Tool sharpener

[Thom Sturgill]

Being frugal (ok, cheap:p) I have been looking for an alternative to buying an expensive machine to re-grind blades. I use waterstones for the final sharpening and am happy with that. I have a regular grinder, but it normally has a wire wheel on one side and a buffing wheel on the other and runs too fast.

It seems to me that all I really need is something that turns slow (400rpm?) and steady and has a tool rest and somewhere to rest a pan of water for the wheel to run in, so I've decided to buy a small lathe.

Any reason that will not work adequately?

[Vijay Kumar]

Being frugal (ok, cheap:p) I have been looking for an alternative to buying an expensive machine to re-grind blades. I use waterstones for the final sharpening and am happy with that. I have a regular grinder, but it normally has a wire wheel on one side and a buffing wheel on the other and runs too fast.

It seems to me that all I really need is something that turns slow (400rpm?) and steady and has a tool rest and somewhere to rest a pan of water for the wheel to run in, so I've decided to buy a small lathe.

Any reason that will not work adequately?

Grinding is a messy operation. It seems to me that all that metal chips and water are not very good combination for the lathe, the headstock, teh bed etc.. Of course you can make it work.

Woodcraft sells a slow speed grinder (about 1750 rpm) that is on sale very other month for less than $70 which would be my suggestion. Or a very coarse (extra extra coarse) diamond stone DMT Diasharp.

Vijay

[Eddie Darby]

Being frugal (ok, cheap:p) I have been looking for an alternative to buying an expensive machine to re-grind blades.

You may think you are cheap, but in fact no one is cheap. Everyone spends Time, and they spend Talent, as well as Treasure. ;)

I would suggest that you think about how much grinding you need to do, and weight it against the Total Costs.

The Scary Sharp System with very coarse grades of wet/dry sandpaper will tackle small jobs, and the float glass, or granite surface plate can do double duty by flattening your waterstones, which need very frequent flattening, if you want them to do the job, otherwise you are just waisting time again.

[David Weaver]

Do you have a belt sander already? If you do, you can turn it upside down in your bench and use it to do a primary grind - just use a honing guide (cheapest one you can find is fine - $10) different from the one you use for hand sharpening (if you use one) and use the belt sander. All you need is an end vice to put the handle in and a chair or something under the front of the sander to hold it steady.

If you're sharpening really large things, that may not help, but it will take metal off at a nice speed for a primay grind, and it doesn't make a hollow grind, which is extra nice if you sharpen using microbevels.

If your belt sander is variable speed, that's even better. I use a PC 4x24 variable speed belt sander so that I can slow things down a little, but a regular one with a light touch would be fine. If you didn't like the grit, changing to another belt is easy and cheap.

I tried using 60 grit paper and a piece of float glass on a damaged framing chisel, but that was really a slow process and not something I'd want to do often.

[Thom Sturgill]

And I thought that I had hit on the perfect rationale to buy that benchtop lathe....:mad:

[Jim Becker]

And I thought that I had hit on the perfect rationale to buy that benchtop lathe....:mad:

'Cept you need the grinder for the turning tools... LOL! The vortex is swirling all around you, Thom...:p

But to the practical, mounting a grinding wheel to a lathe with enough precision is going to be a difficult task. Spring for the Woodcraft slow-speed setup. It comes with the right kind of wheels and will be useful for that jump to turning with just the addition of a Wolverine setup. Ask Santa nice... ;)

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Cheap effective and fast

Purchase some belts for metal cutting for your sander. Do0esn't matter if it's a hand held belt sander or a 48"-x-whatever. the belts are cheap. Get a rather fine grit for nice stuff and 60 grit for lawnmower blades and axes.


I get a nice hollow grind on the drums and true and clean it up by hand on a stone. Fast cheap easy.