As most of you know, I’m a new wood worker. My new bench grinder arrived a couple days ago and I mounted it to an old steel desk we have in the garage. The tool rests that came with the grinder are worse than useless so I made my own. It mostly works but I need to mount it a bit closer to the grinder. Should I spend the time to make my home made tool rest work, or should I just buy the Veritas tool rest? (Or some other rest?)
Part of the reason I ask is that I did try to sharpen a plane blade. (The rest isn’t quite close enough to shapen a chisel.) I got a decent bevel but when I tried to finish sharpening on a water stone one side of the blade wanted to sharpen and the other wasn’t on the stone even though the blade was square according to my try square. (I’m using the Veritas sharpening system to guide the blade. I don’t have enough confidence to sharpen free hand yet.) I assume this happened because the tool rest isn’t parallel to the grinder spindle and wheel face. Part of making my tool rest work will be getting this straight. (I also need to add a little wax to the surface so the blade slides over the rest easier.)
Edited 8/24/2005 10:19 am ET by baldmountain
Replies
Buy the Veritas. Or better yet, buy two.
I worked in a production shop where we had a grinder rest custom made that was like the Veritas. It was invaluable.
So of course, I have a Veritas at home now on my grinder. It's important to be able to grind well as part of the sharpening process. Get a white wheel as well. You can regrind a nick in a few seconds, go straight to the 1000 stone, 4000, then 8000, and be back at the bench in about 2-3 minutes.
Eventually, upgrade the other side of grinder, but no hurry. You can still use that side for lawnmower blades etc, or put a buffing wheel on.
The older I get, the better I was....
I agree, buy the Veritas, it's really nice, sturdy, well made, and their are jigs for it. I have one and love it.
Scott
Another vote for the Veritas; in addition to being great, the jigs they sell for it are great, too.
Charlie
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baldmountain,
Personally, to me this is one of those areas where you've got to be careful...tons of money can be spent. I've only been into working a few years but I've never had a need to put either a plane blade or chisel blade on a grinder...and overheating the tip, loss of temper, is a real issue.
With that said, I do use the grinder for turning tools and downloaded and built the attached some time ago. Vertias is good stuff, the attached is just to share with you what I've gotten for free from the net.
BG,How do you sharpen your chisels and plane blades? Just clean them up on a stone and go? What about when they need a new bevel? (Or do you just sharpen them flat on a stone?)I have some older planes. I think the blades are stil usable but they really need a new bevel. (The bevel on them is gone because whoever sharpened them had no idea what they were doing.) The tool rest is more to reserect old plane blades.Having said that I really should buy a few Hock replacement blades. The only reason I haven't is I'm not sure which planes I'm going to use and which are going into the junk box.
baldmoutain,
I sharpen and hone all my blades and chisels on stones (ceramic) and if lots of material needs to be removed I'll use the w/d paper on granite. I've had some of those old stanley blades that were in bad shape...I had them professionally prepared for $7 each, they work fine. My point is simply there is just very little need for such aggressive sharpening relative to blades and chisels....for lawn mower blades, sure. When you ask about changing the bevel, on chisels, the paper/stones work fine...all my plane blades are at 30 degrees and then I can play with the micro bevel if I want...One other comment about chisels relative to cutting dovetails. Very sharp is nice to have, I sharpen mine fairly infrequently because I don't force the chisel to work to hard. I do this by chopping my dovetails sitting down with the stock held vertically in the front vise..also easier on me...lol
I have the Veritas and it is a nice rest. Several years ago, I purchased the Oneway Wolvering and like it much better than the Veritas. There are also several other nice rests available. You could use a sponge and have a better tool rest than provided with most grinders so whatever you decide, it is likely to be an improvement.
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