Accessories

Very disappointed
Bought it and returned it right away. Not Amazon's fault. Delta should be ashamed putting their name on it. When running it sounds terrible. The wet wheel did not run flat it wobbled right out of the box. Tool post was hard to adjust and not ture to the wheel.

Jim

No major issues found
For the most of all the low reviews of this machine I only found that preparations are needed to tune the stones would help the finished results. No stone wheel is perfectly true to the axis of rotation. This is why the dressing stone is included with the kit. Befor sharpening anything good tools you must true the stone wheels surfaces, thus reducing the vibrations and slapping action of the steel to the stone wheels. This is the same as tuning a hand plane; it's not ready for perfecting use. Mount the machine to a board and clamp it to your bench. So on to the adjustments of the tool holder and guide; mine were all there for a true parallel setup. The manual is just an assembly help and you should have good mechanical skills and sharpening practices to get the best results with this or any other machine. If your not sure, buy the book on sharpening or surf the net for free info. What I did to make personalized preparations on was the tool holder guide, remove any rough edges and smooth the painted interface surfaces. Add some furniture wax for slippery smooth action; you get the idea here is to do a quality check on all functions before running the real deal. Practice on a brick chisel (yes a brick chisel) to see what is needed of your procedure and talent to make the best clean edge here before you ruin your $200.00 cutting tools. The same goes for any cutting, grinding and slicing operations. The brick chisel gives you the most contact on the new flattened wet stone surface to further flattening it to a vary smooth and near vibration free action. Use a little soap in the water that further reduces heat and drag. I sharpen 24 chisels and 6 plane irons in 1 hour; this would have been 40 hours to flatten and compound angle by hand and sore fingers. Be sure to flatten all the backs first then proceed to the angles. For the perfectionist, you can follow up with your diamond stone for that exacting angle. The main thing I want to be constructing furniture not sharpening tools all week. This machine gets the job done fast! After you get the feel of it you will do some faster maintenance sharpening free hand.

Product Not Suitable for Intended Purpose
I've owned the Delta 23-710 for a couple of years. The problem with this machine, aside from the manufacturing defects that others have cited is that there is no way to set reliable angles on the wet wheel.

The dry, vertical wheel is ok, but offers no advantage over other garden
variety grinding wheels. You will still have to either make or buy an
after market jig for setting grinding angles for chisels and bench planes.
The supplied tool rest is just like those found on less expensive
grinders, and nothing is supplied with the grinder to help set repeatable angles. The instructions provide no help with this, they merely say to
set the rest to the desired angle. That's ok if you don't mind grinding
a different angle on your tools everytime you need to repair a damaged blade.

The wet wheel is the heart of this machine, and the reason why most people buy it; and it's the reason this product is a complete failure.
Again, there is nothing provided with the grinder, and no instructions given on how to set a planer blade or bench plane to a specific angle.
There are no aftermarket jigs that will work with this set up that will allow you to produce repeatable results. Even if you decide to just pick
an angle at random and regrind every one of your tools to this unkown angle, you will not be able to repeat the results because the tool length
will change with each grinding.

I thought I could be missing something obvious, so I contacted technical support which is now operated under the DeWalt name. The reply I received stated that my question did not concern a specific issue about a specific Delta product. Instead, I was directed to a private blog operated by a wood turner who had built his own jig to sharpen turning tools on a vertical grinding wheel. It had nothing to do with my question really, which was to find out how to set a defined angle on the wet wheel. Additional inquiries to Dewalt support were just as fruitless.

Buyers will be lured to this product due to the relatively low price. I give my strongest recommendation to avoid this product because it will disappoint you. If you are looking something less expensive than the Tormek, don't buy the Delta 23-710. Newer products are coming to market that will do what they are intended to do and will do it without addtional aftermarket accessories or the need to be creative.

Not as useable as it should be, save your money
I bought one of these thinking I was finally going to be able to sharpen my tools. After giving up trying to figure out how to properly use it, the included directions were completely useless, I wrote to Delta and asked if they had a better set of instructions on how to properly use this machine. They wrote back and told me to go buy a book on sharpening as many are available. Not what I wanted to hear nor expected from a company with a once good name.
I finally gave up threw a towel over it and set it off to the side; it is still sitting there with over a 1/2 inch of dust on it now. I have yet to find a book that explains the proper way to use this specific tool. It does not easily lend itself to sharpening anything, the water drip system is a joke and unless your chisel has a very long blade you can't use this system. The larger wheel is set down in too far making it hard to use and impossible with short blades. If you are not already an expert at using this tool you will probably gouge or ruin the flat stone before you ever figure it out.
The one and only part that works at all is the smaller 5 inch stone wheel; at least it's easy to get to although I found the recommended way of using it a bit odd.

If Delta was smart they would produce a detailed book and a video on the proper use of this tool, who knows it might just cut down on all the lousy reviews it gets. Certainly there is an after market for the book and video if anyone ever takes the time to produce both.
In the mean time, save your money for something better.

Good sharpening system
The sharpening system came through exactly as described. I have used it on some of my chisels, and also kitchen knives. Works great. I didn't realize how much of a difference a slower grinding wheel speed would make. It makes it alot easier to control the piece being sharpened. Plus, it allows you to work slower, which in this case is good. The only down side I have is with the instructions supplied from Delta. They don't go into any detail at all on how to sharpen knives etc. Make sure you get yourself a good book on the subject when you purchase this.
I am very pleased with the tool. I am going to find a book.