Help with sharpening

[Jaromir Svoboda]

New to wood turning.I want to get new grinder/sharpener and jig for lathe chisels.
I am thinking,8" slow speed grinder and wolvering jig from Woodcraft.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2080939/29437/8in-Slow-Speed-Grinder.aspx

or Grizzly 8"sharpener with wood turning sharpening kit#2.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-Grinder-Sharpener/T10097

Which will work better?

[David Gilbert]

I attended a workshop yesterday with Bill Grumbine. He gave a wonderful workshop and I learned a lot.

Regarding sharpening, he used a Tormek that the Grizzly is copied after. He commented that he shapes all of his tools with a grinder (like Woodcraft's) and hones with the Tormek. If you use the Tromek to shape your tools you will need hours and days to do it. The grinder will be much faster and will produce tools that are certainly sharp enough for your use. If you don't have either, start with the Woodcraft grinder with a Wolverine system and jig and get the Grizzly system later.

Welcome to the vortex!

David

[Alan Trout]

I would get the Woodcraft slow speed grinder with either the wolverine of like what I have. I use the Tormek grinder adapted kit so I can use the Tormek jigs on my grinder. I have a wet gtinder and do no use it much now that I haven the Tormek setup on my slow speed grinder but I really like the Tormek jigs.

Alan

[Richard Allen]

The woodcraft grinder and the Oneway sharpening system.

[Lee Koepke]

i JUST bought the woodcraft grinder .... for 89, cant miss deal!!! I have been using a high speed harbor freight $25 special with the axe grinding gray wheels ... let me tell you what, I cant WAIT to sharpen my gouges now, its a world of difference.

I have the original wolverine grinding jig and I get repeatable grinds every time...

[David E Keller]

I think you can do what you need to do with either setup, but it seems that the grinder/wolverine combo is more popular. Since I've added the CBN wheel to my grinder, I don't see any need for a wet grinder.

[Chris Studley]

I have both of these, Got them for xmas...

For Shaping(not sharpining) it is somewhat time consuming. If you nick your tool on a screw or something this can take soem time as well.

For just sharpening, It works good you can get things super sharp (probably sharper than needed, but whatever) I quite like the honing wheel as you can go back to that between grinds.

As far as the jig kit. I don't really think they are all that useful. The tool rest one is good and Straight forward. The gouge one is alright for a roughing gouge(no fingernail). Probably worth the $45.

Since it can use the Tormek jigs, I suggest getting the Universal Gouge jig. I made my own based on Tormek's, but am going to remake it as it's a little flimsy.

[Paul Gilbert]

I recently bought a Tormek 2000 (Predecessor to the T7) with all of the jigs that Tormek makes. I tried for days to sharpen my skews in the Alan Lacer manner and finally gave up. The jig to sharpen gouges works, but is cumbersome compared to the Wolverine. Be aware that the gouge jig is around $200 which will be above the purchase price of the wet grinder.

I bought the Tormek primarily for jointer blades, plane irons, carving gouges and bench chisels. I still use my Wolverine for all of my lathe tools. (Actually I use the Sharp Fast jig in the Wolverine holder) I just sold the Wolverine Veri-grind jig for real cheap.

If you buy the Wolverine system. buy the whole shebang, as it is cheaper than adding parts later. The single point diamond truing jig works well and will be necessary when you set up your WoodCraft slow grinder.

[Alan Trout]

Paul,

I am not sure where you got your prices on the Tormek jigs but the SVD185 which is the gouge jig is about $92 not $200. Having used the Wolverine, Sharpfast, Tormek, they wall work well. The Tormek is no more cumbersome than any others and some ways easier to control. of course this is just my humble opinion.

Alan

[Paul Gilbert]

Alan -

I stand corrected. The SVD185 is indeed about $92. I will also concede that the Tormek puts a more polished grind on my gouges. However, I contest your assertion that the Tormek is no more cumbersome than the Sharpfast. It may well be that any new system has it's own learning curve and that I may change my mind about the Tormek and lathe gouges. I just used the SVD185 to regrind a D shaped scraper for my Jameison style captured hollowing rig. Now that works well.

Do you leave water in the Tormek reservoir over night? Although I sharpen many times during a session on the lathe, I don't turn every day. Cleaning out the reservoir and adding new water just adds to the aggravation of using this system in anything but batch mode.

[Alan Trout]

Paul,

I use my wet grinder for hand planes and chisels etc. I use my slow speed grinder with my Tormek jigs. I get the best of both worlds. Very repeatable results and the increased speed of the dry grinder. Very rarely now do I use my wet grinder for turning tools. However I did use it for about 3 years without problem. The only disadvantage to the wet grinder is changing profiles. but I am getting close to as good an edge on the dry grinder so that is what I have been using. Here are the pics of my setup.

Alan

220866

[Jaromir Svoboda]

Thank you all.I bought 8" grinder with Wolverine jig.