My Sharpening Station and Turning Tool Storage

Vaughn McMillan

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One of the bonus aspects of having the Tour de Wood come by my house was the fact that I was finally motivated to organize a few things in my shop. I figured I'd show you all my sharpening setup and some of my lathe tool storage.

This is all directly behind me when I'm standing at my lathe, so it's all very convenient when I'm turning.

Here's how it looks most of the time. The shower curtain keeps the wood chips out (for the most part):

Sharpening Station 01 - 800.jpg Sharpening Station 02 - 800.jpg

Pull back the curtain, and here's the stuff. I've got the Tormek wet grinder and the Woodcraft show speed dry grinder with the PSI knockoff of the Wolverine jig. I have the parts to set up the dry grinder to use the Tormek jigs, but so far haven't had a pressing need to get it all set up. (It's on the list, though.)

Sharpening Station 03 - 800.jpg Sharpening Station 04 - 800.jpg

The built-in drawers were installed by the previous owners of our house. The shallow drawers hold turning tools, woodburning pens, Dremel bits and pieces, and assorted sharpening gear, and the deeper drawers (an old green-painted dresser that's been attached to the wall) store various wood cutoffs:

Sharpening Station 05 - 800.jpg Sharpening Station 06 - 800.jpg

Here's another shot showing the whole shebang. The sheet sandpaper storage is on the shelf above the clock (in an old sandpaper display from a hardware store), and the two white plastic drawers to the left of the Tormek hold smaller pieces of sheet sandpaper and the various jigs for the Tormek. The blue and red drawer cabinets hold sanding disks:

Sharpening Station 07 - 800.jpg

For some unknown reason, the red cabinet holds my blue sanding disks (from Vince's Wood-n-Wonders...highly recommended) and the blue cabinet holds my gold 'wave' disks. Interface pads and other related abrasives take up the spare drawers:

Sharpening Station 08 - 800.jpg

And one more shot of the grinders, to point out the USPS Priority Mail box covering the window:

Sharpening Station 09 - 800.jpg

The box is covering the hole in the window that is the result of shooting a piece of wood through it (before I added the curtain). Perfect size for a 5" or 6" DC exhaust duct, but I suspect the neighbors might not like the idea. :D

Donut Chuck 2 800.jpg
 
Great sharpening set up Vaughn. As usual in this pictures one spots the what Glenn calls "Easter Eggs" in the shot. To me that clock of yours is the crown jewels.;):D:thumb:

As to the hole in the window well i thought it was destined for a window mounted extractor fan. That would soon have the dust flowing away from you while sharpening.:)

I really like the Tromek, i think for pros like you in spinny land its a worthwhile buy but gee its a high priced item. Where is all the real cost in this item. At the end of the day its only a stone wheel and motor.:huh:

Seeing your draws reminds me once again of the value of shallow draws for tools. This is a hot button reminder once again for me to retrofit my draw cabinets. Could probably consolidate two large draw sets into one if i changed draw depth and got rid of clutter.

Great area you set aside there Vaughn, real handy to have it behind you at the lathe. Sure makes for no excuse to be caught turning with a blunt tool.
 
Must be nice to have one place dedicated for that. All this talk of organizing and re-arranging shops is starting to make me feel all inspired to do something about it one of these years... :rolleyes:
 
Good set-up, Vaughn. Looks compact and handy. But, I tried the shower curtain thing and it proved (for me) to be a worse hassle than the dust.

Before I put up the curtain, it wasn't the dust that was a problem, it was the long wet curlies that were a pain to clean up. Here's an example, before things got too piled up.

Tormek Test - 003.jpg

With careful aim, I can shoot curlies over my shoulder and out the hole in the window. :D
 
So where does that window with the hole lead to?

Outside?

Is it made out of plastic? Just wondering why the whole thing didn't shatter..

Questions, Questions... :huh: :rolleyes:
 
It goes outside, by the side of the garage. The window's glass...just a lucky shot, I guess. :p (The piece that went through it was a round disk...the cut-out center of a donut chuck I was making. I failed to use the tailstock to hold the middle as I was cutting the hole out of the donut.) :doh:
 
Great Sharpening Area

Hey Vaughn,
What a great area, I bought a Jet sharpener and 3 sets of their optional drawers that are made for the Jet sharpener. I used 2 sets of drawers for the sharpener and I mounted my grinder on the third set of drawers. It works out pretty good but it is not nearly as nice as your setup. I chose the Jet sharpener for 2 reasons, first because I already have some Jet tools and it will match my other tools and the other reason is, it doesn't matter how sharp or dull my tools are it doesn't improve my skills. Great job Vaughn, Joe
 
Vaughn i have followed over time the fact that you have a Tormek grinder.

Seeing it in this picture reminded me to ask the question of you as to whether in hindsite you believe its worth the cost of them nowadays.

Also i see other manufacturers produce "pirate" units. What would the difference be between the Tormek and something like this Griz unit

http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/192 There is even a 8" one for under $100.

There has got to be something fundamentally wrong or different about these units compared to the Tormek but on the marketing surface i cannot see it. Tormek is over $500 US and in Canada well wont go there.

Any comments?
 
Vaughn i have followed over time the fact that you have a Tormek grinder.

Seeing it in this picture reminded me to ask the question of you as to whether in hindsite you believe its worth the cost of them nowadays.

Also i see other manufacturers produce "pirate" units. What would the difference be between the Tormek and something like this Griz unit

http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/192 There is even a 8" one for under $100.

There has got to be something fundamentally wrong or different about these units compared to the Tormek but on the marketing surface i cannot see it. Tormek is over $500 US and in Canada well wont go there.

Any comments?

Rob, I've not seen the Jet or Grizzly versions in person, so I don't know for sure, but when I bought the Tormek, I was very close to pulling the trigger on the Grizzly, and planning to buy Tormek jigs to go with it. Then someone contacted me with an offer to sell his used Tormek at a good price, so I jumped on it. I'm pretty sure the Tormek is built to last longer than the knockoffs, but I honestly don't know if the grinder itself is that many dollars better than the competition. I've read positive reviews of both the Jet and the Grizzly, although I've also read a few complaints, usually about the sides of the wheels not being true. I don't think that's a major issue at 90 rpm. ;) The Tormek jigs, though, I think are indeed better than the others, and worth their premium prices. (You can use the Tormek jigs on the knockoff grinders.) The Jet jigs also look pretty good. The Grizzly jigs, though, don't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
 
I've read positive reviews of both the Jet and the Grizzly, although I've also read a few complaints, usually about the sides of the wheels not being true. I don't think that's a major issue at 90 rpm. ;)

I've got the Grizz, just haven't gotten around to using it enough to do a review on. Out of the box the wheel is a little funky. I did buy the Tormek truing device and it works quite well. The surface of the stone is now perpindicular to the jigs, but it does have a bit of a side to side motion. Not all that disturbing, and I don't think it's a huge deal.

The Tormek jigs, though, I think are indeed better than the others, and worth their premium prices. (You can use the Tormek jigs on the knockoff grinders.) The Jet jigs also look pretty good. The Grizzly jigs, though, don't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I did get a pretty complete set of the grizz jigs. A few of them seem ok, a couple seem a little wonky. The jig for turning tools is pretty confusing, and I don't think it will work very well.
 
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