Has anyone used or have a Tormek to sharpen planner and jointer blades. I have a 25″ planner and currently sent my blades out to get sharpened which is not cheap.
Last October I went to the woodworking show in Chicago and talked to the Tormek guy for quite some time. He does his demos for a living, making it look pretty easy, however I wonder if it will work that way when I get it home. With the Tormek system a 25″ blade has to be sharpened in two parts, I am stilll skeptical that it will get all three blades the same. This weekend the woodworking show is in Milwaukee and I’m going to take another look, but would sure like to have some feedback.
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I have the Jet clone of the Tormek and I'am working on an independent system that will be attached to the bench. I was not impressed with the set up for doing planer knives with the tormek option and will build my own, too many chances for flex. Plan on using turn lock magnets to hold the knives and build a sliding fence and rail made out of phenolic stock with adjustable bevel, May not be pretty but it will work.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
I have the tormek and it does not work well on jointer and planer blades. The jig for holding the blades has too much flex and tends to "dish" the cutting edge. The tormek works great on chisels, hand planes, and turning tools but I would never use it again for my cutter knives. Spend the dough and have 'em sharpened.
I have the Tormek and sharpened a friends 15 inch planer blades a couple times. It leaves you somewhat on edge because you have to set it up twice. Seemed to work out okay though. I think it would work just fine with twelve inch "the maximum size without shifting the blade" and I intend using it on my eight inch jointer knives. Probably has to do with how much patience one has.
I just received my Tormek last Thursday and have spent the last few nights getting familiar with the machine. One of the first things I did was sharpen (3) 6" jointer knives. I found the system to work well and relatively fast. I did notice that one of the knives was dished before I started sharpening with the Tormek. Honing the knives was a little tricky at first but I imagine this will get easier with practice.
I installed the freshly sharpened set Saturday night and checked all three with a dial indicator. All three are straight (no dish).
When using this jig I found it mandatory to put a tray under the entire unit to catch the water (I now need to buy my wife a "new" jelly roll pan). Water ends up everywhere as it drips (or streams) off the knife when going back and forth.
Unfortunately I have yet to use the jig for longer knives so I can't speak about what happens when you reposition a knife on the jig.
Everyone, thanks for taking time with your feedback.
I had a conversation with the sawyer from where I get my lumber and his comment was "ask a good size cabinet shop why they don't have a Tormek for their big planers". The guy never seems to give a straight answer, he always sends you on a mystical journey in search for the truth.
I have the Makita wet wheel & have successfully sharpened my 12" planer blades several times. A friend got a new Tormek and wanted me to test run it for him. I had it about 3 months & managed to ruin a couple of planer blades with it. The problem I had was getting the rod that holds the knife jigs to remain parallel to the surface of the stone. There's enough play in the two supports for that rod to allow you to tighten it down at all sorts of angles to the stone. My first trial went well, but after that, I could never get the setup right again.
I think the Makita has a nice design for sharpening planer blades, however, the OP asked about sharpening 25" blades. The Makita website says their sharpener, "Sharpens planer blades (knives) up to 15-3/4" long."--WhitIf you have money buy tools. If you have money left over, buy food and clothing.
I went to the Milwaukee WW show today and decided not to purchase a Tormex. I had some nice conversations with folks that have big professional shops and they don't have a Tormex for the same reason that I have been skeptical. In their opinions because the 25" blades has to be readjusted in order to get the whole blade honed and sharpened it's very hard to get all three perfect. That said I believe the Tormex is a fine machine and it has it's place in our shops, just not for the application I needed.
I'm going to that show tomorrow. How was it?
There is a little more there than last year. All the vendors are anticipating the show storm and giving good deals on equipment if you take it out the door today. I was a little disappointed in the Steel City booth. I would have liked to have seen more more equipment a 8" jointer in particular and it was very busy most of the day, tough spend much time with questions. Delta did not have any of their three new drill presses on display.
I did go today. It was smaller than I thought it would be...smaller than the one at the Odeum. I would think Lie-Nielsen would have been there, among others. The Lee Valley Booth was good. I got a real good in-depth demo of the sharpening machine...which I finally bought after debating it for the last year. I thought Steel City would have done a better job also.
What did you think of the Milwaukee show?
I like my Tormex, but this I will say very simply. If you don't have enough chisels, planes or other edges under 12" long to make it worth while buying, then don't buy it.
It is a fine machine, but even sharpening a set of three 10" planer blades takes a long, long time. The only reason I do it is that there 's nowhere local I can get them sharpened.
I have a Tormek, and like it a lot, but the main reason I bought it was to deal with turning tools, which have round profiles. Otherwise, I would have stuck with my waterstones.
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