For those experienced with the tormek...

I received my $299 tormek the other day from the amazon sale, the planer knife jig, which I got for 40% off, will be here in a few days (there's my dual drive-by). I just got around to playing with it tonight. I haven't seen the video since I don't currently own a working vcr, but I did read the book cover to cover. I sharpened two chisels and noticed a couple things. I also have some questions.

I was shocked by how much water the stone soaked up.

I used the angle-finder thingy to to start off. I had a 1" marples that was in sad shape. It took far longer to grind than I think it should have. I would say that I ground on it for maybe 10 minutes. Each time I looked at it, I could see a line moving slowly up the bevel. This is sort of what I expected, but it just went too slow. Mabye it's because it was a larger chisel. The quarter inch chisel did go a lot faster.

I went back through the tivo and found the sharpening station episode of nyw. The guy there only put the grader on the stone for 6 seconds (I counted). But I think the manual sasy 30. What do you do?

Do you do your chisels in a batch, doing all the coarse grinding, then grade for 1000 grit, then do all the fine grinding? or do you regrade between each chisel going back ad forth between 220 and 1000?

The book says to flatten the backs of the chisels on the side of the wheel. I'm thinking that I should be able to get literally a mirror finish on the back and the bevel, but it just isn't happening. It's really sharp, but I can still see lines on the back for example from the original machining. Should I go back and do it again to get the complete mirror finish?

I was reading someone else's post on woodnet, i think, about how the manual says nothing about breaking in the leather wheel. There's certainly nothing in the book about it. Should I be doing this, and if so, how?

I have exactly one hand plane, a stanley jack plane I think. I plan on buying a lot more once I have a few more machines. I noticed that the iron has a curve, to stop the corners from digging in I guess. How would you grind this curve on the tormek? The manual suggests a technique that doesn't seem very doable to me. I think it would just square off the iron anyway. Do you have a technique for this?

I'd say I'm probably 90% of the way there. The chisels were in bad shape with nicks in the edges. Now, they're completely straight, square, and sharp. They're also a lot shinier than when they started. I was able to shave thin pieces of end-grain off of some southern yellow pine I had handly. So I'm very happy with it.

tia, brian

Reply to
brianlanning
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you may want to pick up a generic dry bench grinder for roughing in. be careful with it- it's pretty easy to burn steel with one of those.

if it's cutting well now, I'd use it as is. you'll be back to the tormek soon enough.

grind it straight. if you end up with a problem with the corners that you can't tune out of the plane then the plane probably isn't good for more than a scrub anyway.

congrats.

Reply to
bridger

Brian wrote: Each time I looked at it, I could see a line moving slowly up the bevel. From the way you describe it, it sounds like you weren't quite lined up with your bevel. Just a touch shy, in fact. Take a magic marker, and color the entire bevel. Then adjust your AOA (tool rest) so the mark disappears. When your angle is correct, the mark will be quickly ground away. Tom

Reply to
tom

On 8 Oct 2005 22:30:37 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, "brianlanning" quickly quoth:

Yes, but only for 1/4" (some folks say an inch) or so, near the edge. Repeat later as you sharpen that area away. The shinier the back, the better the final edge.

Dunno 'bout belts, but to charge my leather strop, I just rubbed a bit of LVT green stick on it. (Chromium dioxide)

Now there's some irony for ya. You buy a Normite tool to do sharpening for Neander tools. Bwahahahaha!

For $300, I'd sure hope so. ;)

P.S: That's a darn good deal on one of those pricy things.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Borrow or rent a VCR and watch that video, too.

Yep, they do hold an astonishing amount of water, don't they?

Whether that's reasonable or not depends on how sad a shape it was in.

Sounds to me like you didn't get the angle set quite right. I've found that it's faster and more accurate to just set it by eye.

[snip]
20-30 seconds works for me.

One chisel at a time, coarse then fine. That's the only way to do it: put the chisel in the jig and keep it there until you're done with it. The reason is straightforward: once you take the chisel out of the jig, unless you put it back in at *exactly* the same angle it was before, you're basically regrinding the edge all over again, only this time at 1000 grit instead of 220. And your chance of reinserting it at *exactly* the same angle is exactly *zero*. So you're better off to just do all your grinding at 1000, than to switch chisels.

It takes a *long* time to get rid of the factory machining marks, and produce a mirror finish, no matter how you go about it. I prefer using wet-or-dry sandpaper on a large glass plate, with water as a lubricant.

The manual says to oil it regularly. I'm not sure what other "break-in" anyone might think that it might need.

Freehand.

Enjoy. From my perspective,the best thing about the Tormek is that it's so easy to keep an edge sharp -- so I sharpen much more frequently. It's much less work to touch up an edge that's "almost" sharp, than to resharpen one that's truly dull.

Reply to
Doug Miller

When I got my Tormek it came with a small bottle of mineral oil. The leather wheel should be saturated w/ the mineral oil when you first get it. After that just use the honing compound unless the wheel has been idle for a prolonged perior of time. I believe the instructuions for the initial preparation of the leather wheel were on a seperate sheet of paper.

I've found when rehabilitating tools in that condition it's best to touch up the grinding wheel several times with the 220 side of the grading stone during the process. This cleans out the wheel so it'll cut steel much faster and helps preserve flatness across the surface.

Reply to
Archangel

Yeah, because of the price, it was at the bottom of my priority list. I wanted to start experimenting with neander stuff, but I couldn't bring myself to spend the $500+ to get the tormek setup. I was sort of able to justify it to myself by getting the planer knife jig and saying that I wouldn't need the segmented cutter head now. And I didn't think I could beat that price. The machine isn't really worth it, even at the lower price. But I think the end result is probably worth the price: very sharp tools with no skill and not much time.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

I didn't get the can of oil or extra sheet. I happened to have a new can of mineral oil that I had bought to use with an oil stone. I squeezed about half of the can onto the strop which soaked it all up. It's now the color I expected it to be.

I worked on the back of the 1" chisel again. I was able to make it look a little better.

This morning, I went back out to the shop and tried to shave with the chisel, which I couldn't. I added the oil to the strop, spent more time with the grading block, and spent more time on the fine grinding. The strop seemed happier with the oil in it. It just sort of felt better. I also spent more time on the strop. The end result was that it looked a little better, but cut much better. It shaved perfectly, and cut end grain perfectly.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

Whwn not using the Tormek, do you let the wheel sit idle in the water resevoir? Or do you empty the water after each use?

Reply to
Wayne K

You need to empty the water ASAP after use. It loads up with sediment that will harden in a relatively short time otherwise. Don't dump it down the drain for the same reason... dump it outside somewhere. I don't think it's toxic but it would clog your drains.

Reply to
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

I am just using the tormek to set the angle of chisels and such. I don't think you can get a great edge without flattening the back of your chisel on a water or diamond stone. There is a good article on sharpusa??? or something like that. Just a summary...the two screws for that sets your chisel into place need to be evenly tensioned. If one of these are tighter than the other your chisel will be askew. You have to play with the both of these to get the chisel in the correct position...OK here we go. Follow this link for advice on sharpening chisels. Works well..

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A sharpy is your friend. ink out the bevel set your chisel then place on the wheel. Make a few turns by hand and look at where the ink has been removed. You can tell if the chisel is insert properly.

Hope this helps

Reply to
rickluce

I'm a little late on this thread, but want to add that there is a Yahoo group for the Tormek and it is frequented by Jeff Farris of sharptoolsusa. They are a pretty helpful bunch it seems.

--

******** Bill Pounds
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Reply to
Pounds on Wood

yabba dabba doo! Thanks for posting that tip. (LV Mk II is a little twitchy on really narrow chisels.)

Reply to
Australopithecus scobis

brianlanning wrote: snip

Wait 'til you sharpen a Hock iron that's 2+ inches wide.

If you grade the stone to "coarse" often and if you press down on the back of the chisel or iron down close the the stone it'll cut/grind faster. DO NOT let your fingers rub on the wet turning stone. It WILL take your fingerprints off. (DAMHIKT)

If you bear down on the grading stone it doesn't take 30 seconds. You're just breaking up the surface to expose more sharp edges in the stone's medium.

If you keep a sharpening stone or diamond plate in a drawer in your bench and put it on the bench top when chiseling, it's easy and convenient to keep the edges touched up. If you keep using ALL your chisels 'til they have to be sharpened because they're not cutting well your not to get clean cuts and you're apt to have one slip and cut you.

When a cutting tool stops cutting well, and a little touch up on a bench stone won't fix the problem - use the Tormek.

The Tormek is good for beveled edges, straight or, with the right jig, round. It isn't so good for flattening the back of flat things. Uing the side of the stone, it's hard to make contack acrossed the entire back at the same time. The result is that you'll start rounding the bottom edges. Best to flatten the back on a flat stone - a japanese water stone does it quickly, or use the scary sharp sand paper method.

After oiling it up, if it isn't flat, turn the machine on and use an old file to flatten it. Don't polish the back on it though - you're likely to create a small rounding at the back of the bevel and that means the tool won't cut when the back is flat on the work.

Shiny and sharp aren't necessarily the same.

Actually it lessens the actual amount of the cutting edge removing wood so you can make deeper passes thus getting a rough surface down to a scalloped, close to flat surface, Subsequent planes will take off the high points of the scallops real quick and then the fun begins.

A minute or two on a stone or diamond plate will do the job very quickly. Press down on one corner for 5 or 6 strokes then on the other for 5 or six stroke. Doesn't require a lot of rounding to keep the corners from digging in.

charlie b

Reply to
charlie b

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