Really, really silly request

Bill Lantry

Member
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2,663
Location
Inside the Beltway
Hey, everyone,

I finally got a bowl gouge. Hurrah! One problem: how to sharpen it?

I've got the wolverine... but not the bowl gouge sharpening attachment. So off I go to the oneway site. They want 50 bucks for one. Once I recovered from the shock and horror, off I went to Youtube. There's some guy on there named stuintokyo, ;) with some really odd taste in music. Check out the redneck girl in his favorites... ;)

Anyway, Stu, the jig you made is cool. My first try was made from a small block of hemfir. It has an eye bolt in the top to hold the gouge in place, and I cut a piece of 5/8 threaded rod, and drilled a 9/16 hole at 45 degrees, grinding the exposed end until it was smooth. As a mock up, it works really well... except that it grinds the tip edge exactly as the gouge got to me, but not the "wings". The grind it came with had the edges swept *way* back (I'm sure there's a name for this.) Can't quite bend my mind around what to change to so that the 'tip' still grinds right and I can grind all the way down the 'wings'...

I know I'm being dumb as a post here. Anyone here got plans for actual dimensions? Seeing Stu's technique in the video helped a lot, but my jig makes the gouge stick way further out to get a good angle. HELP!

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill, over on Doug Thompson's website (www.thompsonlathetools.com) Doug has a PDF file that should help...click the Sharpening link and go from there. If you print that PDF file you'll have a life-sized photo that will get you in the ballpark setup-wise. It's been real useful to me.
 
Hey Bill,

I've built a "Varigrind" replacement, too. I've found that the angle formed by your tool's handle and the "leg" of the jig is what controls how far back the wings get swept. Moving the "leg" closer to parallel will "shorten" the wings, moving it more perpendicular will pull the wings back further. Changing this angle will throw of your tip's angle, too, so you'll need to readjust your distance from the wheel to compensate.

If you'd like to see what I built, here is a link:

http://sacramentoareawoodworkers.com/album/thumbnails.php?album=14

That has all of the pieces of the jig I built, including the Fingernail arm. I'm in the process of replacing all the aluminum, but the principles all work the same :)
 
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