Grizzly stone on Tormek grinder

C

catspa

Joined
Oct 25, 2009
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Gentlemen (and others, more like myself). I have a goofy idea I'd like to bounce off of you.

I sharpen for money at gunshows and swap meets during the summer, and the season is just getting underway. I generally use a Tormek 2000's 220 grit wheel for shaping/edge repair, and the 1000 grit wheel of a Makita 9820-2 for further refining, and that combo plus the Tormek's leather wheel with green compound produces an edge that most people consider a heckuva improvement over what they had. I set up both machines because I found grading (should be called "glazing") the Tormek wheel up to 1000 grit and unglazing it every few minutes tedious and detrimental to wheel life (you lose a little diameter each time you do it. Might not seem like a big deal until you do it a couple hundred times a day...)

Anyway, I'm traveling to Alaska this summer, and I thought it would be a nice gesture to my late father's friends and former neighbors to sharpen every dull knife and scissor I can find within the Ninilchik city limits. Problem is, I only have room to pack one machine. So I figured, what if I got an extra wheel, graded it up and left it graded, and put a wingnut on the shaft to facilitate quick-changing wheels? Good idea, except another Tormek wheel costs well over a hundred bucks.

But I see that Grizzly sells 10" replacement wheels for their Tormek knock-off for about 50 bucks. So my question is, have any y'all put a Grizzly wheel on your Tormek? Does it even fit?

Parker
 
Interesting that while a number of people have compared the two machines, noone has ever asked this. Maybe you could call Grizzly and ask them? They may not advertise it, but they would probably know. The only thing I noticed from the pictures is the Grizzly wheel doesn't seem to be inset (thinner) near the center like the Tormek wheel, so it may not fit... the shaft may not be long enough.

FWIW, most sharpeners that do knives on the Tormek, don't grade the wheel back and forth. On a large repair, it will "unglaze" anyway, at least that's what I've found. Did you by chance contact Steve (sharpeningmadeeasy.com)? He does a lot of volume sharpening, and would probably have some tips.

Also if you haven't seen it, Tormek came out with a quick release system for their machine. It's reverse threaded so it will stay tight, but loosen without tools. Worth it if you're going to do a lot wheel swapping... even a wingnut is still going to have to be tightened down pretty hard to stay tight... the new setup doesn't require this.

Personally, if I was going to do this, I'd just keep the stone graded at 1000, and see how that works for you. I would think the time saved not swapping, regrading, etc. would be offset with the extra time grinding, and will certainly save wear on the wheel.

cbw
 
Hey, cbw. I came up with another idea. I'm out of town this week but I'll try it on Friday.

What if I glazed the stone but did my coarse grinding on the (unglazed) sides of the wheel instead? Brilliant, huh?

Parker
 
Let me know... I've never used the side of the stone like that, so I don't know how it would work. I'd monitor how much wear it shows when you make your test run.

cbw
 
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