Bill Boehme - thanks! for your reply. Gives me some more to think about before replacing the wheel on the Tormek, and a little research to do on the diamond wheel.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Tormek...but it mostly just gathers dust. “Messy” is in the eye of the beholder. To use my Tormek I need to get a container of water, add it to the tray (a few times as the wheel soaks it up), redress the wheel, sharpen my tool, empty out the water, and then clean the filings from the magnets I have in the bottom of the tray (guess I could just dump filings down the drain...but I don’t).
All of that is a bigger hassle than just turning on the other grinder and sharpening (dressing wheel a little - which now I won’t need to do with cbn) and vacuuming up filings.
I like the fact that water gathers filings and keeps from being airborne, but the hassle of water and slurry in the shop (slurry includes sawdust mixing in), along with the slow speed of using Tormek, means I only pull it out for a special need that I can’t do otherwise. I think a dry wheel that didn’t require honing would mean I use it much more. Still, need to let your comments ruminate a little while. Thanks for your thoughts.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Tormek...but it mostly just gathers dust. “Messy” is in the eye of the beholder. To use my Tormek I need to get a container of water, add it to the tray (a few times as the wheel soaks it up), redress the wheel, sharpen my tool, empty out the water, and then clean the filings from the magnets I have in the bottom of the tray (guess I could just dump filings down the drain...but I don’t).
All of that is a bigger hassle than just turning on the other grinder and sharpening (dressing wheel a little - which now I won’t need to do with cbn) and vacuuming up filings.
I like the fact that water gathers filings and keeps from being airborne, but the hassle of water and slurry in the shop (slurry includes sawdust mixing in), along with the slow speed of using Tormek, means I only pull it out for a special need that I can’t do otherwise. I think a dry wheel that didn’t require honing would mean I use it much more. Still, need to let your comments ruminate a little while. Thanks for your thoughts.
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