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Life and Times of a Kitchen Axe
#11
Ken

With your Viel variable speed belt machine - you now have the best of both.  Tormek and belts.

The Viel when set up as a variable speed machine offers the sharpener more options than a Kalamazoo SM 1.  The Viel is more versatile than the SM 1 as a sharpening machine.  To mention one the Viel is easy to adapt to a Wolff clamp and etc to sharpen scissors.  With simple and affordable mods one of the very best grooming, tailor, upholstery scissors sharpener at any price. 

The Viel vs. the SM 1, the Viel is easier and less expensive to modify and lends itself to more versatility.

Trust, I have been there and am not willing to defend my above statements.  Yes, I own several each of the above two said machines.

I, pass the torch to young men like Ken, Mark R., Max, Jeremy and our many other members to develop simple and effective belt machine mods.

Yes - I know there are TW 90's, Wilmont grinders in our World  nothing nicer for their designed purposes.  Also spent time with Harbor Freight's 1x30 belt machines.

Most of my experience has been with 1x30, 1x42 also 2x42, simple and affordable machines.

Always have a Spyderco 204 on my kitchen table - with diamond and medium rods, nothing finer.

Going to get one of EdgePals Chef devices some where along the way.

Rupert
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#12
Rupert,

I feel strongly that both the Tormek and the Viel have the potential to do much more than their basic programming. This feeling is increased with the Viel due to the lack of information provided by the manufacturer. 

One advantage Tormek has, in my opinion, over most companies is that it makes only Tormek wet grinders. It presently makes the T4 and T8. Most of the parts, as well as all the jigs and almost all of the accessories will fit either model, as well as almost all the Tormeks made since 1979. In order for the company to succeed, the Tormek must succeed.

The EZYlock shaft is an example of this. The EZYlock is a stainless steel shaft with a left hand coarse thread. Changing wheels is a snap with EZYlock. It replaced the stainless steel shaft around 2010. The stainless steel shaft had replaced the regular shaft sometime in the early 2000s. The EZYlock is compatable with all earlier models, and also replaced them as spare parts. Thus, Tormek both moves forward and takes care of its present customers.

My dealings with Viel have only been positive. I just wish information about their products was more readily available. Most of what I know about Viel came from Steve and bessex members like Rupert and Max. 

In an email, I compared what I want to accomplish with modifying the Viel to using a view camera. For those of you who might not know, a view camera is large, either wood or metal, always used on a sturdy tripod and viewed under a black focusing cloth. The technology is very old, however, in capable hands, a view camera is far more versatile than any other kind of camera. The control and image quality are incredible. Think Ansel Adams working in Yosemite.

The Viel, with its large variety of belts, offers quite a variety as is. Adding a variable speed motor with a reversing switch allows the choice of optimum speed and optimum placement anywhere along the belt. It offers well controlled flat and convex grinding to complement the Tormek's range of concave grinding. At some point, I plan to modify my Viel further to accept Tormek jigs. Tormek already makes accessories to adapt its jigs to regular dry grinders and dry grinders equipped with the Oneway Wolverine system. I will probably use the more flexible Tormek adaptor for the Oneway system and my Viel.

I will continue to post and remain most grateful to those on this exchange who have guided and encouraged me.

Ken
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#13
The hollow grinding chisels started long before my business. For timber framing chisels I would hollow grind them and using Japanese wet stones sharpen them like many do a straight razor, using its spine as a guide for the bevel. When the hollow grind began to disappear I would put them on the generic wet wheel I had at the time to put the grind back in to essentially make it easier to sharpen by hand.

Many will argue, but using a belt machine in my opinion can be just as good and perhaps better in ways than using stones. Perhaps another thread!
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#14
Thanks for explaining the glass platen Mark.

I feel like the slick glass allows the belt to have less resistance and return less heat. I honestly don't know much about them other than the one for my 1"x42" is super thin and a big advantage as you said is not wearing a spot into the metal platen.

It took me a long time wondering what I was doing wrong watching a nice bur develope to spend an incredible amount of time polishing a bevel before I realized I had worn out a popular spot on the platen. The thicker cloth belts weren't as noticeable as the belts that were thinner.

When I mounted it I welded a piece of scrap iron to the back that supported the bottom of the new glass platen. I also drilled small holes on the metal platen and scuffed the back side of the glass for the epoxy to have more pockets to do what it do.

I can't remember where I got it the first one, (it was a knife making suplier) but it is a different glass than the Pyroceramgot that you mentioned.

I did buy some Pyroceram locally a while back that is much thicker and plan to use it on a complete new machine I've been working on for quite a while and hope to have ready to use and share details by the end of summer.

My intensions for building a new machine is to make sharpening less stressful and faster for myself and everyone else interested in using a small belt grinder for sharpening

Much of what I plan to use are pirated technologies and mechanical bits from tools that have obvious patens that I would like to avoid and stay out of trouble.
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#15
Jeremy,

Your concept machine sounds fascinating. I look forward to your thoughts as it becomes a working machine.

I would like to learn more about glass platens. I doubt the small amount of knife and scissors sharpening I do would ever cause a problem, however, one longer range idea I have for the Viel is adapting it to work with the Tormek jigs. The jig which comes first to mind is for planer blades. The jig is well designed, although the Tormek wheels tend to glaze with it. The primary problem is compensating for wheel wear, which would not be a problem with grinding belts. A belt grinder, with a variety of coarseness belts available, would seem well suited to removing nicks.Heavy grinding of planer blades or drill bits might be a wear problem with a steel platen.

Would a local glass shop be able to cut pyroceram for me?

Ken
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