A shop-built skate holder for sharpening with a Pro-Filer

[Bill_S]

Speaking of tossing in the kitchen sink (metaphor, ya know), I did have a thought to include a paper towel holder on the back side. It's actually large enough for one.

I don't think this will come to pass because it will become too bulky to carry. I'm just confessing to thoughts going through my mind at the time.

[tstop4me]

How about a beer cooler underneath?

[Bill_S]

With my tendencies, a first-aid kit would be better. 

[Bill_S]

I painted the removable cover with General Finishes "Tuscan Red", which I had on hand.



I'm done for now.

[AlbaNY]

CHALLENGE:
can you use a home shop to improvise your own home-made powered skate sharpening machine? Say, using a power tool to turn an off-the-shelf grinding wheel?

it seems to me you are part-way there. You've created a smooth track for the blade to run through, right? So, if you can find a precision way to align the wheel along the center of the track... Maybe use a drill press, or a drill stand, to adjust the distance??

I suspect the hardest to make component of a powered sharpening machines is the diamond dresser, that grinds the ROH curve across the wheel. One way to do this is to move a diamond tip along a circular trajectory against the wheel, while the wheel turns. The tip could be moved at the end of an adjustable length arm (effective arm length = ROH) - except that the center of rotation is inside the grinding wheel - in fact it is midway through the thickness of the wheel. The obvious way to make that work is that The arm rotates about a center that is offset at right angles to the side of the wheel (typically, the wheel is horizontal, and the rotation center is offset vertically above the wheel; the arm has to be parallel to the shaft the wheel rotates on), and an second extension, at right angles to the arm, holds the diamond point. I think there are other ways of doing that, but I haven't seen them in detail. (I like the idea of using right angles because it is easy to find pre-manufactured items with right angles in them.)

I wish you could ask the guy in Romania using the bench grinder holding the skates in his hands.  He definitely had a way to dress the wheel for ROH, but at the time I was not interested as now to pay attention to how.