Peter,
More power to you, but our club demo lathe grinder sucks. As such, I have taught myself to sharpen on it without a nice platform or jig. I have also taught myself to sharpen on a sanding disk mounted on a block of wood on the lathe. This versatility has served me well.
Besides our demo lathe and other's workshops, I have sharpened tools at the Provo symposium and used whatever they had there. Packing my grinder, Wolverine, etc. is not always an option as much as I would like it to be. It does not mean that I need to be fast - just proficient.
Joe
>
> >Second, everyone should learn
> >to turn freehand whether you do it regularly or not. Our club
demonstrates
>in the community and the grinder we have has those worthless little 1" x 2"
> >platforms. If you can't freehand grind, your turning time will be short. >
> I must respectfully disagree with you there, Joe. In todays day & age with
all the jigs available to us, I feel there is NO
imperitive reason (whatsoever) to learn that skill. That's like saying
one should learn to turn on a pole lathe because there
might not be electricity available everywhere. All the clubs I belong to
have a grinder with (at least) a Wolverine jig attached.
Let's face it....its the "defacto" standard for turning tool jigs.
Personally speaking, anywhere my tools go, my grinder (and
associated jigs) go also...whether to a club demo or a friend's shop. >
> Just my opinion...
>
> Peter Teubel
> Milford, MA
>formatting link