Carbatec Grinding Jig

**auscab** · 30th September 2021, 12:39 PM

The Carbatec Sharpening Jig arrived a few days ago .
I was asking about jigs in another thread linked below and decided on buying the Carbatec version . Neil (NeilS) Mentioned putting up what I thought about the jig .

Free hand grinding or a jig

The box arrived by courier.

Nice packaged box . Some weight in it .
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Everything spread out . Everything seems well made And for $189 + postage that amount of product seems very well priced .

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Just the work to make this part in steel would cost me more than $189 in time If I made it .
I was very impressed with these Extruded Aluminium parts and fittings . Simple and well made with a decent weight and feel to them and they work perfectly .
IMG_9197a.jpg

There is a couple of little things I think that should be better on delivery that I may alter later in the parts below.
The wing nut Green arrow and the top pivot screw Red arrow.
Basically the screw and holes at the top pivot shift about 1mm in the direction of red arrows when all is as tight as you can reasonably get it with thumb and finger.
1. The paint is slippery hard stuff on all parts . I suppose its either a two pack or powder coated .
2. The wingnut and its screw are a bit small . The arc slot could easily be fitted with a larger screw and wingnut giving better leverage on the nut.
3. The pivot screw needs a proper size fitted so no movement sideways is possible . Drilling and peening a rod both sides to form a rivet would be an easy quick fix . Or finding a suitable screw with a un threaded shank the right distance and fitting that .

The part does work well as it is . I used it and had no problems . I feel though when it comes to fine adjustments getting it back to a setting you want that these little improvements would make it better . As it is you would have to consider the backlash it has under a small amount of pressure and set the leg up so its removed each time at each setting . If the pivot screw had been made right you wouldn't have to think about it .

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This is a nice heavy duty tool rest . The first impression I got from it was I'm going to snap the lever trying to get it tight enough to stop the top plate from shifting from its setting. It has a bit of flex in it . I mentioned that the paint is hard and slippery . By sanding off the paint between the two sliding surfaces I was able to get it feeling better. That plastic lever may be the thing that breaks on all these parts one day . Easy to fix with a nut if need be .
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I mounted a Plywood board onto the bed of my speed controlled Mini Lathe grinder to get the jig up to the correct height . 160 to 165 mm from wheel center. Had a bit of a play with it ,changed the CBN a couple of times . More on the mini lathe grinder in this thread. H&F Mini wood Lathe . Use for grinding tools?
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I got a cleaner looking grind than Ive ever had before with this spindle gouge. I need to better sort out what I should be doing with angles and wheels a bit .
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I completely stuffed the next gouge I did by using to coarse a wheel . 80 grit , and trying an angle out ,30 degrees, for a detail spindle gouge. I wont embarrass myself by showing the result. Doesn't matter, its a lesson to myself . I fitted the 360 grit back on and free hand ground it back to something better . Using the grinder slow at 450 rpm and at times in reverse is pretty amazing at getting fine details just right. I want to make an arbor to fit a smaller pink rounded wheel for hollow grinding making some small spindle gouges .

I still have to see what the jig for doing the skew chisel is like . May try one out today .

So Far so good though . I really like what I got for the $ . Its good .

Rob

**NeilS** · 30th September 2021, 08:56 PM

Thanks Rob for the review.

I can see from your write up that there are a few things to improve, but nothing too major.

If it were mine I would definitely be replacing that small winged nut on the gouge jig with a larger four prong nut/knob.

Please share with us any future improvements that you make and are happy with.

One thing I noticed (or didn't perhaps because I could't see clearly enough) that there does not seem to be any numbering or angle markings on the gouge jig. Many jigs do. Once I had worked out my preferred leg settings I engraved those on my gouge jig for quick reference.

Originally Posted by auscab

I got a cleaner looking grind than Ive ever had before with this spindle gouge.

IMG_9215a.jpg IMG_9216a.jpg

Now that you are getting cleaner grinds you might like to give the flutes on your gouges a fine grind and polish to remove those milling marks (is that a P&N?). A polished flute gives a better and longer lasting cut. If you are going to be making your own gouges you are going to have to do a bit of that anyway.

IMG_2564.jpg

**auscab** · 30th September 2021, 09:36 PM

Originally Posted by NeilS

Thanks Rob for the review.

No probs Neil .

Originally Posted by NeilS

One thing I noticed (or didn't perhaps because I could't see clearly enough) that there does not seem to be any numbering or angle markings on the gouge jig. Many jigs do. Once I had worked out my preferred leg settings I engraved those on my gouge jig for quick reference.

IMG_9196.jpg
Its got these 4 ? drilled indents in the body and a screw and locknut to hold it at that setting . I don't think its a good idea . A set of engraved lines would be a lot easier if settings need changing a bit .

Originally Posted by NeilS

Now that you are getting cleaner grinds you might like to give the flutes on your gouges a fine grind and polish to remove those milling marks (is that a P&N?). A polished flute gives a better and longer lasting cut. If you are going to be making your own gouges you are going to have to do a bit of that anyway.

IMG_2564.jpg

Polished flutes ! That looks good .

I have a set of P&N . 4 I think ? That spindle gouge is a Carbatec special I got 20 years back . Its a bit of a cheap thing but it cuts ok . Ive got a few of them, They bend back if they get used to hard . I have a collection of all sorts . I just need some finer ones for doing small knobs . I have one fine one but a smaller gouge and a scraper or two would be good . And I wouldn't mind a good decent sized roughing gouge as well .

Rob

**NeilS** · 1st October 2021, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by auscab

IMG_9196.jpg

Its got these 4 ? drilled indents in the body and a screw and locknut to hold it at that setting .

OK, I can see those now, thanks.

Typically this style of jig (that owes its basic design back to Jerry Glaser) come with about eight pre-set leg positions. I expect it would be easy enough to drill additional holes at any other preferred positions.

Originally Posted by auscab

I have a set of P&N.

Those P&Ns were good value but their gouges did come with quite deep milling tracks along their flutes. They needed quite a bit of work to grind those out and to polish them up to give a clean cutting edge. The currently available and locally(?) produced gouges made by Vicmarc aren't much better, well that was the case with the only one of theirs that I have acquired, so I admit a limited sample size. The Thompson gouges were/are(?) only marginally better and still needed some tidying up.

But, if you are looking for a good spindle roughing gouges and you can get your hands on a second hand P&N SRG you won't do any better than one of those. Any remaining milling tracks along the flute are not such an issue for roughing down work ... and if it is second hand its previous owner may have already tidied up the flute for you...

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