- Joined
- Oct 27, 2012
- Messages
- 3,610
Had the WE a few years now, and had bent the top of the clamp out, by tightening it too much when trying to mount shallow FFG blades very high in the clamp.
I got a fitter I know to make up a replacement clamp for the WE and asked him to make it 25mm higher than the original, he also gave me 2 different length screws for the top of the clamp, the longer one allowing me to get really thick blades in there.
He also straightened the original clamp for me.
Recently got the upgrade kit and angle cube, and added the riser block to the higher clamp, can get down to ~12 DPS now, although the arms are only just long enough - will get some longer arms soon.
Also just got a Tormek small knife clamp, hoping it may be useful for mounting the shallow FFG knives, although such blades are typically very flexible and with the handle clamped rather than the blade I'm not yet sure how that's going to work out for me. Also, I will need longer arms for that, unless I remove the riser block.
The angle cube is great, I'm finding it useful to check the clamped blade itself to see if it's centered in the clamp (it usually isn't), and measuring how much to compensate for off-centeredness to keep the edge equal on both sides.
I've been looking (online) at the new Gen3 clamp. I like the idea of self centering, ease of use and that the jaws can move to clamp along the distal taper of a blades spine.
But I'm wondering just how tightly it clamps, or perhaps more so how extended use might cause wear that results in losing tightness of clamping. Meaning wear from the cam against the inside of the clamp jaws.
With what I have it clamps as much as you tighten it, whereas the Gen3 clamp looks more like its a preset clamping pressure.
Does anyone here have the Gen 3 clamp and can share their experiences with it so far? I guess it hasn't been available for too long so maybe it's early to be asking about wear on the clamping mechanism after a lot of use.
Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.
I got a fitter I know to make up a replacement clamp for the WE and asked him to make it 25mm higher than the original, he also gave me 2 different length screws for the top of the clamp, the longer one allowing me to get really thick blades in there.
He also straightened the original clamp for me.
Recently got the upgrade kit and angle cube, and added the riser block to the higher clamp, can get down to ~12 DPS now, although the arms are only just long enough - will get some longer arms soon.
Also just got a Tormek small knife clamp, hoping it may be useful for mounting the shallow FFG knives, although such blades are typically very flexible and with the handle clamped rather than the blade I'm not yet sure how that's going to work out for me. Also, I will need longer arms for that, unless I remove the riser block.
The angle cube is great, I'm finding it useful to check the clamped blade itself to see if it's centered in the clamp (it usually isn't), and measuring how much to compensate for off-centeredness to keep the edge equal on both sides.
I've been looking (online) at the new Gen3 clamp. I like the idea of self centering, ease of use and that the jaws can move to clamp along the distal taper of a blades spine.
But I'm wondering just how tightly it clamps, or perhaps more so how extended use might cause wear that results in losing tightness of clamping. Meaning wear from the cam against the inside of the clamp jaws.
With what I have it clamps as much as you tighten it, whereas the Gen3 clamp looks more like its a preset clamping pressure.
Does anyone here have the Gen 3 clamp and can share their experiences with it so far? I guess it hasn't been available for too long so maybe it's early to be asking about wear on the clamping mechanism after a lot of use.
Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.
