A Rolling Sharpening Station Built From Sys3 and Sortainers

Fitout By Nick

Tormek, Systainer³ Sortainer, Sharpening, Kaizen Foam, Gridfinity

Sharpening gear has an awkward job to do: it needs to be mobile enough to break down and move, but stable enough to actually work at. Nick built one cart that does both.

I wanted a mobile sharpening setup that I could easily break down and transport, but would also work well as a workstation when I’m in my shop. Sys3, Sys-AZ, Kaizen foam inserts, plus a custom cart and 3D printed systainer adapters.
— Nick

A 3D-printed and wood top plate caps the stack and does double duty: it catches runoff from grinding and holds the Tormek firmly in place - the kind of detail that only shows up once you’ve actually used a setup like this for a while.

Below that, a matched pair of anthracite Sortainers - a Sortainer/3 and a Sortainer/2 - carry the rest: grinding wheels, grinding jigs, diamond plates and whetstones, drill bits, scissors. Every drawer is labeled, and most of the inserts are Kaizen foam drawer blanks Nick hand-cut with a foam cutting kit - the top drawer is fitted with Gridfinity components instead, an endless supply of which you can find on Thingiverse or MakerWorld.

At the bottom of the stack, an anthracite Sys3 M 337 mounted on the SYS-AZ drawer gives the Tormek a stable, sealed base to sit on.

The cart’s cabinet is sized around the SYS-AZ pull-out drawer itself - Nick took the dimensions straight from the SYS-AZ instructions, built the box tall enough to hold it with a bit of play, and made the base wider than that for stability on locking casters. Plywood came from Home Depot. The 3D-printed feet adapters (also available as a print-your-own model) were the fussiest part to line up - Nick’s trick was setting an empty systainer on the feet to get them positioned, then carefully lifting it back off before screwing the feet down. A dab of superglue to temporarily tack them in place works too.

The cabinet has a catch built in too, so the Sortainer stack locks securely on top rather than just sitting there - break it down, roll it wherever the job is, and it goes right back together the same way every time.