Tormek Sharpener

[Philbert]

Anyone have, or use, a Tormek, wet sharpener?

Or the JET, or one of the other versions?

Interested in your experiences; comparisons between the different makes and models; and which guides are most useful (knives, chisels, plane blades, etc.).

Also, any advice on what to watch out for, if buying a used one.

Thanks!

(Photo of new, T8 for illustration.)



Philbert

 

[blades]

wen , clone of tormac

 

[blades]

Not sure of the tormac but my Wen is a friction drive, so when not in use make sure to back the friction pressure off to zero to avoid creating a flat spot on the components.

 

[buckin-wood]

I've had a Wen 4270 for over 5 years and its been great. I sharpen knives and scissors, and only occasional use. So I don't know how it would hold up with daily use compared to the Tormek. The wheel did have a slight wobble from the factory, but trued up very easily. Also worth noting with the Wen knife jig knob is a bit too large when sharpening narrow blades and will contact the stone until the knob is clearanced. Tormek has a nice knife jig with low profile knobs that I suspect don't have the same issue, but I haven't been annoyed enough to buy the Tormek knife jig yet.


Wen knife jig




vs the Tormek (KJ-45)





I recommend the following Tormek accessories:
Tormek truing jig (TT-50) - I haven't had to use it often, but it trues up a wheel in a jiffy
Tormek angle master (WM-200) - My Wen unit was supplied with a gauge that had 8 fixed angles and only went down to 20 degrees
Tormek stone grader (SP-650) - I thought this was going to be gimmicky and not make much of a difference, but it does work

 

[blades]

The stone that came on my WEN is out of round, not enough for me to consider taking it down to my shop and tossing it on the lathe with mutipoint dresser in the tool post. There is to much give in the fixture support arm to accomplish that kind of truing.

 

[buckin-wood]

The stone that came on my WEN is out of round, not enough for me to consider taking it down to my shop and tossing it on the lathe with mutipoint dresser in the tool post. There is to much give in the fixture support arm to accomplish that kind of truing.

sounds like the out of round wobble I had with my Wen. With the Tormek truing jig no pressure is required, just feed the diamond cutter across, a few light passes later and the stone is true.

 

[Wilhelm]

I have several like the far left one, they work great



Link is just an example, many more ads/sellers to choose from.

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[blades]

those are what i use on mine. works very well for across the width of the face, but not for truing out of round If the support you are using the truing stone on flexes you not acomplishing much in trying to get stone perfectly round. I realize that at the slow rpm it is not a big deal. After truing the stone round correctly you will need to balance it. again at this rpm not a big deal. If it were running at say 1725 rpm you would be chasing the unit all over the bench if not bolted down . wear and tear on the bearings would be greatly accelerated. Being in my machine shop with stuff spinning at sometimes as much as 5k rpm, I get a bit annal about balance. Exploding wheels are no joke.