Sharpening - Grinder

[KingBubbaTruck]

So, Spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to sharpen my tools on an inexpensive Harbor freight wet/dry grinder. Tried to use the tools and discovered that instead of sharpening, my scrapers now were burnishers, and my gouges really did that, basically just gouged the wood. I tried making a woverine style jig to help keep the angles right, etc... Just couldn't get the hang of it.

I got fed up, and read the articles by Alan Lacer.

I bit the bullet and went to Lowes and bought the Delta 8 inch variable speed grinder. Just put it together and in a matter of minutes was able to sharpen my tools (free hand on the tool rests) to the point where they were really cutting quite nicely without even going through the honing (that's got to wait till later, I'm supposed to be working right now). The scraper scrapes shavings and the skew cuts like butter again. It had been a while since I really sharpened them, and It took a long time that time to get it right. This time it was a piece of cake.

I'm getting ready to turn a segmented blank I made yesterday and I didn't wan't to blow it out by using some poorly sharpened tools. Blowing out a piece of acrylic or a normal plain wood blank is annoying enough, I didn't want this glued up bunch of little wood chunks to fly apart from a catch due to a dull tool.

I think I found the info about him on this site, so I just wanted to say Thanks!

 

[Pipes]

God deal dude I got the wolverine system I am not good enough to freehand it :O) But I have found that a small diamond hone wipe on my tools befor use X fine or FINE I don't have to go to the grinder near as often . I can't work with dull tools ...

 

[pete00]

king bubba

i had the same problem....try this jig i made its simple and works great.
If you like the idea you can find a lot more jig plans aroun.

pete
http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12214

 

[KingBubbaTruck]

Now that looks like a nice jig. I'm putting it on my "have to build that today" list!

My shop is pretty small and right now I've got the grinder and belt sander on a lazy suzan bearing. I think I'll probably make a platform that raises both of them up a tad, and put a drawer in the middle to hold accessories for each tool, and let the slots for the jig run all the way front to back.

Thanks!