Tag Archives: gouge

Fixed my Wolverine Vari-Grind Arm

I got a new spindle gouge, and discovered that it bumps on the huge “pocket” on the end of the Wolverine arm.

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bump

I’ve never really completely liked the huge V-pocket in that arm anyway.

I found a scrap of plastic (I think it’s Delrin, but it really doesn’t matter).  I sanded an angle on one end and used a countersink bit to drill a pocket.

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Screwed that to the back of the arm with sheet-metal screws.

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And now my gouges don’t bump the arm. Also, I think this pocket works much better than the original.

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One screw goes thru the tube, and I ground off the other one (the lower one in these photos) so it won’t interfere with the existing pocket. I don’t plan to use that pocket, but I do loan my grinder to the club’s symposium and having the “expected” setup is probably useful for demonstrators.

Wolverine makes that pocket huge like that so you can drop the butt end of a tool handle in there.  Same reason the square bar comes so excessively long (I cut about a foot off of mine).  All the Wolverine advertisements show skews and roughing gouges being sharpened like that.  I think it’s a terrible idea – way too easy to have a gouge dig into the wheel and cause alot of damage (to the operator, the grinder wheel, and the gouge). Also, every time you sharpen, the tool gets shorter, which changes that angle.  Just get a platform and make some angle-setting jigs.  Much safer and pretty easy.

Tool Rack

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This is my turning tool rack.  Some PVC pipe screwed to a board, attached to the wall over a narrow shelf.  The important bit (as I discovered with a previous attempt) is the gap between the bottom of the PVC pipes and the shelf, to let out any chips that get in the pipes.

The “business end” of the tool is up and exposed so I can find the tool I’m looking for.  The rack is mounted high enough that I’m not going to accidentially stab myself reaching for a tool.