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Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

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Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

#1

Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

Sanford Levy

>After hours of only partly successful plane iron flattening (I usually ended with a shinny, but slightly curved blade), I simply held the irons to the sides of my grizzley grinder wheel. The grinder has a wet, upright wheel and I was able to hold two blades to the moving stone at once, one on either side of the wheel. This flattened them far better than I was able to do by hand, and in fairly short order. I had some really nasty, pitted irons from ebay planes that were flattened in about ten minutes. The machine left the surface more or less polished too, though there are some scratches left over since the sides of the wheels do not seem to have been made for this and have a few slighly rough points. I will polish the scratches off later. Maybe I will rub them out on a 1200 water stone and then do a finer polish on sandpaper. Have I missed something? Is there some hidden trap in this easy flattening method? Sanford

Re: Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

#2

I envy you, Sanford...

Ted Owen, Pittsburgh

>because you're having better luck than I. I'm just not able to get comfortable with the speed on my Makita and don't feel in control.

The only use to which I still put the Makita is power planer blades.

Best, Ted

Re: Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

#3

Re: I envy you, Sanford...

Sanford

>Ted, I experimented a bit till I realized the best way to do it was to rest my two hands on the metal frame on the front of the machine, not on the normal tool rest. I could then push one blade against each side of the wheel. It is a slow grinder so it is easy to control. You start pushing lightly so that the wheel does not grab the blade from your hand, and then increase pressure. I also discovered that the slowly spinning wheel does not harm my skin if I touch it by mistake, though I imagine that if I lost my grip on a blade so it spun our of control and bounced of some piece of metal, there could be some danger: eye protetion! Sanford

Re: Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

#4

Re: Flattening Plane Irons on Electric Grinder

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>FWIW, that is how Tormek recommends that one flatten the backs of blades.

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