Chipbreaker Tuning on the Tormek

[Admiral]

In the S&S I happened to mention that I had developed a technique to dress chipbreaker mating surfaces on my Tormek.  Previously, I had used filing followed by stones, but that can be hit or miss and a bit fiddy and I was looking for a more precise method, so I played around with my Tormek.  The following exchange was part of my posting of a #4 for sale, but I thought it might be worthy of reposting here as some fudge don't get down there regularly, so, here it is.


dry heat Wrote: Would you mind to post a picture of how you ground the chip breaker?
Ed

I basically used the square edge jig, put it on the guide rod and lower until the bottom of the jig barely clears the wheel, then insert the breaker such that the front of the jig Is about 1/8" past the screw hole, and it gives me the perfect angle. Works for me. Play with the distance from the screw hole as this can vary from breaker to breaker so you get angle you want but keep the breaker square to the jig. Here's a pic of the jig and screw hole alignment. Then grind away and dress with the leather wheel.



Elvem ipsum etiam viv

[Boatman53]

Thanks for sharing Admiral. 
Ed if you haven't boxed up the jig yet try it out. It's real easy to find the grinding sweet spot using the adjustability of the wheel carriage. I neglected to take a pic when I tried it with my jig.
Jim

[Admiral]

Jim:  I was going to use your prototype which fits on the Tormek, but it wasn't wide enough, works great on chisels, however.

[dry heat]

Boatman53 and Admiral
I have just finished boxing up the jig to mail tomorrow but seeing Admiral’s picture it looks rather simple and straight forward. One thing that I had in my notes while using the jig but neglected to put in my write up, I found the jig much easier to use for plane irons and  chisels on the Tormek than their Square Edge Jig. My Tormek is old enough that when I bought I, it didn’t have the bracket for mounting the post horizontal just vertical. I attached the vertical mounting plate as soon as it came out.  That’s my memory although I’m not sure about that. I bought it at the close of the Fort Washington show for a nice discount as they didn’t want to pack it up and take it back. One issue that I had with it was that it was hard to get a square edge using the jig. They sent me a new bracket and that helped but still not great. Then, evidently, they  had several complaints and put out a flyer describing how to tighten the clamp screws evenly so these was the right, even pressure on both sides which would grind a square edge. Jims jig does a better job without any of the futzing around with knobs and such. Still struggling with posting pictures. I use Photobucket and I think that's where much of the problem lays. I get all kinds of weird popups and such.
Ed

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Finally got one to post. Might be a tad large but show what you can do with Jims jig and a curved scrub plane iron. Enough, I'm gonna have a beer.

[AHill]

I'm kind of confused.  As your pic shows, the chipbreaker mating surface is not contacting the wheel.  It looks like it's mounted upside down.  Am I missing something?  I'm sure I'll slap myself after you answer.

[Admiral]

I'm kind of confused.  As your pic shows, the chipbreaker mating surface is not contacting the wheel.  It looks like it's mounted upside down.  Am I missing something?  I'm sure I'll slap myself after you answer.

Pic was to show how the screw hole should register with the jig, not the grinding angle. In other words the registration results in the grind angle when you rotate the jig forward to grind.