veritas grinding jig

[nick brigg]

just got it today (tool rest and the jig). love the tool rest, way better that the one that came with my grinder. but i cant seem to get the jig to work...cant wrap my head around it. anyone ot any experience with it?

[Montgomery Scott]

I bought one of the LV jigs and mounted the grinder and jig to a piece of 1/2" plywood to keep the jig in a fixed position relative to the grinder. I use it for most of my turning tools.

[Dominic Greco]

just got it today (tool rest and the jig). love the tool rest, way better that the one that came with my grinder. but i cant seem to get the jig to work...cant wrap my head around it. anyone ot any experience with it?

Nick,
I agree with you about the superior nature of the Veritas tool rest. I swapped out the left side of my Wolverine Sharpening jig in favor of the Veritas.

In regards to your confusion: Are you talking about the angle gauge? Or positioning the tool rest?

[nick brigg]

im talking about the lil jig that holds plane irons and chisels and fits in the groove in the tool rest. im supposed to add one thickness of the tool blah blah?

[Dominic Greco]

Nick,
I think I understand you now. Let me run through the steps I use when grinding the bevel on a plane iron and maybe that may help you.

This is assuming that you've followed the directions and installed the tool rest correctly.

I first lay a machinist's square against the side of the iron to see if the bevel is perpendicular to the sides. This just tells me how "off" the iron may be ground. If the mood strikes me, I'll scribe a line. But once I got good with the jig, I found it unnecessary.

There is a brass pin that needs to be installed in the jig so that the side of the iron sits against it, and the left hand screw. This sets the iron up so it will have a bevel ground that is 90 deg to it's side

Then install the iron in the holder, bevel side down. Make sure at least 2" (or so) of the iron protrudes from the jig. I align the left side against the brass screw, as well as the brass pin. Tighten down on both left and right hand screws while making sure that the iron doesn't loose contact with the pin, and the left hand screw.

Use the angle setting gauge to set the tool rest to the proper angle, and test the jig (with iron installed) in the tool rest to see if the iron comes in contact with the grinding wheel. The jig should sit flat on the table. You should not be taking a huge bite here. Just a hair at a time. You can always back the iron off or advance it in the jig. It may take some fussing, but you'll get it.

Now grind away. Just be careful not to overheat the iron.

[Gabe Shackle]

I know this is an extremely old topic, but I just recently picked up the same grinding jig and am having a hard time wrapping my head around how to use the angle guide to properly set the angle on the jig. Is there a particular spot on the tool rest the angle guide piece needs to be to verify the angle?

[Tony Shea]

Do you mean the angle of the bevel and not the skew angle guide? The little plastic guide block that you use to set the tool rest with? I have always had issues with setting the proper grinding angle with any method. I have yet to figure an effective method other than trial and error. I think the thickness of the tool also plays a role. If someone has a a good method I'd love to learn one. A method that does not use the existing bevel of the tool, many of the bevels I want to grind are not at the proper angle so using the tool to set the rest is not an option.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I have a little piece of wood with a couple of angles I generally want cut on the ends. I use a marking gauge, a pencil, whatever, to mark half the thickness of the blade on the side. I eyeball the setting of the tool rest, then place this block of wood on the tool rest, and slide it back and forth a little bit against the wheel. If the mark left by the wheel is about at that half thickness line, I call it good and go. Eventually, I shave off the bevel on the little piece of wood to clean up where there are a bunch of scratches. By locating the slight scratches made by the wheel against the lines I mark on the side, I can use one piece for various thickness of blades, and don't have to worry if I'm radically changing angles on a blade.

That's only when I'm being very particular, though, which I'm finding I do less of. In general, I do the scratching sideways against the wheel using the tool. If it's reasonably centered, I'm probably fine for keeping the bevel. If I start getting closer to the top or bottom as I continue to hollow grind, I give the tool rest a nudge partway through.

If I'm making a tool the "right" angle, I'm usually just thinking "steeper" or "shallower", so I just do the same scratching thing, but maybe shoot at having those scratch marks halfway up the top third or the bottom third.

[Gabe Shackle]

Thanks for the tips! I was pretty much just overthinking the process (and pushing down too hard). Once I let up on the finger pressure and did more of just a visual guess on the grinding angle it came out just fine.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

FWIW, when I'm testing the setting on a tool, I often don't even start the grinder, just touch the tool to the wheel and slide back and forth - just enough to leave some scratches. Once I've got it good, I start it up and just do a quick little motion across just to double check.