The essential bench grinder setup

By Mike Jackson

Posted on Monday, July 22nd, 2024

Sharpening and grinding are common tasks in most sign shops, so it makes sense to do that as quickly and easily as possible. I bought a Multitool MT236 Grinder with the primary intentions of using it to sharpen my chisels, but quickly realized that it would be a real asset for about any shop. As you can see in the video on their site, a Multitool can do so much more than just sharpen.

The Multitool has four grinding surfaces: A 3.5-in. Contact Wheel, a Flat Platen, a Slack Belt, a 7-in. Disc. I use all of them, but the flat platen is the one I use for sharpening chisels. Once mounted to a bench grinder, the Multitool can be rotated to many angles, making it perfect for matching a chisel’s bevel.

On most benchtop stationary belt sanders, the belt feeds towards the user. But for sharpening chisels, the feed should ideally be away from the user. I don’t know of any that have a “reverse direction of motor” feature. So I mounted my bench grinder to a base, then work from the back side. This corrects the feed direction and allows me to press the chisel against the flat platen.


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Mike and Darla Jackson operate Golden Studios in Loveland, Colorado, and do a variety of sign-related projects. Mike’s website is www.goldenstudios.com. His email address is golden@goldenstudios.com. You can see more of Mike’s photos at www.tetonimages.com and www.goldenstudios.com.