Bench Grinder Tool Rest - how to set angles?

[Prashun Patel]

I use a vs bench grinder to do initial honing of plane blades and grinding of lathe tools.

Does anyone have a straight forward way to set the angles on the tool rest table? Currently, I just try to match the existing bevel by eye. It's harder on lathe tools - especially when I'm trying to grind a specific angle or change from the existing.

Any good gauges out there?

[Greg Portland]

The Tormek angle gauge should work. I assume you're talking about establishing a bevel. Once that is established I find it easiest to find the angle by feel.

[Joel Goodman]

I use a vs bench grinder to do initial honing of plane blades and grinding of lathe tools.

Does anyone have a straight forward way to set the angles on the tool rest table? Currently, I just try to match the existing bevel by eye. It's harder on lathe tools - especially when I'm trying to grind a specific angle or change from the existing.

Any good gauges out there?

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/AngleSettingJigForDryGrinder.html is Derek's take on the problem. Haven't tried it but it looks good.

[David Weaver]

You don't even have to cut the curve in the sticking. You can make a straight stick and cut whatever angle you want on it and figure that you want it to contact the wheel about where the bevel of the chisel would be (i.e., you want it to contact the end of the bevel closest to the tool rest, and not at the far end).

You can make several sticks this way in a minute just by marking them and cutting them with a tenon saw. Make them of something hard and stick them by the grinder.

[David Cefai]

I use essentially the system described by David Weaver. The attached photos should be self explanatory.

The jigs were designed using AutoCAD. That eliminates any uncertainity about the angle setting.

Note that your wheels have to be uncovered, which is officially frowned upon by the safety guys.

If you want, post your exact wheel diameters and I'll give you the dimensions you need for different angles.

[Don Dorn]

As a guy that even had some trouble with the Veritas system, I think it's safe to say that when finding a system that would work for me, it would work for anyone. It's on the order of Dave's and one that comes from Ian Kirby in his very small book "Sharpening with Waterstones".

The system is nothing more than a 1/2" piece of conduit or pipe held up by two pieces of wood to a height that puts the bar at the outside diameter of the wheel. I put these posts on a board so as the wheel wears, you can move the apparatus closer to the wheel. I set it so the bar is about 1/8" away from the wheel. Then using a side clamping hone with a plane blade in it, present it to the wheel so your grind marks are taking up the whole bevel. That takes only 30 seconds or so. Turn the grinder on and lightly go back and forth with the edge of the honing guide against the bar and the blade against your white wheel with light pressure. It takes me about a minute of light passes to do a blade and I've never had one overheat yet.

With this system, I'm able to get perfect grinds and that is saying something because nothing worked for me. This system is as cheap as a length of 1/2" pipe as the scraps provide the system to support it come from your bin. If interested, I'll take some pictures, but the book (ISBN 978-0-941936-76-7) is great and is only about $10. I tried everything to get a decent grind prior to that - I know many other systems work, but for me, this one did the trick and I don't see ever doing anything different.

[David Cefai]

Don,

Do I understand correctly that you depend on the existing angle but cannot grind to an arbitrary new one? Or did I miss something?

[Don Dorn]

That is true, but if I wanted a new angle, I can increase or decrease, but not a specific amount. In other words, if I want the angle increased, I test the grinding marks until it's near the top but not at the bottom, then go ahead and grind. Opposite of course to decrease.

I've done that with a spare blade for those occasions where I want to tame some nasty grain. I'm not sure what the angle was, know only that it was increased. I can find out after with my Wixy on the tablesaw top, the increase or decrease from there if I wanted.

If I wanted to keep that angle for the future , I would just measure the protrusion of the blade from the side clamp guide or set it on something and mark it so you can return to that angle anytime.

[David Cefai]

Like they say, what works, works!

I found that I got too much "drift" when I tried to work that way. Consequently I moved to a system where I could measure what I was doing. ( OR: I think I am measuring what I'm doing).