Using the Veritas grinding jig & tool rest

[Bill_Houghton]

I've got the Veritas bench grinder tool rest coming, thanks to a for-sale ad here, and am considering/planning on the grinding jig, item 05M06.01, looks like this:


and I have a dumb question for those who own and use one.  The grinding jig clamps the tool.  It seems like this requires that the tool be set so that it’s just kissing the grinding wheel.  At some point, the grinding wheel will have removed all the steel it can reach in the tool’s clamped position.  If I need to remove more metal (say, when reconstructing a bevel on a plane iron that some previous owner really slaughtered), do I then just loosen the clamps, nudge the tool forward, and re-clamp?  Or will the grinding jig rise up a bit in the slot, allowing for more extended grinding in one clamping position before re-clamping becomes necessary?  I've asked Lee Valley, a couple of days back, but I suspect the customer service person who's been patiently answering my questions about this rig is on her well-deserved weekend.

[Boatman53]

The problem you describe is exactly the problem with that tool. There is a little play but not much. The adjustable base is easier to tweak than shifting the chisel or plane iron. And that problem is why I adapted a rod rest to the adjustable base. 
Jim

[Admiral]

Actually, I register the chisel square to the wheel with my right index finger against the bottom edge of the jig while holding the chisel with my right hand and keeping it flat to the jig platter with my left.  Works pretty well. I do the same with plane irons

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

I think you answered your own question. The only way I know to properly use this jig is to grind, advance, grind. And therein lies the problem, which is too much grinding. I can understand your desire to fix the bevel, but I think doing do removes too much metal. When I am confronted with a bad blade, I square it up first because most abused blades are not square. This operation is done at 90 degrees to the wheel. My next step is to establish a proper bevel. On most plane blades, this bevel is hardly more than 1/8" across the diagonal. That usually leaves about 2/3s of the previous owners mess. I find that I can use this proper bevel to register and finish sharpening on AO sandpaper. If this blade receives a lot of use, it will need regrinding soon and I can consume more of the abused area. But that can take time.

I use this method for several reasons. The first is that I am lazy. Yes, I admit that. Removing less steel is much easier than removing more steel. Second reason is that I grind my blades freehand. Using no jig is much easier than fiddling with a jig. Grind, quench, grind, quench. I do not want to lose the temper. Jig just gets in the way. I repair most abused plane blades in less than a minute on the grinder.

And I will be the first to admit that my methods might not work for everyone. There is my experience with grinding thousands of blades. But that just makes me quicker. Freehand grinding is quick, easy, and kind to the steel if it is done properly with lots of dunking. And the learning curve is not overwelming. I think anyone with some time and junk blades can learn freehand grinding in an afternoon. Start with junk steel and graduate to real stuff.

[Bill_Houghton]

Thanks, all.  On many of the blades I've found, the often-curved bevel is somewhere far away from the standard 25-30 degree range of chisel/plane iron bevels, so I find myself grinding that curve back to a workable bevel.  Mostly, I don't do much grinding back of the length of the steel; just reshape the bevel.  Maybe my local carpenters all learned from the same "master."

[Downwindtracker2]

I use it with the Viel, the red LV belt sander/grinder and never had any problem that way. A couple of times I had to hog off metal on a pedestal grinder first.

[Aram]

Yep! I had the same issue. I never could make any sense out of it, and switched to holding my blades freehand. The LV tool rest is very nice by the way.

[rwe2156]

If you set up the jig just right, just a little pressure brings to contact the wheel.

BTW I don't use mine anymore I hollow grind manually with just a good results.

[BillMcD]

I like that rest, but the blade holder would not slide in it's groove very well.  I can clean and lube it so it works well, but that does not last long.  The aluminum seems to load up with bits of this and that.  To get a blade done and back to work, I went to free handing on the rest, using my fingers as a jig.  That very rapidly became the preferred method.

Before going to handheld, I could always advance the blade, in the holder, enough by forcing the whole assemble toward the wheel.  It's a solid tool rest, but a little force was normally enough to get back to a wire edge.  I actually came to like that "flex forward and spring back".  Sometimes I will use that technique while hand holding the blade to get more pressure on one side, etc..

[Admiral]

I like that rest, but the blade holder would not slide in it's groove very well.  I can clean and lube it so it works well, but that does not last long.  The aluminum seems to load up with bits of this and that.  To get a blade done and back to work, I went to free handing on the rest, using my fingers as a jig.  That very rapidly became the preferred method.

Before going to handheld, I could always advance the blade, in the holder, enough by forcing the whole assemble toward the wheel.  It's a solid tool rest, but a little force was normally enough to get back to a wire edge.  I actually came to like that "flex forward and spring back".  Sometimes I will use that technique while hand holding the blade to get more pressure on one side, etc..

I handhold too.  I once made a wooden jig to glide in the rest, as the metal one did bugger up, but I found it useful only to maintain squareness, and once I developed more skill handheld was the way to go.