I thought I’d pop in here with my take on some suggestions. I’ve read a lot on here about people using magnets to catch the dust from the steel as it’s ground off of the blades as they’re being sharpened. I’ve also read from some people who suggest making a small disc out of plastic or whatever to slide over the base of the arms as they’re working in order to keep the dust from collecting in the joints. So I thought I’d go one better.
I just happened to have some of THESE round magnets lying around and it turns out they fit perfectly over the arms in order to create a small skirt that will block a bit of the diamond dust as it’s falling, and also catch any that is metal. I can’t say whether it will work on the ball-joint arms since I’ve got the universal joints, but I can say I’ve got zero play in between my arms and paddles so I wonder if mine, being new, are slightly thicker than the older ones I’ve read about, in which case I would think these would work on all of them.
Also, it happens that these same magnets fit perfectly into the screw hole at the top of the vise. Of course just setting it in there would cause the magnet to jump out and grab the stone with each pass, but since there’s a hole in the magnet I just super glued it right to the vise screw and still have perfect access to tighten the screw. It protrudes ever so slightly out of the vise but I don’t think it’s enough to be an issue for my needs. If it ever is, a couple drops of acetone will take the magnet right back off. But this way it all looks completely inconspicuous while still being very functional.
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