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Tormek T-7 |
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| $709 | ||
| Manufacture: Tormek AB | ||
| Available From: Big Bear Tools | ||
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| OVERVIEW Sharpening is one of the most important tasks that every woodworker engages in. As we all know, it's difficult to do good work without sharp tools, and just about impossible to do excellent work. Trying to hand plane figured wood with an iron that isn't razor sharp or pare joints with dull chisels is a sure prescription for frustration. While I have always maintained that practice is the single most important thing you can do to improve your skill level, keeping your tools sharp comes in a close second. Over the past three months I've had the opportunity to extensively test the Tormek T-7 sharpening system. While the T-7 can sharpen just about any cutting tool from scissors to axes, I used it to shape and sharpen a range of plane irons, chisels, spokeshave blades, carving tools, planer blades and jointer blades.  There are four main components to the T-7:1) a 2" x 10" grindstone (a.k.a. water stone) for shaping and sharpening, and a 1 7/32" x 8 5/8" leather wheel for honing (final polishing); 2) a 200 watt fully enclosed, continuous duty motor that rotates at 90 RPM; 3) a universal support with a micro adjust screw feed mechanism; and, 4) a square edge jig that ensures perfect alignment of square end cutting tools to the grindstone. The T-7 also comes with a truing and dressing wheel (that trues the grindstone exactly flat), a stone grader (that quickly polishes the surface of the stone, effectively converting it to a 1000 grit stone), an angle master (to set the exact tool bevel angle), honing compound for use on the leather wheel, handbook, an instructive DVD, and an accessory storage tray. Additionally, there are a wide range of other jigs and accessories that you can purchase separately or as part of a kit. The body of the T-7 is made of 1/8" welded sheet steel, while the main shaft and the nut and washer that hold the grindstone in place are made of stainless steel. The top handle, water tray and adjustment knobs are made of impact resistant ABS plastic. The T-7 is clearly designed to withstand years (decades) of rigorous use. With a footprint of only 10 5/8" x 10", and 12 3/4" high, the grinder takes up very little space, and at 32 lbs it's easy enough to store away when not in use. It's been my experience that manufacturers rarely pay attention to instruction manuals – some are barely comprehensible. Fortunately, the instruction manual that comes with the T-7 is an exception to the rule, being clearly written, logically organized, and well illustrated. While the T-7 is not a complicated grinder to use, it's worth taking the time to read through the manual before you begin using it. Additionally there is a DVD that explains all the various features of the T-7. Plane Irons and Chisels The T-7 can accommodate irons and chisels up to 3" wide. I found that the 220 grit grindstone cuts fairly quickly. Using the 'stone grader' to re-configure the grindstone to 1000 grit on the fly is a huge timesaver - you can move from initial shaping to final sharpening in one fell swoop. The grader is simply a two sided silicon carbide stone; holding the coarse side against the spinning grinding wheel for fifteen to twenty seconds grades the wheel to 220 grit. Holding the fine side against the wheel grades it to 1000 grit. Like any water stone, the T-7 grindstone glazes over with embedded bits of metal. The grader also serves to quickly remove the glaze build-up. Because the grindstone is lubricated (and cooled) by water, and the wheel turns at a leisurely 90 RPM, there is no heat build up on the cutting tool at all. Which means you never have to worry about ruining the temper of your steel, and you'll never unintentionally grind off too much steel.  The T-7 uses a variety of jigs to hold the various cutting tools in place as they are being sharpened. All of these jigs are attached onto a universal support (a.k.a. tool rest), an 'F' shaped 1/2" diameter stainless steel bar (photo, right). The universal support can be mounted on either side of the grinding wheel (so that you can grind either towards, or away from, the rotating edge of the wheel). It can also be mounted to use it with the honing wheel.  A micro adjust screw feed mechanism (photo, left) enables you to fine tune the adjustment angle of the universal support in .01" increments. This affords you an exceptional level of precision. Of course, you can also use the universal support for free hand grinding.  Straight edge tools (chisels, plane blades and the like) are mounted in a square edge jig, (photo, right) which holds tools securely at a perfect 90° angle to the grindstone, regardless of the shape of the tool. A pivoting pressure bar on the jig applies even clamping pressure on the tool, pushing it up against the flat edge of the jig. In profile, the pressure bar has a slight angle at its back edge, which facilitates clamping tapered and Japanese style chisels. High performance engineered plastic inserts on the square edge jig enable it to move smoothly along the universal support bar. There are two ways to set the bevel angel for a chisel or plane iron. If you don't need to sharpen at an exact predetermined bevel angle, mount the tool in the square edge jig on the universal support and raise or lower the support to match the existing bevel angle. This approach is very quick, and I use it for basic sharpening of a dull chisel or blade.  When
establishing a new bevel or grinding to remove a major nick, I use
the angle master (photo, left) to establish an exact bevel angle. You simply
set the angle master to the bevel angle you want, place it's tip on
the grindstone, and then adjust the height of the universal support
so that the angle master rests flush against the surface of the
wheel. You
don't need to apply much pressure to the chisel as its being ground
(photo, right); the wheel does all the work. The key is to keep the
blade moving across face of the wheel; this way you won't grind a
belly in the wheel. However, no problem if you do as it's very easy
to true the wheel (see below).Flattening the back side of a chisel or plane iron is very easy on the T-7. You simply hold them against the flat (vertical) side of the grindstone. This is less intimidating than it seems, as the grindstone turns very slowly and there is a lot of surface to use. I don't flatten the whole back, just the 1/2" or so closest to the cutting edge. Unless the back is severely deformed, expect to spend no more than two or three minutes to flatten and polish the back.  The
results achieved with the T-7 (photo, right) are certainly as good
as you can expect to get from any other sharpening method. The
advantage of the T-7, in my view, is that there is really no guess
work involved. It's quick to set-up and use, capable of sharpening
just about any cutting tool, and gives consistently superior
results. Honing is done on the
leather wheel (photo, left). Squirt some honing compound on the
leather wheel (you 'pre-condition' the wheel with some light
machine oil) and then
place the tool horizontally on the top of the wheel. Avoid tilting
the tip of the tool towards the wheel (or you'll round over the
cutting edge) and don't apply much pressure - let the wheel do the
work.  Honing
on the leather wheel is amazingly fast; in under a minute I was able
to get a mirror finish on the chisel (photo, right). If you don't have a lot of experience
sharpening, or are frustrated with using a conventional high speed
grinder, then I think you'll find the T-7 very appealing. Planer and Jointer Blades Sharpening chisels and plane irons used to constitute all of my sharpening. I've always sent my blades to a sharpening service. So I was very interested in trying the SVH-320 Planer Blade Attachment, ($164.95) which, as the name implies, enables you to sharpen planer and jointer blades of virtually any length.  The
Planer Blade Attachment consists of a carrier (photo, left) to
which the blade is attached, and which in turn rests on a jig
similar to the universal support.
Sharpening a dull (but not chipped) set of 8" blades takes about
half an hour. Installing the blade onto the jig, and setting the
sharpening angle takes only a few minutes. The crucial part is to
ensure that the angle on the jig is set to the same angle as the
blade bevel. Fortunately the directions for doing this are very
clear – once you've done it a couple of times you'll no longer need
to refer to the instructions.  The
bulk of the time is taken up with moving the blade back and forth
across the surface of the rotating grindstone (photo, right). I stop grinding and visually check the bevel about every
five minutes. For long blades (over 10 1/2") you need to sharpen the
blade in two steps. A bit of a hassle, but nothing serious. The
micro adjust screw feed mechanisms on the SVH-320 enable you to set
a grinding depth of a mere 4/1000". For dull blades you you only
need to remove enough metal to form a new sharp edge; for chipped
blades of course, you would need to remove a lot more metal.  The
blade in the photo at left is about as drastic a blade as I would
consider sharpening. Re-sharpening this blade took me almost an
hour; the results are shown in the photo to the right.  Anything more
severely chipped
I would likely send out to be re-sharpened, as the
amount of time to re-shape a blade would be much longer than the
time to re-sharpen. Currently I pay $17 to have a set of 8" jointer
blades re-sharpened, and $10 per 13" planer blade – about $375
annually. Almost justifies the purchase of the T-7 for this one
sharpening task.Truing the Grindstone  If you've used a water stone before, you know that they require
regular flattening. The truing and dressing tool
(photo, left) that comes with the
T-7 makes this a breeze. It's really impossible to dress the wheel
out of square, and you can remove precise amounts – as little as
1/16" at a time. The frequency of truing will depend on how much sharpening you do; I've only had to true the grindstone twice in the three months I've been using T-7. However, I do use the stone grader on a regular basis to remove any glaze build up on the wheel. Woodturners Kit  Turners use a lot of tools with convex, curved and skewed cutting
edges that have unique requirements when it comes to sharpening. The
TNT-708 woodturners kit ($347.99) contains jigs
for sharpening fingernail, spindle and roughing
gouges;
straight or curved edge skews; parting and beading tools; scrapers;
and hollowing tools. There is a turning tool setter, similar to the
angle master, that enables you to quickly establish the correct
grinding angle on gouges and skews, and two profiled leather honing
wheels for honing the flues on gouges.The Ultimate System? Given what I had read about the Tormek my expectations were high, and I was not disappointed. For novice woodworkers, the T-7 is an easy-to-use, comprehensive sharpening system that will give exceptional results right out of the box. Woodworking enthusiasts and professionals will appreciate its versatility, durability, and return on investment. With the T-7 you'll spend less time at the sharpening wheel and more time at the work bench. At $709 you might consider the T-7 to be exorbitantly priced. Not so. The previous system I was using consisted of a Delta 8" variable speed grinder (upgraded with a Norton 120 grit grinding wheel, Oneway balancing system, Veritas tool rest and skew grinding jig) and a set of four 800 to 8000 grit water stones (along with the Veritas MkII honing guide and skew jig attachment) Pricing on this system was about $625. More money up front, but over the long term, comparable cost for, in my view, a superior system. If you really like what you've read about the T-7 but still can't justify the price, then have a look at the new T-3, which retails for $339.95. It offers a lot of the features of the T-7, but in a smaller package. The T-3 uses a 1 5/8" x 8" grindstone, 1" x 5" honing wheel, 120 watt motor running at 120 RPM, and ABS plastic housing (rather than the 1/8" steel housing on the T-7). It lacks a carrying handle and quick coupling feature for the honing wheel, and doesn't come with the truing tool or stone grader. However you can use all the same jigs and accessories on either jig. The T-3 carries the same 7 year warranty as the T-7, though not for commercial use. Which ever Tormek system you select I think you'll be exceptionally pleased with its quality, durability and dependability. Reviewed by Carl Duguay, www.finewoodworking.ca |
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