Sharpening guide

[JohnHoeger]

Re: the round swinging platform on the front side of the system, it is for a 1/2 inch round nose scraper. To use it you reverse the sharping system and position it on the side of the disc that is going down. Since I have a variety of scrapers in various widths I removed the swinging part and replaced it with a fixed semi-circle of the same thickness. That provides stable platform with a good general angle for scrapers.

[nuhobby]

Yeah, the factory grind on the Skew is a fairly blunt angle. To get to a more acute angle, the amount of material removal is substantial. I've been taking my skews in that direction, a bit at a time. They do cut nicer lately. It's a learning process for me. I've been clamping my Sharpening Guide to my strip-sander's table.

Chris

[gsmyth]

A note of caution about using the belt sander to sharpen chisels and lathe tools. I read on another Shopsmith group where a guy was doing this, went to dinner, and came home to find inside of his garage on fire. Apparently, some sparks had managed to get into some fine sawdust tucked into a nook or cranny on his belt sander and smouldered until it finally went into flames. Luckily his entire garage and house didn't go up in flames. So be very careful about sparks and sawdust.