Sharpening station cart height?

[Steve Mathews]

I'm putting together a sharpening station for my bench grinder and Wolverine Jig setup and need to establish a height for the cart. What do you folks find to be the best height?

[Reed Gray]

As close to the height of your lathe as possible. No muscle memory changing to do.

robo hippy

[Steve Mathews]

As close to the height of your lathe as possible. No muscle memory changing to do.

robo hippy

What part of the lathe for comparison did you have in mind? Might be academic at this point because I worked on the cart this afternoon and made it 36" high, which is close to the height of my lathe at the ways. I was going to make it 34", the same height as my Baldor stand but it seemed a little too low.

[Rick Bailey]

Steve,
Mine's at 42'' at the rest and I'm 6' tall.
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[John K Jordan]

What part of the lathe for comparison did you have in mind?


What I've heard is to make the grinder axis about the same height as the lathe spindle. It makes sharpening more comfortable. Sharpening is harder if the grinder is too high or too low. I guess if you are used to holding a tool against the wood at a certain height it would feel more natural to hold the tool against the stone at the same height.

JKJ

[Reed Gray]

I guess I should have said that your tool rest for the grinder should be the same height as the tool rest on your lathe. The motions you use when sharpening are the same as when you turn, more so if you platform sharpen.

robo hippy

[glenn bradley]

There area a couple of posts that assume your lathe height is already ideal. If not, now would be a good time to fix that. Once you have a fatigue-free lathe working height, duplicate that as the working height for your sharpening position.

[Joe Bradshaw]

Steve, My sharpening station is on the top of a 48" cabinet. The centerline of the grinder is about 55". This works well for me, as I don't have to bend over. I use the Wolverine system.
Joe

[Steve Mathews]

Here's a pic of my temporary sharpening station. It's only temporary because I used a cart that I already had and shortened it to play around with the working height. I also plan to use some of the cool ideas you guys have on tool storage, etc. When all of the bugs are worked out I plan to build a permanent cart out of wood. The cart was cut down to a height of 36", which puts the Wolverine Jig platform at roughly 44", the same as the center of the grinder shaft. My PM lathe by contrast measures 36" at the ways and 46" at the center of the spindle.

Mr. Bradley brought out a good point regarding overall ergonomics. As mentioned above the spindle on my PM lathe sits at a height of 46". I don't know if that's ideal for my height considering the bottom of my elbows are at a height of 42". The PM lathe doesn't have a height adjustment so I suppose the only thing that can be done is to stand on something assuming my shorter height is an issue. Since I'm new to this I have no idea what the corresponding heights are supposed to be between the lathe and operator. So far all I've been doing is adjusting to whatever equipment I have.

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Note: I'm waiting on my 2 8" CBN wheels. The grinder shown is a Jet 10".

[David C. Roseman]

Steve, have a look at this good article on sharpening by Eric Lofstrom that Reed Gray mentioned in a recent thread (thanks Reed!).
It recommends having the axis of the grinder shaft at the height of your elbow's axis or slightly above, which should also be the height of your lathe's spindle axis. http://ericlofstrom.com/files/Lofstrom-_Eric-_Sharpening_1-day_Hands-On-_Handout-4_pg.pdf

If your lathe is not at that ideal height, I guess I would still try to match its height just to retain consistency in movements. You'll spend more time at the lathe than the grinder.

[Curtis Myers]

Steve, My sharpening station is on the top of a 48" cabinet. The centerline of the grinder is about 55". This works well for me, as I don't have to bend over. I use the Wolverine system.
Joe


I also have have my sharpening grinder set high. The center of the wheel is 47". This way my tired eyes can see the edge being sharpened without having to bent over. My sharpening motions has little in common with my turning motions. I use the Wolverin system and a platform.

When sharpening I stand with my chest facing the side of the grinding wheel. This way I can get very close to see what I'm doing and my body is also out of the way of the tool motion during the sharpening process. No need to remove handles for sharpening with this method and I can see what I'm doing very well.

I witnessed Ashley Harwood explain and demo this grinding technic at the NC symposium 2015. I tried it and adopted it.

All the Best
Curt

[Robert Engel]

Height = whatever works for you.

I'm 6-1 and mine is about 32" high. Also depends on what stones/stone holders you're using.

I suggest before you build to cart, build the top and try it out at different heights.