Thread: Tormek sharpening machine

Hi Mate,

I have just bought a Tormek T7 I got it from Carba-Tec in Brisbane for a little bit more than Amazon I think it was around $900 I also got the wood turning kit for it at around $350. It has been outstanding, Everthing that needs to be sharpen in my workshop has been sharpened, and the other day I got the two knife jigs aswell so now my missus is happy too as all her knifes in the kitchen are sharp.

One thing to remember when buying from overseas that the warranty is not covered here in Australia

Hello Dez Built,
From experience I suggest that you are very cautious about buying electrical equipment overseas. You might find that the conversion costs are such that you are worse off and as Jim rightly says - not warranty with the possibility of the product being damaged en route for which you have already paid for. I would suggest you look at the traditional suppliers and ebay to look for a good starter's package. I am sure that are folks in your area or nearby Brisbane that can help you. Further - it is most beneficial if you get some professional turner help with the learning process - invaluable. Joining a woodturning club - men's shed or the like if a massive help. Hope this helps. John M..

Hi Dez Built
We bought a T7 in September 2011 with a 10 year warranty included, spent a couple of hours watching the dvd's over and over and WOW!!! Sharp tools at last.

Kaye

Hi guys, thanks for your input. My initial thoughts were of caution also. In case anyone else is also thinking of buying one, i found a place on the sunshine coast called Get tools direct. They have the T 7 advertised for $860. Best I'v seen yet.

Maybe their price has dropped here

Be warned; the $870 is just the start of the outlay when you go down the Tormek track. You will need to factor in the cost of all the jigs you will need to sharpen turning tools. ANd they aint cheap. I'm not a fan of the Tormek simply because of its cost. Sure they do a very good job but I reckon a good, affordable sharpening system is an 80 grit white wheel and a Woodcut Trugrind sharpening jig. And hone the tools with a diamond paddle. Considerably cheaper than the Tormek and with little noticeable difference in tool performance for most turners. I liken the Tormek to the $3000 wheels riders put on their pushbikes. Yeah they provide better aero dynamics and less drag but its only about 5%. So are they really worth it. Turners have been producing good turnings for decades without Tormeks so save your money Dez Built and use the savings to buy an extra chuck or some more tools. That's where my spending priorities would lie; unless of course you have bags of money to part with.

As brendan said!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't really disagree with Brendan & China but consider how long it will take to become proficient in using the white/blue or whatever grinding wheel. I burnt tools and ended up with some really poor edges for a long time before learning the secrets of the grinder, and still was a mile away from proficiency.

If you can afford a Tormek go for it, you will spend more quality time on the lathe with sharp tools and better turning as a result. Not forgetting tools that last longer.
I have not regretted my purchase one bit, I have regretted the wasted time trying to master sharpening skews and tools other than gouges on the grinder.

I'm with Brendan and China on this one!


Learn the basics of wood turning, which includes tool sharpening on a spark grinder with 80 and 120 grit wheels, and everything develops from there.

There seems to be a lot of snobbery creeping into the wood turning world. It appears if you don't use certain brand/type of grinder, tools and lathe your are not a real wood turner.

Sure get the best quality tools that you can afford, they will last longer, however, learn your craft first. After that if you have the funds you can splurge on equipment "you think" you need.

After many of years wood turning I still don't think I need a wet grinder and really cannot justify the price of one. If you do production work it slows you down having to spend 2/3 minutes to touch a chisel/gouge when a sparkie will take half the time.

I'm with Brendan on this one.

I had a Tormek and was lucky enough to get most of the jigs donated.

Spent a quite a few hours grinding my turning tools to shape, using the tormac jigs.

The first time I left home to do a demo without the tormek, I had to use a spark grinder.

This resulted in loosing all my tool angles and profiles.

Decided it was too much work to re-establish the angles with the tormek and went back to my 8" grinder.

Later I added a Truegrind jig and a 120g wheel, and that is where I'm at 10 years later.

A couple of other observations.

1: High speed steel tends to eat the softer standard wheel on the tormek.
There is a harder black wheel available which I understand overcomes this
problem, but it costs mega bucks compared to an aluminium oxide wheel.

2: Having a water trough on the grinder didn't work very well for me. I either
forgot to drop the tray after using, and the wheel got waterlogged on one
side. Or I forgot to cover the tormek after use and the water trough filled up with shavings, after a week funny looking mushrooms started to grow.

The tormek sat in the cupboard for a few years until I sold it to finance a new camera lens.

That was my experience.

Cheers

Tim

The Tormek system has two aspects.

1. Wet grinder. You don't need this with HSS turning tools with one poss. exception.

2. Jigging system. Tormek's is pretty good for fingernail or swept-back-wing gouges and other tools but it's not quite 'painting by numbers' as the advertising guff suggests. Their manual however is good value.

You can get the benefit of the jigging system by buying a Tormek Bench Grinder Mount and jigs and putting them in front of an AlOx or Diamond wheel. This means you can do a range of tools with the appropriate jig.

The exception is that the T. wheel is around #220 and when finely graded a nominal #1000. So that puts a nice finish on your edge which means it will cut more cleanly and longer than the finest AlOx grind wheel (at 8", #80 last I looked). And if you can tolerate rejigging then polish the edge on the leather wheel but there's a long jump to the 1-3 micron paste provided and I've never found that effective.

The downside of #220 on the Tormek is that it takes some time to reshape a bevel.

Overall my take is that a T. is a waste of money for the average turner.

If you are at the stage of benefiting from a honed/polished edge, there are cheaper alternatives.

HTH.

I am now retired , but have worked the last 26 years in the Abrasive Industry, as a sales rep.

I have called on many cabinet shops where they do production turning , and I have never seen a wet grinder of nay sort. They all use Spark grinders , and all sharpen free hand .

The finest WHITE WHEEL is 120# and the wheels range from 60# to 120# IE: 60,80,100,120.

Silicon Carbide is not suitable as it is too soft and will wear out very quickly, the GREY WHEELS are also Aluminum Oxide , but have a different Crystal structure and tend to gouge rather than shear , which the White wheels are designed to do.

Jeff

If Jeff you can locate a #120 white or pink AlOx wheel, in 8" with 5/8 or bush-set hole, pls let me know.