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Good Experience - Right Angle Grinding Platform

Tom LeTourneau

Tom LeTourneau

Joined
May 3, 2022
Messages
13
Likes
9
Location
York County, ME
Just thought I’d let those interested in upgrading sharpening/grinding gear know… I purchased a Talon platform from Right Angle a few weeks ago. Gil Lea, the owner, offers various platform options and helped me adjust the Talon to sit nicely in my OneWay system. Can’t recommend him and his product highly enough. You can Google “Right Angle” to peruse product variations. I had been searching for a RoboRest alternative (no longer made) and looked at a Stuart Batty platform. The SB seemed to require too much retrofitting with my OneWay. Best to all! [Tom]
 
Very intersting. I've been looking at adding another platform to my system, as I have one, but it isn't great for things like re-sharpening NRS or 40/40 grinds.

Curious, is there a calibration process for these? It looks like the angles are printed on the ramp there. How do you set it so those angles are indeed correct for a given particular setup? I had to raise the base of my grinder off my bench a bit to accommodate my sharpening system (which would probably accommodate the rail version of this platform)...just wondering if the specific height I raised mine by, can be accounted for here...
 
You can raise and lower the platform to accommodate any tool thickness. There are inexpensive platform add-ons to deal with skew bevels. Two variations of two types of platforms exist. One type of platform lets you fix ANY angle and mark it one of the six provided areas for repeatability. The other type has notch-like holes to set the angle. Each successive hole varies from the closest by a a few degrees. You really should view the video on the Right Angle website. Gil Lea does a MUCH better job demonstrating than I do writing.

BTW - I think Stuart Batty’s three set angle gauges are GREAT. Have been going with those to repeat, rather than felt-tipping the bevels.
 
Last edited:
Tom Albrecht said:
I would be curious to know how steady it is in use. I had a Robo rest an d wasn't satisfied with how unstable it was.
Click to expand...
Seems rock solid. Even Reed himself commented in another forum here, that he thought the metal was of a much heavier gauge than his RoboRest. The Talon fits in the OneWay just as solid as the original platform. The platform SB sells that fits into the OneWay has a disclaimer admitting that their other (non-insert) variation is considerably sturdier. Kinda cooled me off on it. The Right Angle, however, has so far been “Rock of Gibraltar.”
 
The Right Angle tool rest is a good concept, but not quite how I would have done it. I have been looking at the Duax angle table for drill presses from Woodpeckers. More good concepts. It does have 1 degree increments which I think is too many for most wood shops. There was a little play with the pin in my grinder rest, and I never noticed it until some one commented about it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA41qzwTrUw


robo hippy
 
Jon Rista- The numbers are for reference only, they are not angles. I used a marker to find the current angle and corresponding hole in the platform since I was happy with the way my scrapers performed. Once I had the correct angle, I used a paint pen to write the number on the tool and that offers me instant repeatability.
 
Tom LeTourneau said:
You can raise and lower the platform to accommodate any tool thickness. There are inexpensive platform add-ons to deal with skew bevels. Two variations of two types of platforms exist. One type of platform lets you fix ANY angle and mark it one of the six provided areas for repeatability. The other type has notch-like holes to set the angle. Each successive hole varies from the closest by a a few degrees. You really should view the video on the Right Angle website. Gil Lea does a MUCH better job demonstrating than I do writing.

BTW - I think Stuart Batty’s three set angle gauges are GREAT. Have been going with those to repeat, rather than felt-tipping the bevels.
Click to expand...

I actually did watch the video. They showed how the two types of platforms work, but didn't seem to mention anything about calibrating the height.

I also just picked up one of Batty's angle gauges. They are helpful, but, I am constantly pulling that thing out now to readjust my one platform. :P Solved one problem, created another. :D
 
Jon Rista said:
I actually did watch the video. They showed how the two types of platforms work, but didn't seem to mention anything about calibrating the height.

I also just picked up one of Batty's angle gauges. They are helpful, but, I am constantly pulling that thing out now to readjust my one platform. :P Solved one problem, created another. :D
Click to expand...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slf2IFk03BQ


Does this help? Seems the platform height is not an issue as long as the gauge touches at both points of a given angle.
 
I have never used the Batty system. We came out with ours at about the same time. There have been many variations of angle setting jigs for the Wolverine system. As near as I can tell, they get you "close", but are not EXACTLY perfectly repeatable. That is what my old robo rest and the Right Angle jig do, you get exact angle settings, every single time.

robo hippy
 
Tom LeTourneau said:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slf2IFk03BQ


Does this help? Seems the platform height is not an issue as long as the gauge touches at both points of a given angle.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I was looking at their platform that had pre-set angles. I was thinking, if they were pre-set, you would need to have the platform at an exact height relative to the wheel, since the wheel is curved. Too high or low, and you wouldn't actually get the angle set.

For the other one, which was more expensive, where you can set your own angles for each of the provided bolts, I guess might not need to be set at an exact height since you are setting the angles yourself. But with the pre-set angle one, I think you would need to make sure its at an appropriate height relative to the wheel, right? And, I guess, also a correctly set distance from the wheel as well?
 
I think we have two lines of discussion in this thread… 1. The Right Angle platform, and 2. The Stuart Batty angle gauges. The Right Angle platform has an adjustable height mechanism, set at the user’s discretion to fit his/her grinding wheels. I set mine once. It works for all my tools so far. You can also set the platform distance to the wheels. I also set mine once at about an eighth of an inch (or so) to the wheels. I find no need to change these initial settings. FWIW… I only had to fiddle with adjusting the spacing of the platform at the sides of the wheel… to even it out. Right Angle provides a simple way for their Talon model for this purpose. Set once, that’s it.

The Stuart Batty angle gauges are used with ANY sharpening platform system. Their purpose is to set an angle of the platform, higher or lower, when the platform is next to the grinding surface. Each angle on the gauge can be achieved by ensuring that two points touch the wheel. I don’t think the height of the platform (within reason) makes much difference for precision. I use these gauges with my Right Angle platform simply to give me confidence that I am using the correct notch on my Talon for any given angle.

Both products have videos, ones which I honestly think explain things far better than my rambling. I can only vouch for them from my own experience to date. I apologize if I have lead anyone astray.
 
Well first if all specific angles aren't necessary. Repeatability of the grind and easy luck set up are what is important. I don't own the right angle which i think meetscall of the above. I switched from the robo rest to the woodturnerswonders rest but I modified mine to have presets at all of of the angles that it didnt come with. If the right angle rest had come out before I bought this one I would own one of those. Here is a photo of my modification. At $100 this rest is less expensive but of course you would have to modify it if you need more angles. I drilled holes every 5 degrees that were not already there. I use a 1/8 " Allen to fit in the holes to lock it in place. It's held to the jig with a rare earth magnet so it's always handy.
 

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I ended up just buying another one way platform, one for scrapers and another for the roughing gouge. Put a stop collar on the shaft so it's always the right distance from the cbn wheel and I don't change the angle of the platforms.
 
I would say the difference between the Stuart Batty system and mine and the Right Angle are that Stuart's system requires a jig every time you want to set the angle, and it may still need "adjustment" to get it perfect. With my old system and the Right Angle, you can repeat EXACTLY every time without having to use a jig. Working on another variation now....

robo hippy
 
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