Shopsmith Forums

thebear wrote:I recently received the lathe chisel sharpening tool from SS that mounts on table and uses the disk sander. My question is that the round nose chisel comes from the factory at 30 degrees and this tool want to take it to 15 degrees. What is everybody's opinion of changing the angle. I am fairly new to turning. Thanks

The #1 reason most new turners loose interest and give up is that they are trying to learn with dull or poorly sharpened tools.
I read an article once by a well known turner in which he said (loosely translated) that learning how to turn is not as important as learning how to sharpen your tools. I took that to mean that if your tools aren't sharp, you won't be able to turn anything anyway. He also stated that the bevel angle that any particular tool is sharpened to is a personal preference. Learn how to sharpen and use the tool and then experiment with which bevel works best for you.

Be sure to not over heat the tool while grinding on the wheel. If you notice the tool turning blue it is getting too hot and will ruin the temper causing the tool to not be able to hold an edge. Keep some water near by to dip the tip in to cool it frequently. There are some videos on the Wood Magazine site, I would recommend you watch, that are good even though you won't be using a bench grinding wheel. The url is http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/file.j ... r&temp=yes.

What we have here is an individual that has expressed a desire to enter into a very enjoyable field of wood working......turning. Following the instructions given by the TA instructor, Rick Davis, for the use of lathe sharpening guide is very important. Doing so, will get him off on the right foot, teach him how to use his new purchase, and somewhat, insure him a degree of success!

Turning wood without sharp tools is a road to frustration, disappointment, and possible mishap!

We have given him, with our suggestions, a good foundation for him to build upon. Later on, as his experience grows, I have no doubt that he will venture out trying new methods, angles, etc.

Good luck!
Go sharpen your chisels!
FlashbacPT:)

Ed in Tampa wrote:Huh???????
Bob where are you getting .32 .40 and .45 degrees from???????

Hi Ed,

Aw, come on now Ed, Bob just did not leave a space between the end of each sentence and his angle. The period is for the end of the sentence, nothing to do with the angle.

a1gutterman wrote:Hi Ed,

Aw, come on now Ed, Bob just did not leave a space between the end of each sentence and his angle. The period is for the end of the sentence, nothing to do with the angle.

Tim
I wasn't being mean I guess I was ignorant but I simply couldn't figure out what he was saying. Sorry
Ed

I used the chisels today, that I sharpened several weeks ago using the sharpening jig. I don't know, the 1" gouge didn't seem to perform all that well, I ended up using the 1/2" gouge for most of it. I was turning a couple of those magnetic pen pickup kits. I ended up cracking the one made out of that man-made material. I think, I might have done it, when I was expermenting with the skew.

I'll resharpen it again tomorrow and see if it comes out better. I'm pretty sure, I didn't get it too hot. I would rotate it lightly on the disc, then dip it in water.

I have 3 sets of cigar pen & pencils sets drilled, glued, sanded flush ready for turning. I hope I don't mess up one of those.

Pat,

The most challanging part of turning is sharpening. In factI still find that challanging. Another part that requires patience is turning itself. First I would suggest learning on wood and hold off a little on the synthetics. I wasted a few blocks of wood learning. Experiment with the angle of holding the chisel. What ever you do approach the wood very gently. I usually begin at the slowest possible speed and slowly increase speed. I also move slowly and gentle from one end to the other of a blank.

I wasted enough wood in the beginning that I purchased a couple of turning tapes or DVD's and watched them. Once you hit a groove you will love pen truning. fjimp

Just a little story from a non-expert, still learning turner:
Sharpened my SS chisels a while back and stropped them to a mirror finish. Although the angles are about half way between the original factory angles and those recommended by Nick on Sawdust session Video Blackboard, they worked just fine. Today I turned 4 handles for the brass heads, when they arrive Tuesday. The wood I used was hard maple. Maybe not the best handle choice, but the wood was available as scrap.

I used the mounted leather stropping wheel on the Axillary side and stropped every time I felt the slightest resistance to cutting. With this extra care and stropping they worked wonderfully well. All I had to do was to barely touch the tool(s) to the wood and off came chips. Once I even dropped the skew on the concrete floor. Ouch!!! a couple passes with a diamond card and more stropping put it back in like condition, except two small chips in the cutting surface. A little movement of the skew took care of any ridges.

My solution ------ Stropping.

thebear wrote:I recently received the lathe chisel sharpening tool from SS that mounts on table and uses the disk sander. My question is that the round nose chisel comes from the factory at 30 degrees and this tool want to take it to 15 degrees. What is everybody's opinion of changing the angle. I am fairly new to turning. Thanks

here's the link to the sawdust session on this sharpening tool:
http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... hisles.htm

I cannot find it in this vid, but I seem to recall someone pointing out that you do not have to grind the whole tip to the new angle - especially for a scraper that works from the burr like the round nose chisel. the recommendation was to grind/sharpen enough to get a strong burr at the new angle. with time and more sharpening, the new angle will use up all of the original angle but you don't have to throw all that steel away at once.

Ivan

Well, things went much better today. I resharpened the two gouges with the SS sharpening fixture, then based on what Charlese said using a strop, since I don't have one, I used a fine grit on the Worksharp 3000. I tell you, what a difference that made. After I finished sharpening, I made a cigar pen & pencil sets out of cocobola and another set out of tulip wood. Then I made one of those magnetic pickup pen with birdseye maple.

After you get past all the drilling, glueing, and squaring, I find the actual turning to be enjoyable and relaxing.