Scary Sharp -- TNG?
Mark Harrison -- in Sydney, Australia
>Perhaps this title belongs to the Veritas doo-dad but then it doesn't come in 240V 50Hz, which is what we have and I don't presently have the money, but read on anyway...
Well, it's questionable if this belongs here or on the dark (light?) side as there are some electrons killed here. But then we have discussed other power sharpening methods here...
I was thinking -- usually a bad idea -- how I could speed up the flattening process of the backs of chisels. Some of these are questionable value as there is some pitting on the back but in the spirit of my financially straitened circumstances (see below), I searched for a solution to work with what I have.
Scary sharp is quite effective but a little slow. I wondered if I could speed this up then I thought, I have a Makita 1/3 sheet finish sander that I scarcely ever use any more. Of even more interest, this model also has the ability of just moving the sheet linearly.
First of all, I mounted the sander in the face vise upside down. Put some 80 SiC on the base (now top) of the sander and tried my chisel free hand. Actually, it worked better than I thought it would but the soft pad tended to round the edges so I cut a piece of hardboard and hot glued it the top/bottom.
Actually, using hot melt glue was not a good idea and I wouldn't recommend it. Carpet tape would be more reversible. Anyway, I digress....
With the hardboard and the 80 grit this now starts to work quite well. I managed to get the back quite flat without pits! The tool stayed cool throughout the exercise.
Flattening the back is one thing, the bevel is much harder free hand. The biggest problem here is that the sander required one hand to brace in the vise. I'm not ready to sacrafice the tool. Well, not yet anyway. So the bevel is more rounded than I like but it still cuts wood. More than I could say about it before.
The problems are to establish a stable way to hold the sander and to keep the tool at an established and steady angle. One major problem is the vibration of the tool itself. Not only is it vibrating itself out of the vise but the tool is visibly rocking. Maybe if the sander was better mounted to minimise vibration this problem would be obviated but I think that the only real solution is to use a guide of some sort.
Another interesting trick was I used different grits by just placing the sheets on the sander without stopping. Enough friction was obviously there to hold the sheet sufficiently still, for my purposes anyway.
I'll keep you all posted on my adventures. I'm planning on some sort of a mounting with large dowels to put in dog holes. Then some method to establish the bevel.
If you've kept up with the news you'll know that I'm presently unemployed so the answer is yes, I do have too much time on my hands.