John Hansen

[John Hansen]

Hi there,

I am a 17 year old highschool student that has become addicted to woodturning. Ive turned quite a few basic cups and bowls none to be note worthy. i turned my first little box about a month ago and I made my first pen last week. Ive been around a lathe since I was 13 or 14 but need A LOT of help as far as techniques and hints.

I wont be posting many pictures of my work becaue its all basic I will be mostly reading up on previous topics and asking my own questions so i hope no one minds answering questions.

Heres my first question. How is an easy way to sharpen tools? At home we dont have any way to sharpen them so i dont turn at home but at school we have a bench grinder so i turn most of my stuff at school. can it be done the old fashioned way with oil stones?


and just thought id share my first pen.

 

[Dean Center]

Nice looking first pen, John. I don't have any experience sharpening turning tools with oil or water stones but it seems like too much work. I would recommend seeing if the family can spring for an inexpensive bench grinder. You can get a basic new model for $40. You might find a used one in the want ads or at a garage sale. Ugly works just as well as new.

If you use a very light touch, a basic grinder will sharpen your tools reasonably well. It's better if you can get a slower speed model and use a friable (white, pink, blue instead of gray) wheel, but the basic fine grit gray wheels will work. One alternative would be to sharpen your home tools at school and then hone them on a slip stone, oil stone, water stone or best, a diamond hone, when you need to resharpen at home. You can get a basic, solid surfaced diamond hone at one of the usual suppliers (Penn State, I think) for about $15.

You've done a lot of work considering your age. Your results will be immediately more satisfying with properly and regularly sharpened tools. See what the family can come up with. (Maybe there's a Santa on the forum)

Dean Center

 

[Timothy Rowe]

club

John check the AAW homepage and find out if there is a member near you. He or she would more than glad to help you.

 

[john lucas]

There are quite a few people who hone the edges of their tools with diamond hones. You could refresh and reshape the edge at school and then touch it up at home with diamond hones or an oilstone. You do need to sharpen often. It just makes turning more fun. You get cleaner cuts and less tearout that you have to sand away.
I started sharpening with a disc of sandpaper fastened to the outboard side of my lathe. Ideally you should get a grinder. Buy the best you can but I sharpened on a cheapy for many years. It certainly is more pleasant when you get a good grinder however.
Glad your getting into turning. It is certainly a great lifetime hobby. I would also suggest finding other turners. You can learn much more with hands on instruction and help.

 

[Mark Warden]

You can mount a piece of hard wood on a face plate turn a nice flat face on it and attach a PSA sanding disk to it and use your lathe to sharpen until you can get a grinder. Just remember light touch is ail it takes.

 

[allen jay]

grinder

john
if you pay the shipping i will send you an extra 6" delta grinder i have setting around.
pm me if interested

 

[John Hansen]

My dad has one of those 8 inch bench grinders... it is a highspeed and right now the stones are WAY to course but if i could find just more of a buffing wheel would it do the job? and i will try the hardwood on the faceplate and see how that works.

But ive got some Black Walnut i want to make a pen out of but my tools need to be A LOT sharper than what they are to turn it

 

[KellyDunn]

John, getting a little help from an experienced turner will shave light years off your learning curve. Most are happy to spend a few minutes showing basic sharpening and even help with some tool tips.
If your dad has an 8 inch grinder even with a course stone it beats no grinder. But if you make a disc for sandpaper you can do your shaping on the course wheel and finely sharpen with sandpaper. Since you do need to sharpen a lot you could take one of these guys up on a grinder for shipping. I sure would. I am still using a 35 dollar grinder from walmart. But I have great wheels on it. I like 100 grit stones. But each turner likes different grits. If your dad has a dressing wheel or diamond cleaner you will need that to clean the stones of bits of metal that will buildup on the stone. But with that said the sandpaper way would take care of what you need. A grinder is just much faster. You walk to it and flip it on and your back turning.

 

[MichaelMouse]

My dad has one of those 8 inch bench grinders... it is a highspeed and right now the stones are WAY to course but if i could find just more of a buffing wheel would it do the job? and i will try the hardwood on the faceplate and see how that works.

But ive got some Black Walnut i want to make a pen out of but my tools need to be A LOT sharper than what they are to turn it

Too much emphasis is placed on the stone and the speed of sharpening to the detriment of the real solution - presentation.

FWIW
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/02-Gouge.jpg

An edge produced by grinding one side to the other on a 100 grit wheel.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/06-Enter-and-Peel.jpg

Produces a 220-capable surface on its own.

http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n28/MichaelMouse/?action=view&current=PeelandPare.mp4

By presenting so as to peel. Notice those shavings? Not chips or chunks, but shavings, as you would take with your jackknife, drawknife or spokeshave.

A hone is for a touchup when you don't have a grinder. Waterstones are too soft, even India gouge stones wear rapidly when assaulted with tool steel. The essence of which is resistance to abrasion. Guess that means by stones, too.

 

[odie]

john
if you pay the shipping i will send you an extra 6" delta grinder i have setting around.
pm me if interested

My dad has one of those 8 inch bench grinders... it is a highspeed and right now the stones are WAY to course but if i could find just more of a buffing wheel would it do the job? and i will try the hardwood on the faceplate and see how that works.

But ive got some Black Walnut i want to make a pen out of but my tools need to be A LOT sharper than what they are to turn it

I wouldn't waste any time taking allen jay up on his generous offer.

There is one thing to think about here.......Your dad's 8" grinder is probably 3650 rpm, and the 6" grinder will probably be the same. The 6" grinder will have a much less surface speed than the 8" grinder of your dad's. This will enable you to get a very good edge to work with, with a minimum of overheating. Eventually, you'll want an 1825rpm grinder, but this one is perfectly adequate for now.....

Scrapers can be used right from the grinder, but gouges need to be touched up. A simple slip stone will get you going here.......flat side for the outer surface first, and then rounded edge to remove the burr inside the flute.

Skews can be touched up with the slip stone, as well.

Allen.....what are the wheels you have on that grinder?

You may, or may not need to get different wheels for the grinder, but basic wheels can be had pretty cheap.

ooc

 

[john lucas]

One thing I liked about using a sanding disc back when I started was the variable surface speed. If I had carbon steel tools I would simply sharpen them near the middle of the wheel. The surface speed of the abrasive is slower here so it was less likely to burn the steel.
When sharpening high speed steel I simply moved out the wheel where the surface speed was greater. This also worked well for sharpening delicate small tools. I could use the slower speed near the middle so it didn't remove metal as fast.
I'm like Kelly. I still have my first Craftsman grinder with a gray wheel and still use it shape edges. I sharpened a lot of tools on that thing over the years using the same course gray wheel. I prefer a slower speed grinder with 100 grit wheels for actually sharpening and maintaining edges but if I was forced to give up my good grinder I wouldn't have a problem going back to the old one.

 

[Nate Hawkes]

Well, I may be in the minority here, but I DO use honing and water stones to sharpen my turning tools. I'm a semi production level turner, and like SHARP tools. To be fair, I only use the water stone (a powered Makita unit, very nice) to sharpen skews, one gouge used for finish cuts, and scrapers used for finish shear cuts. By getting the tools to a really sharp edge, I sharpen less often. I should mention that they are all 2060 Hamlet steel, and they seem to sharpen just fine with the Makita 1000 grit stone, a red/brown waterstone. Edit: I should add that I really have to keep the water dripping quickly with the hard powder metal steel, or the stone becomes clogged. For my "normal" tools, I still use a teardrop slipstone between trips to the grinder, a silicon carbide stone, I think made by Henry Taylor, IIRC. I find soaking the stone in water keeps it from loading up with metal too badly.
Having the flute of the gouge mirror smooth makes a HUGE difference in how sharp the burr created is. I think I got the tip from either Alan Lacer or Richard Raffan's DVD's about using an MDF disc cut to fit the profile of your bowl gouge, and charged up with tripoli rouge or even more abrasive a rubbing compound. There were articles about sharpening in AW magazine a while back. Sharp tools cut better, period. Even with the honing and slipstones, you'll need to grind pretty frequently. Take up that offer of a grinder!! a wooden version of any of the commercially sold sharpening jigs with the extendable arms can be made up easily enough. I use a Vari-Grind jig in my homemade version of the wolverine.