The biggest problem I have with my Tormec grinding system is keeping the surface of the stone flat and square. The tool they supply is time consuming and it leaves grooves in the surface of the wheel. So, I ask this learned group of woodworkers: will using a T-shaped diamond impregnated dressing tool (like the one used for regular grinding wheels) give satisfactory results on a Tormec?
Dick Pewthers Lake Travis, TX
have you checked out the site run by Jeff Farris at
At any rate, I'm not sure what you're doing, but it should take you long at all to use the dressing attachment that is designed for the Tormek. If you follow the procedure it is really simple and fast. You don't have to do it in several passes, or go really slow or anything. If you set the depth stop properly, and apply even and firm pressure on the tool, just start it off of one edge and move towards the center of the wheel and move at a moderate lateral speed.
The grooves are SUPPOSED to be there after you dress the stone - the manual even says this, IIRC. That's just how it works - but it does get the stone true and parallel to the jig arm - which is what you need to do. AFter you do the dressing, you need to use the coarse side of the stone grader to remove the grooves. It should take you at most 5 minutes to use the dressing tool, and maybe another minute with the stone grader. Of course, if you are using a lot of carving and turning gouges, and not re-truing the stone often enough, you might get a stone that needs more work. YMMV. But, generally, it should be a time-consuming and/or difficult process in the least.
On a side note, if you need to reshape a tool - change the primary bevel for example - you can use the stone immediately after truing and it will cut faster than the coarsely graded stone. Obviously you'll need to grade the stone successively after this, but it does provide a way to use the Tormek in a slightly faster cutting mode.
Mike
It's supposed to leave grooves. The stone grader "brick" takes care of that.
I suppose if a jig could be made to hold the tool you propose to use, but why bother when Tormek has already done all the work with theirs?
I recently got the Tormek tool and I gotta say it was one of the best things I could have done for it. I don't what took me so long. That tool should come with the machine.
I used to take my 220 grit DMT stone to true up the Tormek. I found the stone to be too soft for my turning tools which had me spending more time truing the stone more than sharpening. I don't use it any more. I do a LOT of turning. I may dig the Tormek out some time to redo my bench chisels, and hand plane blades. robo hippy
I don't do a LOT of turning, so that probably has something to do with it - but all you have to do is make sure you regrade the stone frequently enough to avoid large divots in the stone - the regrading takes 15-20 seconds normally. After you establish your inital bevel, all you have to do to get a turning tool back up to speed takes at most 15-20 seconds on the stone (assuming you don't have a large nick in it or something). If you choose to polish the edge, that's another 10-15 seconds (at most!). So, let's say you just finished sharpening your gouge and used it and it needs to be touched up again. Even if you have to regrade the stone, and repolish it, you're looking at about 1-2 minutes of time, and then you have a gouge ready to go again. And, you will easily be able to use this gouge for a LOT longer than
2 minutes before retouching it up again.There is NO better and faster and easily repeatable way to sharpen turning tools than a Tormek, IMO. I'm sure there are a lot of ppl that can free hand sharpen at a grinder, but I can't. So, except for these ppl, I think the Tormek is perfect. And, moreover, you'll get a much better edge with the Tormek, too. I never had a clue how sharp a turning tool could be (and how great a truly sharp tool is) until I got the Tormek.
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