Heligrind
helical Grinding Jig for use on woodturning chissels
Product: Heligrind
Overall Rating: Excellent
Price: $300 (3 years ago)
The Heligrind grinding system is designed for the easy sharpening of woodturning chisels mainly fingernail grinds on spindle and gouges often the hardest to master free hand. It also came with many attachments witch make it a very versatile tool
Recommended for use on a 200mm (8”) grinder it works quite well on a 150mm (6”) grinder with a little modification. When mounting the Heligrind for use on a 150mm (6”) grinder you simply need to place 50mm (2”) spacers between the feet of the grinder and the bench to bring the centre line up to the required height of 150mm.
Mounting the Heligrind is a little time consuming if not complicated but care when aligning it is worth the time to achieve a good finish on the chisels. Any deviations or errors in measurements will show in the quality of the grind on tools and in the quality of cut when in use. To allow the grinder and Heligrind to be easily moved out of the way when bench space is limited.
There is One main difference between the Heligrind and all the other jigs on the market today. That is the use of a cam action mechanism that pushes the chisel forwards and backwards along the stone the way it is taught in tafes and collages around the world. While most other jigs available move the chisel from side to side across the stone allowing any imperfections in the stone to greatly affect the quality of edge on the tool.
The Heligrind also has a fixed angle table for sharpening a skew chisel this allows the skew to be held at the correct angle in both directions wile it is brushed back and forth against the stone. It also has an extra wide adjustable table that can be used for sharpening roughing gouges and parting chisels as well as many other specialty tools. It is also good improvement on the small tables supplied with most grinders.
There is also a diamond dresser included that fits the horizontal pivot shaft of the Heligrind baseallowing the stone to be dressed to a very high degree of accuracy.
Overall the Heligrind is a very useful tool to have in any wood turners workshop allowing any tool in the kit to be sharpened to a high degree of accuracy and to a fine finish. the Heligrind realy lives up to the slogan "the ultimate in tool sharpening"
