tormek in freezing weather

I had a weak momemt over the weekend and purchased a Tormek at the woodworking show.

I have no regrets except I generally keep all my tools in the garage and during the winter it can get well below freezing.

My question is what about the Tormek stone. It supposedly absorbs water during use and I would hate to have it freeze and crack.

How does cold weather effect the stone?

Reply to
william kossack
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I don't know if I'd rely on this, but my stone dries out once I take the water tray off. I know, because it sucks up a couple cups of water next time I use it. However, if there's water left in the stone when it freezes, I'm guessing it will crack the stone. That's an expensive risk.

If it were me, I'd find a place for the Tormek inside the house during the cold months. Don't try chemical antifreezes (like salt), when the water evaporates it will leave the chemicals behind.

Reply to
DJ Delorie

The stone will definitely break if frozen. If you want to leave it in the garage shop, build a small insulated box around the Tormek and put a 40 watt bulb in the box. That will be plenty of heat to keep it from freezing.

Rich

Reply to
Rich Coers

Hi William

How does the cold affect your stone?, it will freeze of course. Now you see all kinds of stones all around you do they all freeze to smithereens? no of course not but some do, what does freeze and crack is the water trough though, unless drained. When I was a boy we had a hand cranked big sharpening wheel (approx.

3'x8") I put a large pulley and a small motor on it years later, (you can't beat a fine water washed stone for sharpening if you have the time) it stood outside in all weather, you would not move it even if you could. I remember trying to use it with a lump of ice on it, shhh hump shhh hump. . If you don't like your tormeck I will gladly give you my mailing address . Congrats, and just drain the water or bring out of the cold.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

william kossack wrote:

Reply to
Leo Van Der Loo

Put a couple of them in it and check regularly to replace whichever one is burnt out.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Bill check this link and pose the same question. You'll get the answer from the horses mouth..

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Reply to
WynnD

I'm in the same boat, William. I haven't actually bought the Tormek yet, but am planning to. I emailed Tormek and asked the question and this is the reply I got:

I do not recommend using our machine without water. Besides preventing from overheating the steel, the water lubricates the grinding and transports the ground off steel and stone particles into the water trough.

You can store your TORMEK in a non-heated room. Then you should empty the water trough. To ensure that the grindstone will not be affected, you should let it dry in a heated room. Preferable you move the whole machine (if you have space for it) so you do not need to dismount and mount the stone.

After drying you can store it in your cold room.

Best regards

Torgny Jansson

It isn't clear how long it will take to dry, and I'm not sure about moving it in and out of my garage (it's detached), especially when there is a foot of snow outside. I think the insulated box and some heating light bulbs is a good idea. Emptying the trough and then having a timer on the lights for maybe a couple of hours would likely be enough. I probably can't buy my Tormek until the Spring, so I can dodge the issue for now hehe.

Mike

Reply to
Mike in Mystic

Regarding the advice of using light bulbs to heat a box around the machine - Be very very careful that nothing can catch fire. I've got a friend that did just that - used a lightbulb to heat an enclosed wooden box. It went up in flames. To be fair, this box was a dog house. It used to stand immediately next to his garage. Fortunately when it went up in flames he was home and noticed in time to save the garage. The same can't be said for that dog house.

My 2 cents. Your mileage may vary.

Reply to
Lazarus Long

What happened to his dog....................?

Reply to
Barry N. Turner

You might look at industrial coolants. they can use coolants with surface grinders. The coolants are not pure water. It memory serves, it is some sort of oil in a water suspension (yes, it can be done- ends up looking milky). That stuff maybe have a very low freezing point, and might actually be a better coolant for the Tormek than plain water.

Check w.w. Grainger catalog, or other industrial supply houses.

-Dan

Reply to
Dan Valleskey

The stone absorbs a *lot* of water -- it'll hold about a quart. And it takes a

*long* time to dry out, too. I'd imagine that cold weather would affect the stone in exactly the manner you fear: freeze and crack. And that's a pretty expensive problem.

Just keep the Tormek in the house. It doesn't take up much space, and makes hardly any mess at all. Then you won't have to worry about it.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Mine hold six cups (1.5 quarts). I had an opportunity to measure it recently, when I gave a demo at someone else's shop.

Reply to
DJ Delorie

I asked Jeff Ferris about leaving the stone in the water this weekend at the Woodshow. He said it should not be left soaking. By the way there is a Tormek users group at:

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Johnson Red Oak, Texas

Reply to
Stuart Johnson

And tell the wife that you only left it in the house so you could sharpen her carving knife or her scissors when she wanted them sharpened. :-)

Reply to
Ray

Doug, fabricate a bottomless box from 1/4" foamcore and somehow either fix a light fixture to the top of the box, or cut out a hole so that a flex arm lamp can stick thru the hole. Turn the light on when you leave the shop, or just leave it on all the time. With the foamcore and a 60 watt bulb, it would have to get really cold to freeze.

Obviously, make the box to just fit over the Tormek!

Best regards, James R. Johnson

Reply to
JRJohnson

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