Robert Sorby Spindle Master repair?

[Dan Forman]

Seems I dropped my spindle master on the concrete floor, to which it did not take kindly. Of course it went nose first, and deformed the point. I tried to return the bevel to working order with an mdf wheel charged with buffing compound, but apparently rounded the edge too much, and now it chatters. Has anyone else over done this, (and will admit to it lol), and been able to restore the edge?

Dan

[Ron McKinley]

You need to put it on a grinder to restore the original grind.....Ron

[Bernie Weishapl]

Dan I would just order another cutter. No I am not telling you I did that!!!:eek::mad:

[Dan Forman]

You need to put it on a grinder to restore the original grind.....Ron

The original grind is not only convex, but the bevel is polished to a very smooth finish, they say that is to burnish the surface immediately after it's cut. It's very tricky to polish that without rounding it. They recommend not trying it, but I'm not going to send it to England for repair, so I had a go with my fine grit wheel and a Wolverine jig, and very carefully reground it, then smoothed it with the last 4 grades of scary sharp sandpaper-- 15, 5, 1, and 0.3 micron. It did a passable job, and I'm back in business.

I don't like the final surface the spindle master leaves, but it's great for getting a pen blank down to near final shape quickly, and resharpening is a breeze, so long as you don't drop it on it's nose. Not that anyone here besides me would do that. :D

[David Walser]

Dan,

If you have access to a Tormek slow speed grinder and Tormek's Gouge Jig (SVD-185), you place the Spindlemaster in the jig with a 3" protrusion and a jig setting of 1. Then, using the "marker method" match the bevel angle and grind away. Regrade the stone to 1000 grit and lightly grind to remove the scratches left from the 220 grit grinding, then hone the edge on the leather wheel to produce a mirror finish like the one that came from the factory. As a final step, hone the flat top of the tool to remove any burr left by sharpening the bevel.

You could reproduce the bevel angle with a Wolverine jig (using the Vari-grind holder) or the Tru-grind jig. However, even with a slow speed grinder and a 120 grit wheel, you'll spend a lot of time with emory cloth hand polishing the bevel if you hope to reproduce the mirror finish that came from the factory. (I'm not sure a mirror finish is important. If it is, the Tormek seems like the better option.)

Hope this helps.

[Harvey M. Taylor]

All my cutting tools come from the factory trained to land edge first on the concrete floor of my shop.Max.

[Tom Sherman]

My wife likes to use the spindle masters in her turning, we have the wanna be Benjaman Best and I have reground them numerous times to her satisfaction. They are afterall just cutting tools.