03-24-2017, 12:26 AM
I've been playing with my Tormek a fair bit recently, I'm really enjoying it! I've also learned a couple interesting things about grading the wheel:
1: The stock "coarse" side of the stone grader isn't very coarse.
2: The truing tool builds an amazingly coarse stone.
3: Diamond plates and standard high-speed-grinder diamond dressers do a nice job of giving the wheel a quick refresh at various grits.
I'm pretty impressed with the T8, the only thing I'm *not* a fan of is the rattle on the water tray. No matter what I do, that tray rattles and vibrates like an old Ford. Went down to Wally World and bought a $4 dish draining pan, which does an awesome job of catching the watery mess it tends to make as it's being used. Especially with longer knives or flattening the back of a chisel. I'm probably going to snag the drill bit sharpening jig soon, the siren song of razor-sharp drill bits is calling me... So far, I've got the stock square-edge jig (I bought it primarily for chisels) and the standard knife jig, which seems to work quite well.
Also, if you need to take a *lot* off of the stone, how's the best way to go about it? Like, I need to take about 3/8" off of the diameter. On shipping, it got tremendously UPSed, and a puncture through the box left an impressive gouge in the corner of the wheel. I think it'd go away if I dressed off 3/8" or so, but with the truing tool, I'm gonna' wear out that diamond point before I get that much off! As an added bonus, the chip makes the truing tool jump in a most alarming way as it's cutting that side.
1: The stock "coarse" side of the stone grader isn't very coarse.
2: The truing tool builds an amazingly coarse stone.
3: Diamond plates and standard high-speed-grinder diamond dressers do a nice job of giving the wheel a quick refresh at various grits.
I'm pretty impressed with the T8, the only thing I'm *not* a fan of is the rattle on the water tray. No matter what I do, that tray rattles and vibrates like an old Ford. Went down to Wally World and bought a $4 dish draining pan, which does an awesome job of catching the watery mess it tends to make as it's being used. Especially with longer knives or flattening the back of a chisel. I'm probably going to snag the drill bit sharpening jig soon, the siren song of razor-sharp drill bits is calling me... So far, I've got the stock square-edge jig (I bought it primarily for chisels) and the standard knife jig, which seems to work quite well.
Also, if you need to take a *lot* off of the stone, how's the best way to go about it? Like, I need to take about 3/8" off of the diameter. On shipping, it got tremendously UPSed, and a puncture through the box left an impressive gouge in the corner of the wheel. I think it'd go away if I dressed off 3/8" or so, but with the truing tool, I'm gonna' wear out that diamond point before I get that much off! As an added bonus, the chip makes the truing tool jump in a most alarming way as it's cutting that side.