A proper grinder has been needed in the shop for many years. A decent grinding station with good, solid tool rests and maybe some sharpening features that apply to woodworking tools would be good as well. Dust collection is a must.
This was the previous situation that needed to be rectified:
The cart was originally built as a stand for my benchtop drill press. A side shelf was added later to hold the old grinder.
The 6″ craptastic grinder was purchased at the local hardware store many years ago when I needed to grind something or other real quick. Since then, it has done lots of grinding and buffing for things like lawnmower blades and axes. But a faster way of grinding new primary bevels on things like chisels and plane irons is needed, and an overall upgrade is in order for the current shop.
I decided to get two new grinders: a 1 HP Rikon 88-820 8″ with 1.5″ wide wheels/guards, and a Wood Turners Wonders 3/4 HP 8″ (just the bare tool). One-and-a-half inch CBN wheels in 80, 180 and 350 grit were chosen for sharpening woodworking tools and other good steel on the 3/4 HP grinder. The 80 and 350 grit CBN wheels are square with 1″ of grit on the sides, and the180 grit wheel is radiused. The included 60 and 120 grit Vitrified Aluminum Oxide wheels included with the Rikon grinder will be used for softer metals like lawnmower blades and general grinding. In addition, 8″ Scotch Brite wheels in 600 and 1000 grits were selected for deburring and polishing. The wheels are secured with self-aligning spherical washers from Wood Turners Wonders.
My initial impression is that I’m happy with both grinders. The fit and finish of the Rikon is a bit better than the Wood Turners Wonders grinder, and the packaging was much nicer. The packaging on the WTW was pretty crappy, and had a distinct “straight out of a crusty factory in China” feel to it. That said, it arrived unscathed and runs true. On the surface, the Rikon is a better value. The WTW was $259 and the Rikon was $279. For an extra $20, the Rikon gives you 1/4 more HP, better fit and finish, a full grinder package (guards, wheels, rests) rather than just the bare tool, longer distance between wheels, and dust collection ports on the guards, which will come in handy especially when dressing the stone wheels.
However, the WTW grinder is set up much better for CBN grinding. There are a few issues with the Rikon. First, the dust hose ports must be removed for the Wolverine base to fit under the guard. You can still put a hose next to the dust vents in the guard though, so that’s something. Second, the Rikon has a lame break or something that kicks in as the wheel slows down. It makes a very unpleasant squeal kind of like brake pad squealers. This stays engaged when the grinder is powered down. It’s really quite lovely.
Finally, because it is built to run 1.5″ wheels, the shafts on the Rikon are long and there is not enough thread at the end to fit a CBN wheel without also using at least one of the crappy cast wheel flanges. As expected, they made the CBN wheel run out. Not to worry, I put the wheel against the machined shoulder of the arbor, followed by the self-aligning spherical washer stacks, the cast arbor, and more washers. Kinda janky, but it works.
In any event, the 1 HP Rikon does not fit the Kodiak system, so I went with the WTW grinder to pair with the Kodiak, which fits it perfectly.
The station needs to be mobile. The Husky mobile bench chest was on sale at the orange store. It was the right size (I thought), included a power strip, and had a wood top for easy mounting of components. By the time I bought the wood, sheet goods, hardware, power strip, etc., it probably would have cost me more to build it.
The Husky mobile bench came with oversized chromed 5-inch “Donk-style” casters which only swiveled on one side and had crappy one-way locks. They weren’t very stable and made the bench a bit too high for my taste.
The Donk casters were replaced with Everbuilt 3″ dual locking casters at all four corners. This dramatically improved the stability and mobility of the bench. I like these casters, and they have the same hole pattern as the Husky casters, so it was an easy swap.
The extra drawer space is very handy. Since this station will live next to the compressor, the air tools have a new home along side the grinding tools.
One-Way Wolverine rests were selected for the 1HP grinder and a Wood Turners Wonders Kodiak system was selected for the 3/4 HP grinder. I don’t have a lathe yet, but it is in my future, so (I thought) the full Kodiak system made sense. Initially, it appeared that I would be able to swap the tool rests between the bases so that any rest could be put on any wheel. However, the Wolverine system is designed to set the tables slightly below the center of the wheel, while the Kodiak sets the tables slightly above it. In addition, the Kodiak table will not get close enough to the wheel when the Wolverine base is placed per the manual, with the front of the base aligned with the front of the wheels. Thus, while the rests will fit in any base, this is of little practical value.
My initial impressions of these two grinder rest systems is that, although both are dramatically better than any rest that comes with a consumer level grinder, the Kodiak system is a disappointment overall for the reasons explained below. The Wolverine rests, on the other hand are rock solid, beefy, rigid, and skookum. I’m very impressed with the build quality and functionality of these rests. They lock with a cam lever that pushes a v-block into the corner of the square bars of the tool rests and they just don’t budge. The rests are thick and spacious, but they don’t wrap around the wheels. They are very easy to adjust, but the distance from the wheels needs to be adjusted when you change the angle of the tables. The strengths of the Wolverine are its rigidity, robust high quality construction, and simplicity and ease of adjustment. All I wanted was a set of bulletproof rests for the 1 HP grinder, and that’s what these are. My initial impression of the Wolverine rests is very positive overall.
The Kodiak system is very feature rich, which was a selling point for me. It includes table sliders that hold the tool square, 15, or 25 degrees to the wheel, preset angle stops for the tables, and a swivel arm tool holder for radiused tools like lathe gouges. There are other accessories as well, like a bar rest that allows you to use your Tormek jigs. The tables have preset angle stops, but preset stops cannot account for the thickness of the tool. Thus, the table angles will need to be manually fine tuned anyway.
It’s a versatile system that touts the ability to sharpen a wide variety of tools accurately and repeatably. In addition, the tool rest table geometry uses radius guide blocks thar keep the tables at a constant distance from the wheel when you change the angle. The tables are spacious and wrap around the wheels. However, the system does not meet my expectations in actual use. First, the tables are not nearly as thick as the Wolverine’s and the rest clamps are not as rigid or robust as the Wolverine’s. Although the tool rest holder geometry and dimensions are the same for both systems, the Kodiak uses a bolt with a flat plastic cap to clamp the bar:
This arrangement is not nearly as good as the cam lever and v-block of the Wolverine system:
The simple addition of a v-block to engage the bar would greatly enhance the Kodiak system, and that’s how it should come in my opinion. I think I have seen prior versions of the Kodiak system that had v-blocks, so perhaps this is a more recent cost-saving measure.
In addition, the Kodiak stamped metal parts are not well finished. Lots of burrs that needed to be eased with either a file or some vigorous “break in” to get it working like it should. This was most pronounced on the table sliders. They were unuseably rough at first. After some “break in” they freed up a bit and got smoother, but they still have a tendency to bind up in use and become more of a distraction than an effective tool guide. The Tormek bar holder is far too flimsy and rocks out of level quite a bit with little force. I jointed and thicknessed a board to fit under it and keep it parallel with the table. This helps, but each Kodiak jig clamps up a big differently in the base, so consistent squareness cannot be maintained between jigs.
The build quality, rigidity and accuracy of the Kodiak system does not meet my expectations. The stamped metal construction and poor clamping base design just cannot deliver the kind of repeatable results I am looking for in a sharpening jig system.
First grinds with the Kodiak were performed with an old hardware store chisel. I did my best to assemble the Kodiak accurately, but the first grinds were done on the system as it existed “straight out of the box,” as it were. Damn that was quick and easy!
But…far from square.
Yep.
I realize this is a stamped metal product. As such, a high level of precision cannot be reasonably expected. However, it needs to be much better than this to be useful. First, I tried loosening the screws that secure the base for the table holder in an attempt to correct the alignment. But they provide almost no adjustment to square–they only permit lateral adjustment. So it’s over to the healing bench.
Upon disassembly of the table, it was noted that the ears on the table are way out of square. In fact, the ear on the left in this picture was only partially engaging with its radius guide block. This is where most of the error was coming from.
After a little persuasion in the vise, the situation improved.
And, of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating:
I’d say this is good enough for accuracy at the grinder. It didn’t take long at the stones from here. As noted above, however, the sliding jig has a tendency to bind up and the range of motion coupled with the position of the fences make it difficult to use the full width of the wheel with narrow tools like chisels. It just doesn’t work well to produce consistent results.
First grinds using the Tormek bar and Tormek square tool jig were also fiddly and disappointing. The Tormek jig works much better than the Kodiak table rest with the square sliding jig: the sliding action is much smoother and allows me to focus on the edge being ground rather than the shortcomings of the jig. The Tormek jig also allows me to easily use the full width of the wheel. However, due to the longer moment of the Tormek bar, the out of square error in the Kodiak system gets exaggerated. This, coupled with the inconsistency in the way each jig clamps up in the Kodiak base, results in out of square grinds.
In addition, the Kodiak system captures the jig rest bar at each end, which is an inferior design compared to the bars produced by Tormek. The Tormek bar is open on one side, which allows you to effortlessly remove the jig from the bar to check the edge by simply sliding the jig off the bar. But with the Kodiak bar, you have to loosen the jam bolt, slide the bar out of one side of the holder, and then slide the jig off the bar. Reverse to reattach. Rinse and repeat…often.
The Tormek bars are also superior to the Kodiak bar in another important respect: they have the fine depth adjustment nut and very smooth fine depth adjustment action. With the Kodiak bar, fine adjustment using the clamping bolt in the base (which is the only way to adjust it) is impossible. When you loosen the clamping bolt enough to move it by hand without excessive force, everything changes because the clamp bar sags in the base. So I have been just slightly loosening the bolt and tapping in the depth with a mallet. This does work, but it’s not great.
In light of these shortcomings, I decided to eliminate the Kodiak system from my grinder station and replace it with genuine Tormek bars and bases. The initial appeal of the Kodiak system was the ability to swap the rests into the Wolverine, bases, the versatile array of tool guides, and the ability to also use my Tormek jigs. But none of these features have worked out well. I would have just gone with the Tormek grinder bases from the beginning had I known. Version 2.0 of my station will be the subject of a future post.
UPDATE
So I ditched the Kodiak, and built a three wheel Tormek station instead. It’s so much better. The plan from the beginning was to create a grinding station that would allow me to easily and accurately transfer my jigs from one wheel to another without making adjustments. What I started out with was not giving me that at all. The Kodiak system is gone and, in its place, is a Tormek base system that serves the three CBN wheels. It was important that all the wheels be aligned with each other both in height and depth. White oak was selected for the base and after jointing, thickness planing and making my layout lines, a bevel was added for aesthetic reasons.
The first step is to make the base for the three-quarter horsepower grinder that will align its shaft with the height of the one horsepower grinder.
After aligning and securing the three-quarter horsepower grinder on its base, blocks for the Tormek guide bar braces were mocked up.
If you can’t make it perfect, make it adjustable. The holes for the screws holding down the riser blocks for the Tormek bases are oversized so they can be aligned.
This is so much better. Solid. Accurate. Repeatable. Better jigs. However, I ran out of table length to position the tool bases where they need to go. So the 3/4 HP grinder base hangs off the edge of the table a bit.
Time to get to work on dust collection.
The dust collection bases work very well. Good collection right where you want it. The hoses don’t move in use and it is easy to swap the hoses between wheels. The shop vac hose fits through the holes, but the nozzle does not. The snug fit of the hose and the nozzle abutment against the face of the holders keeps the hose position very secure.
Once again, I ran out of table space for the last hose port on the stone wheel, which needed to be made and positioned differently. So it hangs off the edges too. The exposed edges of this base were rounded on the top and bottom to give it the “bar of soap” treatment.
I’ve very happy with the functionality of this station, if not with its fit on the bench top. Now to mix a batch of shellac to finish everything.