No "elevated perch"
--it's just that I've had a darex for a LONG time now and I've actually used it to sharpen endmills many thousands of times.
You, on the other hand, have probably never sharpened an endmill in your entire life, yet here you are you are, trying to tell me how great of a job it does....
LOL--not sure what your problem is. You think I don't "build stuff" for a living ?
As though having spent about 2 decades building gearboxes and control surface actuaters, landing gear parts and so forth for commercial airliners somehow doesn't count as "building stuff" ?
And nowadays, I own and manufacture an entire product line--tools for the discriminating model builder; I have a global distribution network comprising over 60 retail sellers in 21 countries across the globe.
I have 3 Fadal machining centers and a Bridgeport FMS 4 axis cell with 80 tools ATC and 8 300 mm work pallets.
I have 2 cnc swiss...Maurobeni Citizen
--a pair of German Lathes made by Weiler...A Hardinge TR and a Tsugami Super precision.
And other small /manual machine tools too numerous to mention...
You think all of the tooling and the workholding fixtures and what not just magically appeared in my shop one day ?
Oh almost forgot--I'm also in the process of building a 5 x 12 foot router, but that is for my oldest son, because I do not want it to stay in my basement forever... maybe I'll post a picture some day...
Sheesh...
BUT IT WON'T produce anything even closely resembling a factory grind....something which you are apparently having an exceptionally rough time comprehending....
I actually do know when and where a factory grind REALLY is needed; and I also know when even a factory grind simply won't do, in which case I either send the work out to a grind shop or else I mount a grinding wheel onto a cat40 holder, dressing it with a macro so that my height offsets remain stable.
Actually, when it comes to 'job shop' work, I've trimmed my customer base drastically over the years by turning away the vast majority of work, to the point where nowadays, any contract work that I DO accept is pretty darned complex, and on a VERY tightly compressed time schedule, specifically, orbital defense and communication hardware where the proposed launch date is under a significant threat of delay.
FWIW, all of those parts were validated as having a 16 finish or better despite their visual appearance...
Pretty sure your idea of a "good finsh" differs considerably from mine; for me, surface finish is a quantifiable technical measurement that defines (and limits) viable process options and ultimately effects customer rejection and mechanical failure rates.
And since anyone who expends additional time and resources in order to produce a finish that is "better" than customer requirements is likely to go out of business fairly soon, through the years it's been important for me to have a fairly thorough understanding of all the variables affecting part finish.
Mostly, though, due to the function of the tools I make, I need a 90 degree 'knife edge' on the finished part...basically a knife edge, in aluminum..the target being ZERO raised burr as observed under a microscope, which is physically impossible in the first place, and the situation only worsens where you have a friggen sub-miniature mountain ridge on your the cutting tools.
I sold all my "spare granite plates" many years ago, floor space is too valuable.....
I'm in need of another knee surgery; I've grown tired of tripping over and having to walk around a bunch of machinery and s*it that seldom if ever actually generates revenue.
Sorry to burst your bubble but as I said before, the darex simply is NOT capable of producing anything even closely resembling a factory grind and your attempts at marginalizing my experience and skill level simply is not going to change that fact.
Anyways, I have better things to do...congratulations on your purchase....
--if you got the radius attachment, I'm fairly certain you are going to be hugely dissapointed with it.
Also, you will probably want to get the borazon and diamond wheels--these will give you a MUCH finer grind as compared to aluminum oxide and the green...and while it will do a reasonable job in sharpening the end primary, you'll probably also come to agree that the cam system that lowers the air bar for grinding of the end secondary is an exceedingly hoakey setup and so like me, out of frustration, you'll probably end up routinely doing that by hand on a bench grinder for any tools that are over say 3/8 inch diameter or so.
Other than that, it is likely to save you quite a bit of money if you are currently sending out lots of tools for od grind so long as the vast majority of your work falls into the "utility" category...
In other words, basically it's simply another cool toy unless you would have spent a similar amount of money on outside tool grinding such that a return on your investment will occur within a reasonable time period.