Sharpening station

One of the problems woodworkers have is blunt tools. How many times have you tried cutting something to find that the chisel/plane has lost its edge? You can't be bothered to get the sharpening stones out and carry on regardless. Your work may suffer as a consequence.

TMcWoodworks solution

When I designed my new shop I put in a space for a permanent sharpening station where I could go when any of the aforementioned tools were losing their edges.
I had a set of Japanese water stones, a water pond and a 6" dry stone grinder. So I just built a folding table with a cutout for the water pond and mounted it on the wall at about 36" from the ground. This I found was an ideal height for me either standing or sat on the shop stool.

Using the Veritas MKII honing guide system with flat roller, cambered roller and offset skew gauge I am able to quickly put an edge back on a chisel or plane iron and get back to work. I also can grind any of the lathe tools on the dry stone using a shop made guide.
I put all the tools into an open mesh storage bin underneath the table and have quick access to any of these peripherals. There is also a flattening stone that can be used to flatten the waterstones when the inevitable furrow is ploughed.
The pond is fixed into the table using three quick release clips so I can empty it of water. Then when the table is folded down flat to the wall it doesn't fall out.

Sketchup design concept

Sharpening station
(It looks very similar to the design!)

In the view you can also see the storage system I have in use. The three cabinets above the station are the widely available Danish RAACO 150 system.
I have the RAACO 16, 24 and 48 DRAWER 150 SERIES CABINET versions.
These comprise a dark blue painted steel cabinet with polypropylene drawers.

It is so much easier to find a woodscrew now as I have labelled the drawer fronts. No more searching around in cookie jars!                          

Now to sharpen all these chisels in my tool rack!

Tool rack design will follow in a future post.