Elec-Trickery in the Shop

Beside of the telling-bone, the elec-trickery find its way into the shop.

I'm a hand tool woodworker from conviction.

But it's time to get rid of time killers.

One of my time killers is grinding!
As I like to overhaul the one or other wooden plane it always comes to the point of grinding the recovered iron.

Of course, you can do that by hand. I've tried different methods. Using a very coarse diamond stone. Using 60 or 80 grit sandpaper. Filing. You name it.

Sometimes it went well and a nice shaped bevel came out ready to sharpen and hone. The other time it doesn't went well and I even was not able to produce a nice tip.

No matter how the iron came out it did cost a lot of time (and elbow grease). And I was tired of wasting my time with tasks I don't really like.

So I came to the conclusion that I will need a grinder.

I had a look in the past already. It was clear for me that a normal bench grinder is not ideal in the wood shop because of the flying sparks. Especially in a very small shop. On the other hand, honestly, a Tormek is much to expensive for my purpose.

To make it short I have bought a Scheppach Tiger 2000 wet grinder.

Grinding a blade on the new grinder

It has not the best criticism in the world. But I found that for my purposes it has a good value for money ratio. I can live with the plastic cover what seemingly bothers a lot of potential buyers.

The stone is running balanced as far as I can judge it from eyeballing. And the dimensions are similar if not the same to the other systems on the market. So if I will need accessories I can buy it from different manufacturers.

This week I received my order. And what can I say? I'm satisfied. My first object to sharpen was the iron of my bevel up jack. The iron is (was) sharp, but I wanted to reestablish the 25° primary bevel. Forget about doing it on the stones. I've done that once and then never again. And due to this, the primary bevel meanwhile was 30° and the secondary bevel became steeper. Not ideal for shooting end grain.

It took me five minutes to grind it back to 25°. Thanks to elec-trickery.

Then I took it back to the stones and sharpened it free hand, established a new micro bevel a little steeper than 25° and job was good.

The problem now is to find a good place for it, so that I have access to it whenever needed.

That said I spent some time this weekend with some clearance work. At least I have a space to store the new elec-trickery beast temporarily.

I have left me two years to make this decision. But spending hours with grinding is not what I want.

All pride does not help. I would like to do hand tool woodworking and not metal work.

Finally I don't regret that I have waited to buy a grinder. That way I have learned some very basic skills and I do not want to miss it.

Now then, nuff said. New projects are in the pipe.
Stay tuned!

Stefan