T124 Blade Sharpening

[Jared Greenberg]

have Minimax's T124 lathe. I am mostly turning maple, with the occasional piece of ash and birch thrown in.

After turning to the finished product the piece comes out quite rough, and usually need to start out with a 40 grit to get it smooth, then go through various grits to get the finish I am after. I have looked on other photos on different threads and the finished turning seems to be a lot smoother than what I am producing (maybe because they are softer woods?)

I currently use a standard bench grinder, with Lee Valley's honing compound. I was wondering if a belt sander would be better for this application.

Any sharpening tips or suggestions on how to get it to be smoother after turning (so less sanding is required) would be greatly appreciated.

[Bob Hallowell]

Jared,
I am a bit confused are you asking how to sharpen turning tools or how to sharpen a duplicator bit?

99.9 % of the tjings posted on this forum are turned from lathe tools which there are several ways to sharpen them. I myself use a bench grinder with a better wheel and the wolverine system.

Welcome to the forum,
Bob

[Gordon Seto]

Is that a copy lathe?

I think that is the down side of using the copy lathe cutter. The duplicator is not cutting the wood; it is scraping the wood. The proper bevel supported cuts with turning tools do produce a finer polished surface. Usually harder dense wood give smoother surface out of sharp lathe tools. I don't have experience with copy lathe to know what grit sanding to start is the norm.

Do you mean the green honing compound from Lee Valley? That stuff can produce a mirror like fine polished surface that some hand carvers get on their hand tool. I think if you can get anything even finer won't make sense for a lathe cutter. The lathe cutter is "cutting" wood at thousands' RPM, the cutter travels a lot of linear feet and generates a lot of heat.

Off the grinder to honing compound is a wide gap. The surface off the belt sander should fall between the two that you are using. It only makes the honing part easier, but should not get you a sharper edge than the honing compound. You still need to sand from the same coarse grit.

Gordon

[Jim Becker]

There are some answers/comments to your questions plus some questions for you in your duplicate thread in the General Woodworking Forum here at SMC.

Jim
SMC Moderator

[Jared Greenberg]

Thanks for the help. It is a copy lathe, and once you put it into those terms it makes sense. When I do touch ups on the regular lathe, I get a smooth finish.

Just wondering if there was a way to make it smoother on the copy lathe from a sharpening standpoint.