Tangent. I’m curious about your tungsten sharpening process. You always put so much detail into your tool and process selection, I’m curious what you do (please let it be something cheap and awesome rather than a $1500 purpose built unit)?
I learned to weld in a shop that had a dedicated bench grinder for tungstens and this was when we didn't have "safe" tungstens. I didn't like it. To me it's too much space for such a small task even if it's something I need to do more than a good welder.
I always wanted a dedicated tungsten grinder. One of the things I've discovered/realized about myself is that I love automation or dedicated machines or things that take the risk or variation out of something. I will spend 4 hours to make a jig that will save me 10 minutes if I think I'll use it more than twice.
I bought this on ebay for maybe a $100 and was a bit bothered that it's essentially a dremmel with a little jig on top. But I've had it for 5 years and have changed the diamond wheel in it maybe twice. Each of those little socket caps is a through drilled screw for 1/16", 3/32" and 1/8" tungstens. You can rotate the wheel thing to change the angle and it directs the tungsten into the wheel. The top holes are for flatting a point. The slot is for nicking the tungsten to break it.
I keep my cheapest, smallest Milwaukee drill near it and use that, as Sean says, to hold and spin the tungsten at it's slowest speed in the little collet and it takes about 10-20 seconds to put a good point on it.
I can't remember what tungsten I'm using - it's one of the universal ones that doesn't cause cancer. When I am going to weld I'll sharpen all the tungstens to nice points so that I don't have to stop when I touch or dip.
I would love a nicer dedicated tungsten grinder and planned on getting one - that was 5 years ago and I haven't thought about it because this little thing works very well and takes up no space at all.
So, not $1500 but also more than a bench grinder and new wheels. Or maybe about the same.
Great job on the shop organization Gregor.
My last shop was similar to yours, trying to organize 10-gallons of **** in a 5-gallon bucket. No offense, just making a size to tool ratio comparison.
If I could ask a few questions Gregor...
Do you have the DiAcro stand for your 24" finger brake or is yours sitting on a table or something similar? I looked up the exact spec's on DiAcro's website and it appears the stand measures 38" wide, 15" deep and 33.25" tall.
Is it at a comfortable working height for you and how tall are you?
Anything you would change about the stand itself?
Thank you.
Yes, it's a Diacro stand in mint green (no idea why it's green) and it's 33.5" tall.
I am 5'8" to 5'9" depending on my mood. I think the height is great. One thing I love about really good tools is that I know 10,000 craftsman before me dialed in the ergos. I spoke to Thaddeus about the grinder and he said a good working height was at elbow level so I went with that. As I work I always pay attention to if I'm comfortable or if I want to change something and on the Diacro I never think about it. I also don't use it too often.
But I'm happy.
Also, envious of your shop space!
"Yak shaving" is a phrase that comes to mind. In a good sense.
Yak shaving is doing what seems like trivial, disconnected tasks, but are actually useful steps to do a bigger job correctly (or perhaps more efficiently over time).
http://projects.csail.mit.edu/gsb/old-archive/gsb-archive/gsb2000-02-11.html
As opposed to "bikeshedding," which is obsession over trivial tasks to avoid doing a difficult or tedious, but necessary, job.
I had never heard of either of those terms and I feel more pedestrian now that my life is summed up so neatly.
Darn it!
________________________________________________
So today I shaved some Yaks.
The world of knife making is divided into the two camps (probably more) and they are the traditionalists who free hand grind the blades and those who use a jig of some kind to who are less worthy. I'm firmly in the later camp.
I'm sure if I wanted to spend a few hundred on metal stock and many hundreds of hours I could develop that feel to grind a blade perfectly. It was a similar thing when it came to sharpening knives. I knew how - but I just never did it enough to ever get good at it and that frustrated me. When I finally bought a knife sharpening jig/machine/setup I finally got my knives sharp enough to shave hairs. Some people love learning to hold a knife at the exact right angle and developing the muscle memory to achieve that perfection. I'm not that person.
I have patience as long as I'm doing something the most efficient, quickest way. Also, why would you not use a jig? I can't understand that.
So many months, possibly even years, ago I wanted to make a knife. I guess it was two years ago when I got the grinder. I drew out a few ideas, cut one out, made a template in 1/4" baltic birch, then cut it out in O1 steel. Then I attempted to follow the Walter Sorrels method of using a file to slowly grind the bevel. I spent about an hour with a file and I hated the process, hated the inconsistency and hated the results. So I tried on my 6" belt sander and there was no way to really access the belt equally.
Then I gave up and chased a Yak around.
I looked on YouTube and all over for a good knife grinding jig that I could copy and what I learned is that knife makers are pretty ****** craftsman outside of making knives. Only one was moderately well made and it was by a machinist - the rest looked like a door hinge and a bolt. I was disappointed.
While I will eventually make an adjustable jig the pieces of scrap that first fell out of the bin was a 1/4"x 2" x 2" piece of aluminum angle and a scrap of Delrin that was the exact same width. Perfect.
The Delrin would make a perfect sliding base being so slippery and it is also easy to cut. I had never changed the nod of the Bridgeport head but it was very easy to do. I fly cut the Delrin at 4° and then, for good measure, cut another one at 5° then drilled and countersunk the base so it would bolt to the angle.
The drilled and tapped array on the upper part allows me to set the knife blank at an angle so I get the grind lines in the direction I want. The tapered delrin base slides easily on the rest and while I didn't make a handle it's pretty easy to direct the pressure to the top or bottom and it also keeps you from burning your fingers or grinding them. It takes no pressure to hold the knife to the jig so a small vise grip does that job.
I wasn't prepared for how much of a mess it makes. I knew/know it would be but dang. Some people put a bucket of water under the grinder and some a catch vent to a vacuum. I have a cheap vacuum and I know that the buffer is just as messy so I'm going to need a plan of some kind.
I keep wanting to use the real video/camera gear but whenever I think to I realize I don't have a plan, I doubt that whatever I'm going to do will work out very well and I'm not really excited about documenting my failure. When I decided that making a knife might be a good project I then remembered that I have no idea what I'm doing and my first knife will of course be a failure.
I tried to remind myself that I think that about literally everything I am about to do and that somewhere along the line I figure it out and end up doing a pretty good job. But the beginning of every project is filled with doubt and anxiety. Especially when I consider that I am going to film me failing. Shooting for here is different. I take some before shots and then some process shots and somewhere along the way I figure things out and the story reveals itself.
Having to shoot video is somehow much more real. Like it will reveal that I have no idea what I'm doing and I won't be able to recover. When I think like that I'm much closer to 5'4" it seems.
But I decided that I need to do it and it's a small project and I like shooting B-roll more than anything so it would be a chance to do that. B-roll is what I shoot for this space. Arty, soft focus pretty still life's of the shop. I find that relaxing.
So I convinced myself that was what I was going to do. Also, I found a new person I like on YouTube and his video I find pretty relaxing and entertaining.
Check out Don Nguyen. My goal is to create teachable ASMR machining videos. If the tangents like this are interesting to people I'll just keep going.
This side is perfectly symmetrical with this side. Not so much the other side. But I like the look of it. Grinding with the jig is exactly what I want - to take my lack of skill out of the equation and replace it with the skill I have as a machinist.
I think the other thing I'm finding about video is that I'm sort of understanding myself a bit better - what I do that's annoying or funny. That I say "umm" a lot. It's strange. Mostly I want to take me out of it but in other ways I want to be able to use it to teach. I'll figure it out.
Anyway, that's what I spent the last couple of days on. I am so very excited to have that grinder up and running. I am really looking forward to making the chefs knife that I want that I've never been able to find or afford. That will be down the road a bit but I look at having this set up now as a way to relax and do something non-moto related. Plus I can now make my entire family knives for presents. At least I know my nephew will be excited. For now I need to see what Lucas has for his sketch and then we'll start on his blank. All in all though I'm happy with the tool I made and excited to to have a new tool in the shop - especially one so versatile.
Gregor
