Thread: A sharp weekend.

Choc Ripple cake was excellent, thanks TL. Plenty of it too.

Many thanks to for hosting and demos and to Ken Wraight for a demo of finial turning that had our chins meeting concrete. And thumbs up to Calm for lunch.

A very instructive day all round.

Here, Here,

What Ern said!

Good to put a face to the names,
Thanks everyone,

Cheers,

FrankG

Thanks once again . I always learn something at these meetings. Particularly handy at this meet was getting my skews shaped correctly; thanks for the tutoring !

Thanks to Calm for the food, the snag hit the spot (the butter hit TL's doggie )

Ken, lots of tips and tricks picked up from your teachings, thank you. I spent the rest of the evening working on my chisels

EDIT: Alex had a really impressive home made chisel sharpening unit and a slow speed CT grinder that I thought was great for tool sharpening.

Nearly forgot to mention, Jim had his jigs and things there. I decided the Tru-Grind really was necessary and a great way to go from ten facets to just one.
The cost was, well, daylight -ry

Originally Posted by Groggy

The cost was, well, daylight -ry

Grogster, go and give yourself an uppercut!

Guess how many grinders were lined up?

16

My really wobbly grinder is now all smooth and straight. Now all I have to do is get my head stock bearing fixed so I can do REALLY fine fillials.

I did a bowl using an "old fashioned" grind on the bowl gouge. Decided I like the more modern version cos you can hold it in differant ways so the hands don't get so tired. Hollowed it out with an audiance going "Gee when is it gonna fly out of the chuck " , "Oh! Nearly through the bottom.!", "So is it gonna be 3mm thick all the way?" (Guess who said that! ). It was nearly done, and sayes "I'll show you how to do the final cut!" then we picked up all the bits from around the shed. (Actually I lied about that. We left them there. )

Thanks again for a great and instructive day to all concerned.

Got home and checked out wet grinders on the web. Hare Forbes have the Scheppach wet grinders (about $380 for 250mm & $240 for 200mm version). I think I heard Ern say the bars were the same size as Tormek, so was thinking of getting the Tormek kit & Scheppach grinder (save about $800), or maybe the Scheppach Turners kit ($150) and Tormek setting guage (save another $200) which I felt was one of the most essential parts of the kit.

I suppose it comes down to the quality of the sharpening stone. All comments & criticisms appreciated.
I'm currently checking other threads as I'm sure this question has been asked before.

Just finished two days of intensive sharpening tuition. I want a Tormek, just have to win tatslotto first. Thank you very much for making your place of business available once again so that others may learn even more. I always come away from these events pushing my own boundaries even further. Also a big thank you to Ken Wraight for giving up his time and showing us how to achieve very fine detail work.

Thanks

A great weekend, thanks to Ken for showing me what "OTHER" turners make, as Clint Eastwood says a mans gotta know his limitations.

Made what some called the uglyist bowl ever - i didnt like it either i just wanted to turn some corners to get tips on doing the inside.

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.

Cheers

Yeah, the bars for the Jet, Tormek and Scheppach are the same diameter.

And it used to be the case that the 8" S. was made in Asia while the 10" was made in Germany. The wheel on my 10" grinds fairly coarsely.

I got the S. 'home' kit for the knife jigs. One had to be sent back to H&F cos of poor casting. Otherwise the jigs work OK.

The Jet jigs I have are poorer quality but lower price. The thread for the lock screw on the table was a dud. The fingernail grind jig is chromed and the pivot pin doesn't locate very positively. But they can be made to work.

and nobody had a camera

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

and nobody had a camera

You know the story - what happens on the weekend away stays on the weeekend away

Thought I'd post a few happy snaps from Saturday's session. I took more, but the battery was running low and it seems the flash wasn't reaching full brightness. Sadly, I the one showing all of the grinders in one pic didnt survive, but you should get an idea of just how many (oh, so many!) there were from these...

Attachment 108633

Ern (Rsser) with his Sheppach. Frank (I think? Forgive me if I'm wrong... wouldn't be the first time. ) playing on the lathe in the background. The bowl on the lathe to the right is the one TL turned, that gave the "finishing touch" too.

Attachment 108634

Grumpy_John trying to make captive rings on Ken's "coarse" Tormek. Jefferson is hard at work in the BG, blunteningening chisels so he had something to practice sharpening on.

Attachment 108636
Nalmo with the Tru-grind jig, giving Groggy his opinion in the BG. (That's TL's li'l grinder in blue, at the end of the table behind the bottle. )

Attachment 108635
Nalmo & Jefferson trying to pick Ken's brain.

For a while there at the end of the day, as we all kicked back after tea for a chinwag and relax, I thought I'd be lucky and manage to hang around for Sunday too. Unfortunately, the bloke who wanted me to work for him DID want me urgently enough to pick me up (even if a bit late) from Tooradin. He paid for making me miss out though.

I enjoyed myself greatly, so many thanks to for being the gracious host as always, Ken for the impromptu demos when he was expecting to only have to offer the occasional bit of advice... and their partners for letting them come out and play.