the benefit of others, I reiterate Jeff Farris's advice that the BGM was designed primarily for turning tools.

My hope that I could easily rehab bench chisels by easy transfer of tool and jig from BGM to universal mount cannot be realised with the square and straight edge jigs.

I may have a fiddle with the SVS-50 and see what that does.