Troy says the medium wheel takes on 0.001 inched per pass, so that's about 60 passes.
dm
I think there's a typo, either here or in that convo you had with him. The Medium stone takes off 1/10,000th of an inch, not 1/1,000th (
source). So it's more like 600 passes (assuming you can remove ~1.5mm of edge, total). That seems on par with the Swix Evo Pro you discuss later.
I was just on the RT web site medium grit is good for 1/10 of a thousand accuracy cut. I Call B..L S..T on that statement
I have done those type of tolerances in machining, and none of it was with a free hand power grinder. Requires very controlled conditions.
He's not claiming 1/10,000th inch accuracy; he's claiming 1/10,000th inch material removal per pass. Obviously it's more if you go slow and less if you go fast and it will never be exact. But I read that as stating approximately how much material is removed, not how precise the removal is.
I think if you go for the RT, at least stabilize the ski on chairs with towels, etc. Somehow. What a guy does with a tool he’s used for hundreds of hours is different than someone with no experience of that tool.
My ideal on-the-go solution is to wedge the tip or tail of the ski against two vertical planes that make a right angle (e.g. the inside corner of an outdoor stone wall). That's enough to stabilize the ski easily. If I don't have that, I'll push it against an outside wall straight on, with enough force to hold it in place while I run the RT along it. With practice it's pretty easy; but yes, if you screw up and relieve pressure you may muck up the edge angle at that one spot. On the rare occasion I do that, I live with it. It will fix itself in a tuning or two and as a hobbyist I won't notice the difference unless it's big and immediately underfoot.
Now, whether the RT is worth bringing on an airplane for a week, is a different question. To me, it comes down to conditions and group size. If I'm sharpening skis for a half dozen+ people, I'm bringing the RT. If I suspect I'll be skiing ice + trees for a week and repairing daily edge damage, I'm bringing the RT. Short of that, I'll skip it and bring my FK edger, 100mm file, and black diamondstone.
And it is difficult to use any tool on a skinny ski with bindings on it that is not secure in a vise. Hardly the same as using a grinder in some construction setting. It is difficult to stabile the ski and contrary to the experts here
, you could really F-up your edge with a slip.
I already don't sleep dreaming up stuff.