Sharpening Station Plans

[Neil Larson]

Any body have any unique plans for a sharpening station. I have a standard

8" double wheel grinder, a Delta Sharpening Station and a Jet Slow Speed Wet Sharpening System. I use the Jet 80% of the time and the Delta about the next 18% but there are times that I need a real live rough grinder, so, I would like to find a way to mount and store all of them in a rack/cabinet that I can switch them out. As a secondary issue, I still do have need for a ceramic stone though I am thinking about switching to the Scary Sharpening Syatem for flatening my plane blades and chisel backs. So some room for that would be ok, but not a real requirement, I use my bench now.

I was thinking of a tall wheeled cabinet with the Jet on top. The pedestal would be just big enough for the Jet. It would present the Jet at low chest level then have lower shelves on each side for the grinder and the Delta. Another option might be the interchangeable top system. I did that in a double cabinet for my planer, belt/disk sander, scroll saw and spindle sander.

Anybody tried or seen anything like this or anybody have a better idea? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your assistance

Neil Larson

[John Flatley]

Neil,

Checkout the New Yankee Workshop web site. Norm built a sharpening station; it looked like a companion box to his famous router table.

As I try to get things set up, I find I don't want to tear something down to set up something else. Probably an age thing. Could be a reaction to restricted space for years and years. (now if I can just find/build a setup for my Leigh Jig....)

John Flatley Jacksonville, Florida

[Will]

Check out this site for your Leigh Jig.

[Tom Dacon]

Neil, I've been mulling over building something like you're describing, myself. While I haven't gotten to the point of trying to draw it out yet, here's one detail I've been thinking about:

If you sharpen kitchen knives, the wet sharpening system is best positioned so that you can be behind it, with the wheel turning away from you, and positioned low enough so that you can work it from behind at a comfortable height. I think maybe the surface the system sits on might be about 20" off the floor or so, depending on your height. I would probably want to sit on a shop stool while doing the sharpening, so the height would depend on that. So I'm thinking about a sort of "rolling cabinet inside another cabinet", where the wet sharpener (mine's a Tormek) would sit on the low cabinet, housed in a recess in a regular benchtop-height stationary bench cabinet.

On top of the bench, my rough grinder would sit at the back, out of the way, while hand sharpening goes on at the front. For you it would be the Delta system and the rough grinder. If you need one of them, you bring it to the front and maybe, in the case of the rough grinder, clamp it to the bench. If you want to use the wet sharpener at benchtop height, you lift it off the lower cabinet and set it on top of the bench.

The wet sharpener's cabinet would have shallow drawers underneath for the various attachments.The bench cabinet would have a stack of shallow drawers alongside the recess for the rolling cabinet, in which I'd store stones, honing jigs, spare plane blades, and so forth, with a couple of larger drawers at the bottom for general storage of grinding wheels, wire wheels and buffing wheels, and so forth..

At least that's what I'm thinking so far. Once I collect the dimensions and try to draw it out, who knows how it will work.

Tom Dacon

[neillarson]

Thanks for your help.

Sounds similar to what I was thinking. As far as posistion, the only knives I would sharpen would be my carving knives. At this point I was thinking of having the Jet at low chest level while sitting on my shop stool and having the Delta at lap level. I believe that I will move the grinder to my garage for use with metal and mores etc. The delta rough stone should be all I need for reshaping.

I was thinking of a stair step like cabinet so i can sit in front of the Jet, Spon it 90 degrees and sit in front of the Delta, then spin it 90 more and stand behind the Jet. Put a couple drawers in it for storage and a base large enough for stability.

I was sure hoping someone had done this though, Guess I'll have to dig out the drawing board.

[charlieb]

"Having everything except the router in one case is nice, but the secure feeling of knowing my expensive jig is protected from most kinds of accidental damage is the best feature of all."

All those fingers sticking out look vulnerable as hell (and relying on them to support the router bugs me a bit too).

You could drive a truck over the AKEDA dovetail jig and probably not even worry about it being damaged

- and it provides solid support for the router , leaving the snap in "fingers" below the router support - where they're out of harms way.

As for a sharpening station cabinet - been there, done that. Grinder with Wolverine jigs, Tormek, drawers for all the accessories, some diamond plates, arkansas and india stones, a place for a tupperware container for the japanese wet stones, pull out shelf if I want to put the Tormek or the grinder away, another pull out shelf with cubby holes for Scary Sharp (tm) plates

- and locking wheels. Added a 1" sanding belt thing as well.

This stuff might give you some things to think about when designing your sharpening center

b