Yesterday morning was a rare opportunity for me. My knowledge of other sharpening systems has been mostly acquired by watching online you tubes done by presenters of varying abilities. Yesterday I saw the Tormek and three other systems presented by four experienced turners who had a lot of experience using those systems. There was not a sales person in the bunch. Their goal was to share their experience.
The other three systems were variations of whatis typified by the Oneway Wolverine. One was the Wolverine; one was a sophisticated system which could create triple grinds to turn wearable hats. It was impressive, but far beyond my ability or interest. The third was part of the Sharp Fast system. The presenter had one side of his grinder tooled up for the Sharp Fast and the other set up with a Robo Rest. Unfortunately, he had left the gouge jig for his Sharp Fast at home and was really presenting the Robo Rest.
For someone doing a lot of platform grinding, the Torlock platform and the Robo Rest would be a good pairing. (I would make it a trio and include one of Herman’s small platforms.) The Torlock fastens easily and very securely. It can be adjusted very accurately. The Robo Rest uses a loose fitting standard T shaped Allen wrench to hold the settings. It has holes for every five degrees. While no match for the Torlock for accuracy or rigidity, it is more than adequate in these areas. It is also very fast to operate. If I decide to expand my Tormek system, a Robo Rest is on my short list to acquire. I have not seen the version which fits the Wolverine system, however, I would lean toward it, as it is easily placed and removed.
The other three systems used conventional dry grinders. As I recall, all three used “slow speed” 1725 RPM motors. Some used wider CBN wheels. The CBN wheels were 1 1/2” wide, wider than the standard 1” wide grinding wheels. Neither matched the luxury of a 50 mm (2”) wide Tormek wheel. I have not seen it in person, however, I believe the Sharp Fast gouge jig is the best design for narrow grinding wheels. For the record, I had no trouble reshaping a bowl gouge using my T4, SVD-186, and a 1” wide Norton 3X wheel.
For resharpening the same configuration, I would consider the Tormek SVD-186 and the Wolverine Varijig evenly matched. Both were fast and accurate. For anyone wanting to work with a number of grinds, I would give the nod to the Tormek jig. Tormek certainly provides more instructional material.
It did not surprise me that at the end of the demonstration, Rich had no spilled water on his table. When we carried everything out to his truck at the end, I carried his rotating base. It was dry. The water in his trough showed much grinding debris, however, all of the water was contained in his trough. Rich’s table was also the only one with no grinding dust.
The main advantage the other systems had over the Tormek was speed. This is somewhat due to the difference in motor speed. Another factor is the grit of the grinding wheels. Tormek has never made a coarse wheel. The 220 grit SG and SB wheels are adequately coarse for sharpening. They do not reshape well. The new diamond DC and DWC (for the T2 and T4) wheels narrow the speed gap for reshaping. For a one time operation, they are still slow, but fast enough to reduce the frustration. Other third party wheels are even coarser.
I like the Tormek philosophy of using a single grinding wheel and grading it. It works very well for sharpening. Speed of cutting has never been Tormek’s strong area; Tormek is known for cool, dust and spark free grinding which produces very keen edges with minimal steel removal. I would like to see Tormek offer a true coarse grinding wheel to supplement the system.
I may incorporate parts of the other systems into my Tormek system. However, my Tormek remains the system anchor.
Ken
