Bench Grinders


Eric.

Recommended Posts

digging this one outta the archive...

First of all, just curious: @Eric. how happy have you been with the Tormek?  Has it been decent value for money?

 

Yeah it's been a great value...I returned it and got my thousand dollars back. LOL

I decided that since I'm not really a serious turner nor do I have the desire to fully go down that wormhole anytime in the near future, I would go the poser route and buy all EWT tools.  And that's what I did.  And I'm happy.

When I retire and have a house full of furniture that I've made, I'll dig deeper into turning and probably go down the traditional road more.  Right now turning is just something I do in between furniture projects or on days I have nothing else to do, so I'm not taking it that seriously at the moment.

But Tom is a Tormek man so he can probably answer your questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For turning tools I love my Tormek, it's been the most consistent, of all the sharpening systems I've tried for gouges, I don't recommend it for plane irons or paring chisels, stick to stones and a honing guide for that. Touching up a tool is simple and takes no time once you're familiar with using the various jigs. It is an expensive system, however you don't have to worry about heat ruining your tools, and if you're using high end powdered metal tools, cutting is gonna be slow unless you go with the black stone for sharpening them. My tools are all high speed steel, so I'm not too worried. It takes a long time to reprofile a tool due to the slow rotation (450 RPM) I did setup a Tormek Bench Grinder mount to my 8" slow speed grinder to profile tools, and then I use the Tormek to hone the edge and get me nice and sharp. They do nickel and dime you to death however. If you're serious about turning, it gets a two thumbs up from me. However if you're not looking to do a lot of turning and this is just you toying with the idea of turning 20 pens and a small bowl, saying you hate turning and ultimately wanting to stab yourself in the face with a skew chisel every time you think about turning, then don't get it. Here's a bit of a price breakdown to get well situation with the tormek for turning tools. I wouldn't really recommend the T-4 since you can only run the motor for 40 minutes before it needs a break to cool down, versus the T-7 which is continuous with no need to stop. The T-7 also includes a few things with it that the T-4 doesn't.

 

Tormek T-7 - $665
SVD-185 Gouge Jig - $97
SVS-50 Multi Jig - $68
Turning Tool Setter - $34
Profiled Honing Wheels - $64
 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   2 Members, 0 Anonymous, 62 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    422.1k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,777
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    dave07
    Newest Member
    dave07
    Joined