True North

That is correct sir. It also helps with keeping that part clean because it can get pretty gummed up and you just rip off the tape and all is good. It's not necessary by any stretch. I ordered a whole whack of Ruby wheels, they have been great grinding wheels for me. Everything really started to come together for me this past week. I am using much lighter pressure and taking more time with each of my passes and I am getting amazing edges. I sharpen heel first and I found that one of the keys for me is to make the first contact as soft as possible. From there the rest of the pass is a breeze. I am now finishing the edges with leather strips and stroping compound and the edges feel about as perfect to the touch as I think possible. Based on my HDI measurements, I have my holder zeroed in so that my edges are in balance to within .2/1000" which is almost perfect. The HDI people told me anything better then 1/1000" was very good. I tried using my pink wheel a little while ago and I tried using it with a 100/75 FBV spinner, I usually use the 100/50 spinner. At first I really liked the pink wheel as there was very little debris but I ran into an odd problem when using that wheel. I found after each sharpen I was getting 1" to 2" strips of edge coming off the skate blade. The strips were very thin and it was freaking me out so I stop using the pink wheel. I am not sure if it was the wheel or the spinner but I am going to try it with my Ruby wheel.

Coming from you sir, that is a compliment of the highest order. I forgot that it was also you that I borrowed the Exhaust idea from....so.....thanks for the idea I just installed the foot switches and it works like a charm.....I'm STOKED!!! :)

Well after a steady stream of feedback from this forum my rig is ALMOST complete. I just purchased a couple of footswitches to turn on my lights and my Vac/X02, here is a link and a pic of the footswitch; Air Actuated Foot Switch Here is a shot of my setup without the footswitches, I will put them on tonight. Thanks to Nuggy for the information on the Festool.......it was expensive, but I am very happy with my CS 22 E......my lungs are probably happier as well; Thanks to JR Boucicaut for posting a picture of his venting system. Here are some pics of the exhaust system I built last night which are based on JR's setup. Sorry for the pic quality, they are iphone pictures

Hey Jr 1) What diameter pipe did you use to connect to the rear exhaust into your X02 2) What did you use to step up to the diameter of your vacuum hose Looks great, cheers

On my X02 the exhaust is a 1" pipe. I have no idea why they would have made it that small. It's a real pain if you want to hook up some sort of vacuum system to it

Hey Nuggy Truth is, I was mildly concerned about metal dust particle inhalation prior to reading your post. Through some of the links you posted I came across this website http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm You probably have seen this site already, it is considered by many to be the bible on dust collection. After reading it for about an hour last night, I thought my head was going to explode. One of the things that got my attention is that a stand alone machine that creates fine dust should have a dust collector system with a CFM rating of 800+. The vacuum that you have only has a CFM of 134. I have set up a work bench in my garage, so dust collection is a little more of a priority for me. As far as I can tell, dust collection appears to be a lot more complicated to understand and implement then skate sharpening.....

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and suggestions (chiefs17, mckjim, AfftonDad and Chadd). I finally got my left skate in edge balance nirvana......after 6 sharpenings....I know, I know, I feel the shame. I am doing alot of testing on my beater cheapo skates so I am not too phased at eating away at the blade. I wasn't doing anything wrong, I just needed to get over the fact that I was getting different results with Left and Right skates and focus on making adjustments to the holder until the edges were even. One thing that has been helpful is that I created an excel sheet so that I can log all of my holder adjustments and the subsequent HDI measurements. For now and as I am learning, I can refer to the log to see what works and what types of adjustments needs to be made when I get certain HDI measurements. It has been very helpful. I still have to learn what adjustments to make with witness marks. I have not been using witness marks. The few times that I have tried to guesstimate holder adjustments off of a witness mark I have been way off. Even when I have been able to get what looked like an even witness mark, my HDI shows me that I am off. NuggyBuggy Now you got me thinking about proper metal dust collection as opposed to the shop-vac solution I have going now. Is the unit that you bought a bit of overkill for a single sharpener? What would you recommend for a single sharpener?

I have had my X02 + upgraded Tri-Lie Holder for about a week. I had somehow managed to get very even edges and a nice clean finish after a couple of days of practice. I had been a putting fresh edges on my kids skates after each training session over the past few days and his skates were coming out great. I decided to take a kick at the can with my skates again and all hell broke loose. I knew I was going to have to adjust the holder for my skates as they were perfectly set for my kids skates. My first run through on my Left skate I was expectedly out. I made some adjustments to my holder and it got worse.........I made some further adjustments...........it got worse.........this goes on for two or three more times and finally I decide to take a break. I come back a couple of hours later and do my Right skate just to see how it turns out and............as it turns out, the edges are in almost perfect balance (less then 1/1000" out) after making no adjustments to the holder. I scracth my head and move back to my Left skate to see what happens. Once again my Left skate edges are WAY out of balance (+ 6/1000"). Does anyone have any idea why my Right skate would be almost perfectly in balance while my Left skate would be so out of whack with the exact same holder settings? Any suggestions would be appreciated, cheers

Do you find that a hand hone will get rid of the scuffs?

If anyone is interested, I followed up with the makers of the Hollow Depth Indicator (HDI) and got a call back from Brad whom I am pretty sure was the owner/creator. Great guy, very knowledgeable, gave me his personal cell # if I ever needed to followup with him on anything. Anyways, he told me that the if your edges are out of balance less than 1/1000" your doing great. I phoned blademaster technical support, who sold me my HDI, and the person I spoke with told me that 2-3/1000" was good........beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. I'm sticking with Brads advice ALSO Brad told me that they have a swap program in place so that if your HDI ever needs to get serviced, they will send you an HDI to use. When the loaner HDI arrives you ship your HDI off to them and that way you are not out of commission. I thought that was a pretty cool service. mckjim - OMG....WOW :o I feel so inadequate. That must be some high school, it's amazing how highly valued team sports are in the US school system. I doubt you would find a school anywhere in Canada with an equiptment room decked out like that. What are your thoughts on the EdgeAgain device? ALSO Thanks for the tips on the holder adjustment knobs, I now have my edges pretty much bang on.

What tolerance level do you work with as far as the edge balance is concered. Is anything less than .001" out of balance acceptable or do you aim to be 100% spot on? After some tinkering, I seem to have it very close but I am not sure what the acceptable standards are. Anyone else with an opinion on this please feel free to chime in

mckJim Thanks for the detailed explanations. I found some information in my manual on how to adjust the Tri Lie holder for out of balance edges. The informtation on 6 turns = 1/1000" was extremely helpful. I haven't tried it yet but I imagine it will put me in the right ballpark. The HDI is a great tool but I agree, I can't imagine doing a high volume of skates with it. I could see myself growing weary rather fast if I was doing more then a couple of skates each day. Cheers!

ummmmmm......that would be a negative. I am not sure how to use the witness marks to fix my problem. I will try again this morning

I think I am getting closer to making a perfect run. Started using the Ruby after I mulched the Orange wheel.....much smoooother. It seems to dress easier and it seems to leave a better finish than the orange wheel. I need some potinters on what to fix - I am using the HDI to measure The heel of the blade is out of balance the most. As it gets to the center it gets better and near the front of the blade it is perfect. Any suggestions on what to fix or tinker with? Cheers