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Do I have the Latest Tormek Innovations? - January 25, 2012

In the next few blog updates, I am going to talk about the development of the Tormek over the years, explain the improvements and what they bring to the system, and give owners of older systems some ideas on whether it is worthwhile to upgrade their system. Virtually every improvement ever made to the system can be retro-fit to older machines...a rather remarkable statement in this age of "planned obsolescence". 

 

Let's start with the horizontal mount for the Universal Support. The two post Universal Tool Support has been the standard design since 1990. From 1990 until 1995 the vertical mount sleeves were the only option for securing the Universal Support to the machine frame, and everything was sharpened with the wheel turning into the cutting edge. This is still the best approach for chisels, plane irons, scissors and most other relatively straight edges (I still do knives in the jig this direction, too). 

 

As woodturners around the world discovered the Tormek system, they liked certain aspects, but odd shaped tools, particularly gouges, were difficult to control and caused premature wear on the grindstone when sharpened in the vertical mount. The horizontal orientation is easier on the tool and much easier on the grindstone. 

 

The XB-100 horizontal base was first introduced as an option. Machines sold in that period were pre-drilled, ready for installation. The kit came with instructions on how to drill an older frame (in fact, those instructions are still in the box 15 years later). A couple years later the base was made a standard feature on the machine. 

 

The earliest version was an aluminum extrusion with a lock on only one of the arms. After a few years and a lot of development in the area of woodturning, the second lock was added. The nature of aluminum extrusions made it necessary for relatively large manufacturing tolerances. In 2006 the current XB-100 was introduced. It is cast and machined, rather than extruded, allowing much tighter tolerances. There's very little play between the base and the Universal Support, yet it rarely binds (unless the Universal Support is dirty). 

 

Both orientations have advantages and disadvantages, but like the Chinese ying-yang symbol, the strengths of one compensate for the weaknesses of the other. Owners of vintage Tormek systems without the horizontal base should consider adding it, and if you use the horizontal base a lot and yours is the older extruded base, You'll find it well worth the price to upgrade to the cast and machined version. 

 

More to come!

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