Out of Square Tormek

[John Tallyn]

Has anybody ever experience a Tormek that's out of square. When I use the upper posts, my plane blades and chisels grind out of square. Yes, I checked the tool holder, etc. When I move to the lower posts everything is fine. Any thoughts, ideas?

Thanks
John

[Chris Rosenberger]

I never depend on the jig & support for the blade to be square. I setup for the bevel I want, I then put the blade in the holder against the stop & make a test pass. If it does not look like the new grind mark is parallel to the cutting edge, I adjust the cutter until the grind mark is parallel. There are to many other factors in the support, grinding wheel & holder for me to depend only on those for the edge to come out square to the edge.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

I had the same issue though using the SE-76 Tormek jig. The results were mixed, there were still blades out of square. So I built a jig which makes sure that the blades are clamped square. It works fine, the issues are gone. Here some pics:

Thats the jig

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It works with japanese blades

192175

and with western blades

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Narrow blades will be clamped by using a fence which will be sticked in with 2 dowels

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As you can see, the squareness of the clamping is made sure by aligning the cutting edges of the blades except narrow blades.

Klaus

[Gerald Senburn]

The Wood Nerd just went through the same issue with his new Tormek T-7. He ended up deciding that he didn't want to pay that much for a sharpener that was so hard to work with and returned it. You can see a whole series of posts about the T7 on his blog, http://www.thewoodnerd.com/blog/, he starts off loving it but then ...

[Philip Rodriquez]

The fix is easy and you do not need to make a special jig or return your Tormek.

According to Sharp Tools USA "...If it is out of square, you will have a “long point” and a “short point”. Release the clamping pressure on the short point side’s clamp by 1/8 turn and tighten the clamping pressure on the long point side’s clamp by an equal amount. Grind for a few more moments and check again. Re-adjust as necessary..."

I use a red or black marker so I can see the grind better. Let me know if you still have problems.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

The square edge jig? I've had trouble, but if was operator error, on my part. It depends on what screw you tightens down on first, as Phillip mentions. For some reason, it seems to be fine if I change mounts. Without changing the SE jig. Can't explain that. Maybe the upper mount is more critical?

[Chris Tsutsui]

The tool rest must be parallel to the grinding wheel. To do this you use the diamond truer and you'll be able to square it up.

Then as long as you adjust the tool rest with the same procedures, you should achieve uniform parallel alignments of the tool rest to the wheel.

Then if you use the square edge guide and that's not square, then perhaps modification is in order to the jig, but I find that in my cases, the square edge jig works fine.

For sharpening planer blades that are long, I don't really trust my T-7 to do something that because you need constant velocity and pressure to uniformly sharpen a planer knife so that it's straight. Though knowing me, I'll probably end up getting that jig anyways though..

[John Tallyn]

I'll try that and see if it works.
Thanks

[Alan Schaffter]

Like many, I also had trouble keeping my irons square using my Tormek. I solved the problem by turning it into a Worksharp. Spent the money I had left over from selling the Tormek on a new set of chisels!

[Julian Tracy]

I keep a little 1x2 machinist's square with my setup and use it to register the chisel or planer blade square to the jig body. I have the older style square edge jig, so not sure how the newer style is different.

The other thing I've done to speed up the process is to make a mark on the square at 45mm so that I can make sure each chisel is place in the jig at the same distance, allowing me to fix up a set of chisels quickly and accurately.

Considering the Tormek is 6x the price of the Worksharp, I've still heard more complaints about the WS than I have about the Tormek. I've found mine (used #2000) to be super easy and fast to use with not too much effort or practice.

Mine came with the planer blade jig and I sharpened my laminated steel 10" planer blades using it with excellant results - they were much sharper looking and feeling than blades from the factory.

JT

[Forrest Bonner]

And Philip suggestion is the same that the Tormek demonstrators in my area say to fix any non-squareness. I use it and it works well without any jigs. Although, I have to admit that designing and making a good jig is part of the fun. (I do not make a living at WW so time being $$$ isn't an issue.)
Forrest

[michael case]

Listen to Phil and Kyle.

[John Tallyn]

I would accept that it was operator error, except for the following, "Operator error" only creeps in when I use the upper posts, if I then take the SE jig, and use the lower posts, operator error disappears. I realize that I'm not Einstein, but that would indicate to me that one set of the guideposts are out of alignment, especially since I haven't readjusted the tools in the SE jig. I get the same "operator error" on every plane blade or chisel every time, but only when I use the upper guideposts. The odds are rather high that I'm incorrectly tightening the nuts exactly the same each time. I sort of took Allan's suggestion, except when I sold the Tormeck, I put the money in to the collection for the new Leigh FMT pro. I've gone back to using the old hand cranked grinder that I got from my Dad that he got from his Dad, grinds square, don't have problems with operator error, takes a little longer, but makes me think of Dad and Grandpa every time I use it.