Review on BGM100 Bench Grinder Sharpening by Tormek by Zack Frazier

I am a wood turner and have had Tormek for many years. It puts a sharp edge on almost anything, but I've always had one complaint: It's very, very slow when first machining (or forming) a heavy turning tool. I also had a dry sander, but I was never able to "freehand" cut the edge close enough to not require a lot of rework (and time) when I got to Tormek. Introduce BGM-100. Installation requires installing a support block to the left or right of the grinder. The exact placement and size of the block will depend on the size of your grinder, so plan to study the charts and do some basic math. The instructions here are a bit lacking, but the diagrams are good. Installation instructions are available online on the Tormek website if you would like to read them before purchasing the kit. I installed it on an 8" slow speed Woodcraft sander with an 80 grit SG Norton wheel. After installation I tried the BGM-100 with a few spindle and bowl notches (using the SVD-185 template) and it worked great. Same lip and jig setting the tool was the same on the dry grinder and the Tormek with the only difference being the shape due to the different disc diameters (8" on the dry grinder vs 10" on the Tormek grinder). Thanks to hard work on the dry grinder, I was able to move the tool (still in the jig!) right onto the Tormek and finish sharpening quickly. It also worked the same way with coarse grooves and high skew (both with the SVS-50 fixture). -50 and SVD-110), and this would result in the total investment being around two hundred and fifty dollars. That's slightly more than other machines (like the Wolverine) that can effectively perform the same function with a dry grinder. But the BGM-100 is really good for those who also own (or plan to own) a Tormek, where the attachments (and their cost) can be interchanged between a Tormek and a dry grinder.