Seeking Advice on Sharpening Tools

[Fred Woodward]

First post on this forum but I know you guys will know and give good advice.

I have a 15 year old nephew that loves to turn. He has a mini lathe and turns out pens for the most part but is always experimenting with different things. His tools are elementry but he likes them. Keeping his tools sharp seems to be his biggest stumbling block to improving the quality of his work.
My dad bought a bench grinder (not sure of the brand or quality) and has been using it to sharpen the lad's cutting tools but does not have a good guide system for the grinder.
The boy has a birthday coming up and I wanted to get him some better tools and some kind of angle guide for the grinder so the tools can be sharpened more accurately.
I cannot afford to purchase him a whole sharpening system.

Suggestions? Any help is appreciated.

[Tom Jones III]

If you do some searching on this forum you will be able to find plans to build your own sharpening system. I built my own from plans referenced on threads I found through the search feature and the results are indistinguishable from store bought systems.

[Carl Eyman]

Fred: I have a "how-to" article how to build a shop built Wolverine like device. I have the Wolverine and from looking at the plans I'm sure the sop built would do the job just fine. I'll be glad to loan you the plans ( they are about 12-15, 8 1/2 x 11 pages. But time is of the ESSENCE. I must hear from you with your address before the post office closes today. I leave for New Orleans and hip replacement surgery early Thursday AM; so pm me immediately if interested.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Good luck with the surgery Carl! I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers!

[Ben Werner]

Instead of buying him something for his birthday... Just tell him 'bout this place!! :D:p he can learn everything he needs to know about turning+sharpening from these guys!!
Ok well I'm 16 so I can think like him. In terms of sharpening I just do everything by hand and it seems to work well... Cant do fingernail grinds too well but skews and other grinds I can get one or 2 facets which is best. I guess that doesnt help you... but you cant really buy part of the system cause it wont work alone. I guess making a system if you can would be the best option. (I probably should do that:p:cool:) if you cant do that then maybe you buy part of the system and then your nephew's parents buys the other part. just a thought.... I'm sorta typing as I brainstorm so half, if not more, of this, wont be of any use.
Ben
PS: good luck with the surgery.

[Brad Schmid]

Fred: I have a "how-to" article how to build a shop built Wolverine like device. I have the Wolverine and from looking at the plans I'm sure the sop built would do the job just fine. I'll be glad to loan you the plans ( they are about 12-15, 8 1/2 x 11 pages. But time is of the ESSENCE. I must hear from you with your address before the post office closes today. I leave for New Orleans and hip replacement surgery early Thursday AM; so pm me immediately if interested.

Fred,
A Wolverine or shopbuilt version of same is good advice. I have a Wolverine myself.

Not to hyjack the thread or anything, but good luck on your hip surgery Carl. I have had both of mine replaced and you will be glad you did it, especially if its very painful now. Hope your recovery time is quick.

Cheers,
Brad

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Fred, can you build one?

if you don't want to build the whole shebang, just buy the part that holds the gouges, the other bits are easy to build.

44415
This is the jig I built

44416
and you can see it attached to the sharpening station I made.

if you don't or can't weld, that is fine, there are lots of sharpening stands made from wood, like this one....

Sharpening (http://www.aroundthewoods.com/sharp.shtml)

I hope that don't break any TOS, just good info for a guy trying to help out family.

I'll PM you just the same.

Cheers!

[Fred Woodward]

Thanks so much for all of the replies. Sorry that I have not been able reply to anything before now but it's been a very busy day for me here. Work just keeps getting in the way of my hobbies. LOL

I will introduce my nephew to Sawmill Creek but his internet connection is a dial-up so it might be dicey at best.
I still have about a week to get it together somewhat before his birthday, so I'll need to get busy.

Thanks again.

Fred

[Don Baer]

Fred here's another home built jig. I haven't built it yet but it is on my list.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00115.asp

[JerHall]

Lots of info and ideas here:
http://woodturner.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=472

[Dick Strauss]

Fred,
Have you been to Jean Michel's website? Unfortunately Jean Michel passed away earlier this year but his family recently put his website back up to help folks like us. It is a site that shows how to make many jigs for woodturning. Follow these links for woodturning jigs and demos of sharpening...

http://atbq.qc.ca/jm2/

http://atbq.qc.ca/jm2/makingof.htm

[Peter Ripaldi]

howdy all
Havnt really said hi yet, but came accross this question from fred.


Fred heres my verison of home made jig, i made this up in January and posted it to another forum. Hope it helps........pete


I was building some shelves for a bedroom closet over the weekend and had a few pieces left over, just as I was about to throw them into the pile, I put them down in front of the grinder, and poof, brilliant idea number #345. I could use them for a sharpening jig.

I used a couple of 1x 12 and a few 1x3 boards, a bunch of exterior drywall screws and a couple of bolts to secure the grinder to the wood.

All I did was make a sandwich with the 1x12 putting the 1x3 in between. Then screwed it all together, done. The only thing I made sure of was that the sliding 1x3 were centered under the grinding wheel, all the rest just fell into place.

Because the sliding boards stick out the back I put a clamp there to keep it from sliding while sharpening. As the tool becomes shorter I’ll just adjust the clamp to give me the same angle.

I have been sharpening free hand. When I got my tools I marked the length and angle degree of each tool on handle. Figuring if I really messed up I got get it back to the original measurements.

To set the initial marks on the slider, I just put the angle flat on the stone and made a reference mark to go back to.

This worked like a champ. In fact I sharpened everything twice just because it was so easy and fast. I know …I know……..



a block to rest the handle on, and a mark for each tool, ive since added a thumbnail screw in the front to hold the sliding board in place, and a v grove to keep handle in place.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Welcome Pete!

Yep, that will work just fine!

I like the price too! :D

Cheers!

[Brian Myers]

Heres a couple of sets of plans from the net. http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=admp7zph558w_bcj4t5jchs7kq
http://www.a1studio.freeserve.co.uk/widgets/grindingjig/grindjig.html