Sharpening an old chisel on the Shopsmith Belt Sander / Sharpening Station

This is a demonstration of how good the Shopsmith belt sander is as a sharpening station, when set up with an Axminster (or Tormek) support bar, and using a chisel guide. The results are as good as anything you'd get on a Tormek.

[@GeoffreyBaker]

Some comments:
1) As you see, I'm running the belt sander backwards using my PowerPro. It's not necessary, but my setup with the Axminster bar gives me more room set up this way. To run it backwards and do dust collection, I made a bracket to hold the aluminum dust collector (backwards also). You can run it forwards without problem - you just loose some room. Not a problem for most tools.
2) I can't emphasize how important dust collection is when grinding - metal dust is highly toxic. I have a spark arrestor (just some wire mesh basically) inside the tube that connects to the dust collector and my shopvac collects the dust - I don't use my DC because all the wood dust would be highly flammable!
3) I use Trizact belts for the last stages because they are extremely uniform, and they are lapped using mylar that is only a few thousands of an inch thick. Result - smoother running, better results.
4) You don't need a Powerpro for this, you could do it with a standard Shopsmith - just make sure to quench often to keep the temperatures down.
5) The accuracy comes from using a 12mm Axminster support bar which is perfectly square to the belt sander backing plate. You can get this from www.axminstertools.com/us/axminster-compound-jig-for-ultimate-edge-103738. If you search the site you will also find their honing guide (better than the Tormek for this job) and the angle setting tool that makes it all very easy to set up.

[@johnrice6793]

Good god - where have I been - asleep????
That’s the most ingenious, easily set up, dramatic, right on, getting the best results one could hope for jig demo I’ve seen.
Freakin sweet! I gotta get me a SSmith belt sander and hound you for ALL else I’ll need.
Geoffrey - you’ve got a mind on you.

[@robertmunguia250]

Nice polish! Interested in that set up. Can that be mounted on any belt sander? Universal?