Problem
I need to regrind new bevels on some old worn-out chisels, without using free-hand techniques, which I know how to do already. After some belabored research on grinding jigs, I purchased a Veritas® Basic Grinding Set1 for use with my 6" grinder. However, the chisels I have vary in length, but most/all of them are quite short. In actual use, during setup, I very quickly ran into a problem in the setup, where the short chisels do not fit the jig, without pushing it forward so far as to then throw off all of the dimensions that are required for the jig to work.
Is this just my not knowing how to properly set up the jig? Or, is it due to the design assumption, by Veritas, that the jig would only be used by chisels with long shanks?
Details
Solution/Options
Some solutions I'm considering are:
This is just my ignorance in setting up the tool. If so, what is the proper setup?
Donate/sell the short chisels, and buy longer, higher quality chisels that will fit the Veritas Grinding Jig. Definitely a viable option, as I don't see any issues with the Veritas, if this was by design.
Only return just the Veritas® Grinding Jig, keeping the Veritas® Grinder Tool Rest, and build2 my own jig to use with the Veritas® Grinder Tool Rest, using suitable plywood/hardwood/aluminum/steel. Not too difficult, but I don't want to spend the time on that unless someone can convince me that it is the best option.
Return the entire Veritas set, guide plus jig, and research some other vendor's sharpening guides and jigs. Feel free to comment on guides you know will work with both long and short chisels plus plane irons, but this is not intended to be a tool recommendation.
Return the entire Veritas set, guide plus jig, and build2 one from scratch. There are tons of videos and design plans out there, but, this is a last resort as it is just more time spent building tools to do woodworking, versus well, just doing woodworking.
Update #1
Graphus's comment was:
1st and most important is, do the problem short chisels all need to be reground or do you just want to?
Yes, and the grinder comes into play because I want to avoid manually regrinding them on diamond stones. Examining each of the chisels closely, I found that, over the years of abuse, I've honed and rehoned each of them to the point where the entire bevel needs to be reground. Basically, what should be a microbevel is actually a rather large macro bevel, on all of them.
I will also consider the possibility of using my Extra Coarse diamond whetstones to do the coarse work. But from experience, that is a lot more work than using a grinder, that is, only if I can relatively quickly set up the chisel on a/the jig.
Graphus's comment was:
Can the jig be moved inwards so that the grinding wheel comes forward, in fact just shy of kissing the rear of the slot? This strikes me as being the main setup change that could resolve most issues, but the grinder or the base of the jig could easily not allow it.
I could and did get close, but that turned out not to be viable, because the upper-left handle bumps up against the grinder housing. I even tried moving that handle over to the right side, but it runs into the lower-right handle. See this photo:
I also reconfirmed the problem I detailed in the second image above: In order to adjust the chisel's angle of attack onto the grinding wheel, such that it meets 1/2 way up the bevel as per the instructions4, I indeed had to push the chisel so far forward, that the conical part of the back of the chisel abuts up against the jig top plane, tilting the chisel upward even more, throwing off the invariants the jig uses in those instructions. Thus, for these short chisels, I've concluded that jig part is not really applicable.
So "but the grinder or the base of the jig could easily not allow it" is the case here.
I neglected to show the condition of the chisels in the original question, so updating this now: This isn't a great photo as it doesn't really show the bevels with any degree of resolution, but you can kind of see the "macrobevels" from the light reflection, in this photo:
1 There are many viable options, but my read of tons of Amazon reviews led me repeatedly back to the Veritas as "the" best here. Of course, I have diamond whetstones of varying grits and a honing wheel to do the final stropping.
2Building tools is fun, and I have no problem with that at all, but I do want to avoid needless Yak Shaving3 or filling holes in buckets requiring tools that require buckets that hold water, etc. etc. It might have taken me just as much time to type up this SE post as it would to have just built my own from scratch. :)
3 Definition #2:
A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to procrastinate about a larger but more useful task.
4 Click on the "Instr" link at the bottom of the page at Veritas® Grinder Tool Rest, second page in the PDF.