Tag Archives: sharpening

Fixed my Wolverine Vari-Grind Arm

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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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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.

Grinder Platform Setting Jigs

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I made these jigs to set the angles on my grinder platform. They have a flat edge that sits on the platform, and two points to register on the grinder wheel.

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Making them is pretty straightforward. Below shows the geometry layout. I drew it on paper as illustration, but for the jigs I made, I actually drew the geometry directly on a the wood and cut it out.

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I start with a 8″ diameter (4″ radius) to represent the grinder wheel. A straight line through its center marks “level”. Measure the desired angle (40 deg in this picture) from this line at the point where it meets the circle – this is the flat bit that rests on the platform. Next, you want 2 points to rest on the wheel (these are circled in the above picture). These two points and the flat for the platform are the only important bits. The rest can be cut however you like. I like a big hole for my thumb to hold the jig on the platform. It is also useful  for hanging the up jigs (on some pegs I’ve attached to the leg of my grinder stand).

The picture below shows the cutout jig sitting on the drawing, so you can see how matches.

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Vari-Grind Setting Jig

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I made a couple of jigs to reset my Vari-Grind to various angles for my different gouges.

IMG_3906.jpgIt is just a dowel and a block of scrap wood.  I flattened the top of the dowel so the knob will tighten snugly.  There is a flat face in the block of wood where the dowel is glued in: this face registerswith the corresponding part of the Vari-Grind.  The other important bit is the angle to register against the leg.  I setup my Vari-Grind and then cut that angle to match.

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Wolverine V-Arm Setting Jig

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I set the arm where I wanted it and made the guide to match that location. I really have no idea what the dimensions are, just that they’re right for my gouges. They’re just made from scraps of Masonite/hardboard.  Two points touch the grinding wheel, and the other end sits in the V.

Since they register off the surface of the wheel, they actually set the distance from the wheel to the V.  Other jigs (like stop blocks) only set the extension of the arm from some point on the grinder stand, and thus will set different grinder angles if moved to another wheel or grinder that’s configured slightly differently. So I can use these on either side of either of my grinders and get the same setting at the wheel. I can also take them to a friend’s shop and setup their grinder for my gouges.

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