# Grizzly T10097 8-inch Grinder / Sharpener - Not worth the money



## knothead

I hear Jet makes a good grinder - I saved for months and pulled the trigger for the Tormek, OMG was it worth waiting for!!! I have tried scary sharp, honing guides, slow grinders, diamond stones, water stones et al. sucessfull with all of the methods, well, except for the WorkSharp 3000 (Now THERE is a piece of JUNK) but the Tormek blows them all right out of the water. Glad I bought it and recommend it to all that are willing to spend the coin, You won't be sorry.


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## Oldtrekguy

I have the Grizzly T10010 grinder, and I like it for sharpening plane blades and chisels. The tool holder provided with the grinder is not very good (difficult to align blade square to the wheel), so I replaced it with the Tormek square edge jig. The Grizzly does not come with anything to dress the wheel, so I purchased the Tormek TT-50 diamond truing tool. I've never owned or used the Tormek machines (T-3 or T-7), so I can't comment if they are worth the extra money. A 90 rpm wet grinder keeps me out of trouble, but it might be too slow for a more experienced user. Grizzly is great to work with, and delivered the unit very promptly, but I am close (about 400 miles) from the Bellingham warehouse. Overall, my tools have never been sharper, but that isn't saying much! I need to add an 8000 grit waterstone to my arsenal. I have a 1000/4000 combination stone, but I don't think I'm getting the final finished edge that I want.


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## HillbillyShooter

Check out fellow LJ "TheDude50"'s blog and tests at his website on sharpening machines, http://lumberjocks.com/topics/36120. Do yourself a favor, suck it up and go directly to Tormek. Otherwise, you're just going to be frustrated because all the rest are copies.


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## bomisore

I actually have the 8" Grizzly Wet sharpener and it works fine. I use my from plane blades mostly. I will determinately agree that the plastic housing does have some vibration but it has not seriously affected my ability to sharpen and most of the Tormek jigs fit it.


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## DHS

Hi Ben - I am thrilled to hear you sharpener works for you. I looked at two different machines and both had problems. Maybe Grizzly has a quality-control issue with this product. I do think there is a fundamental problem with the way the shaft fits into the plastic housing. Given my observations, I am still going to steer other LJs away from this product. But, it's good to know that you've had success with it.


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## REL

I've got a Grizzly 8" also. It seems fine for general sharpening. I do the fine finishing by hand. I do like the leather stropping wheel to obtain mirror finishes on my tools. It appears to be worth its price.


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## Howie

*well, except for the WorkSharp 3000 (Now THERE is a piece of JUNK) *

I have a WS3000 that has served me well for 5 years. I would give it 5 stars, not "junk"


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## DHS

I've noticed a pattern. Comments from folks who have owned one of the cheaper grinder/sharpeners indicate that they either really like them or really hate them. I wonder if these comments reflect differences in the way these machines are used, or if something esle is going on here.


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## b2rtch

I bought the same sharpener from Northern Tools a while ago. 
It has been working well for me except for the stones which wear and get out of round very fast. 
HF carries tone which fit this sharpener

I bought a WorkSharp 3000, I used it once and I never used it gain.
I mostly use scary sharpening ,now with sand paper later with diamond stones, this is my favorite way to sharpen anything.


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## DHS

Bert - Do you think the stones on your sharpener got out of round so quickly because of the wobble I noticed when I ran the T10097? Did you see a small wobble on the grindstone on your machine?


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## bunkie

Dave,

Don't throw good money after bad. You won't be all that happy with the T10010. Mine mostly gathers dust as I have never been able to get a clean, square edge on a plain old bench chisel with it. The wheel is seriously out of round and the rest isn't square to the stone surface. The included attachments are crude and I've chalked this one up to experience. These days I use a granite plate and sandpaper to sharpen my chisels and plane irons.

I've thought about doing what Oldtrekguy did, but part of me thinks that if I'm going to buy Tormek parts to improve my Grizzley, I might as well just suck it up and buy a Tormek instead.


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## Howie

*I wonder if these comments reflect differences in the way these machines are used, or if something else is going on here.*

I assure you I could have bought anything I wanted when it came to sharpeners. I chose the WS3000. Not sure why the comment about "something else going on" ,care to explain?


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## DHS

Howie - I'm just curious about the reason behind the strong differences in opinion about these lower-cost sharpeners. It might be that those that love them are using them for a different purpose than those that don't like them. Or, something else might be going on. For example, it might be that individual units vary in quality. Or, there might be another explanation that I have not considered.


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## Howie

I can see where "turners" would like the Tormek system for sharpening their various tools. 
I sharpen only plane irons, bench chisels, carving knives. I'm not putting down Tormek(don't own one) I just don't need that much sharpener. But I do not consider the WS as "junk" just because it cost half of the Tormek. Price is not necessarily a leading indicator of quality.


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## ssnvet

After putting good money onto quality 8" oil stones and honing guides years ago, I haven't been able to convince myself to upgrade to a power system… Since these still work

But them again, I cheat….

I can use the surface grinder at work to repair dinged blades and get an accurate and square bevel…. This cleans up fast on a medium India, then a hard Arkansas, then 1,000 grit on a granite plate.

It's still a lot of work…. But the funds are too limited for dropping as much on a Tormak as I have into my table saw :^).

Thanks for the review though, I've been tempted to try the 8" Grizzly.


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## ArlinEastman

I have the Grizzly 8" also for the last 2 years and sharpen Chisels, Plane blades, knives, Axes, Lawnmower blade and it work fine and no problems.

Arlin


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## Routerisstillmyname

Mine had issues as well and had it shipped back the same week. it came with a chipped grinding wheel also but they didn't think that was an issue.


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## OSU55

I have the Grizzly 10" wet grinder. It took a while to figure things out, but it works pretty well. I have Tormek accessories for it: truing tool, angle setter, dressing stone, and square edge jig. Any grinder requires a method to true the wheel. and the tormek tool works well. Getting square edges is operator dependent, just as the bevel angle is - you get what you set up. I have not used a Tormek machine, but now that I understand how these machines work, I question that it magically provides a perfectly square edge, i.e. the set up is important. Other than the "micro-adjuster" support arm (which won't fit the Grizzly) I suspect the biggest difference in the machines is the duty cycle factor. The Tormek is rated for 100% commercial/industrial use, the knockoffs are rated at something far less, say 25-50% - plenty for the hobbyist. I'm sure the stone is better as well, but the Grizzly stone does fine.

I now primarily use the wet grinder for primary bevel work. Sharpening/honing is done with flat plates and mylar backed lapping paper with shop made jigs (scary sharp approach without the convex shape caused by paper backed abrasive). I tried honed edges from the stropping wheel, and while initially sharp, they break down significantly faster than lapped edges because the trapped metal particles create scratches. I got tired of always having to flatten stones, so have stayed with the lapping method.


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## DHS

OSU55 - I have the 10" grinder now too. I haven't gotten around to writing the review, but it is a MUCH better machine than the 8" wet grinder. I too purchased Tormek accessories and they work great. We seem to have reached the same conclusion. The Grizzly 10" grinder is great for establishing a primary bevel. But, I do my honing on stones. (I use waterstones.) I have taken several photos of it and I've tried to sharpen a number of different tools on it. I expect to submit a favorable review of that tool soon.


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## mantwi

This seems to be the story with all of the low to mid price range wet wheel grinders. I used to have a Delta vertical wheel wet grinder with a 4" horizontal dry wheel on the side. I can't recall the model number but it was a major disappointment. The 8" wet wheel was way out of round, the angle guide was crap and the adjustment handles were pot metal that broke before they tightened the guide enough to use it. And that was a Delta, 15 years ago. Don't be so hard on the Grizzly. Those days are gone, got me a worksharp 3000 and never looked back. I use it to establish the angle and polish up to 1000 grit then go to the 1200/8000 grit waterstones. You can shave with every edge I own and it is very fast.


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## joeljoeljoel

I have the T10010 and although it does have a metal body, the stone still wobbles no matter how much I tighten the bushing. The manual says the wobbling is expected and doesn't affect the quality of the results. I've only sharpened a couple planes so far and the results seem fine to me.


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## DHS

After I returned this grinder, I picked up the metal-bodied one. It works much better. The stone on mine does not wobble. I purchased some Tormek accessories that fit the T10010 perfectly including a square-edge jig for grinding plane irons and chisles and a diamond truing tool that I used to true the grinding wheel. I would probably return the grinder if the wheel wobbles excessively. How do you true a wobbly wheel? But, hopefully yours will meet your needs. It works so much better than the model I trashed in this review!


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