Back - Joel - question on belt grinders

[TimWieneke]

Hey guys sorry for the prolonged absence.  But it's the middle of summer, I'm done with rendezvous, and its time to get out of the office and start beating on steel some more.  

Joel, I had a quesiton.  Last week I had the opportunity to watch a father/son knife team and work putting together some damascus blades and was entranced by it.  I'd like to give it a shot, but I really need to give a serious look at a belt grinder.  The style I do now really wouldn't show the pattern well.  I was thinking of maybe going with a Wilton square wheel.  I don't think I'll ever get into doing hollow grinds.  I seem to get everything I need from flat and slightly convex grinds.  Any opinions on grinders?  Thanks.

Tim

[Joel]

Hey Tim,
   Welcome  back.  Since I only flat grind, with the occassional convex, I really don't see the need to spend a lot of money on one of those super grinders like the Wilton; though they are great machines.  I have two grinders right now....a small 1 X 30 machine with a 5" disc; first grinder I ever owned and I still can't believe that I actually ground all those full sized blades on it.  Anymore, it gets used for sharpening, and doing detail stuff.  My main grinder is a Sears 2 X 42 machine with a 1 hp motor and an 8" disc.  Paid $200 for it about 5 years ago.  Runs at around 3525 FPM and works fine for flat grinding, or convex grinding above the platen.  Tracking wasn't the world's best on it, but then I modified the tracking screw with a larger one,and it does ok.  Just traded a guy a knife for an industrial 1 1/2 hp Craftsman motor and will probably rig that up to one of those 2 X 72 Kalamazoo ginders that the catalogs carry.  Anything less than 1 HP makes life a lot harder; the variable speeds are nice if you do just about ALL your polishing with belts, since the fine belts don't last long at 3500. Me, I flat grind and polish up to around 400 on the grinder, then hand finish from there.  Know of some flat grinders who also use those bigger 4 and 6 inch wide grinders, but I"m happy with the sears for now.  I can buy a lot of steel and other makings with the difference in the price between mine and the Wilton, but there's no denying the quality and durability of that machine.  When I can charge Loveless prices, maybe I'll buy one. Heh.  Other grinding devices I use consist of an old washing maching motor used to drive a twin 1/2" spindles(arbors) at around 1700 fpm.  One spindle is set up to polish with up to 8" wheels, the other holds a 2" diameter rubber wheel that is 1 3/4" long.  Holds those abrasive drums you can buy at any hardware.  Great for shaping bird's heads grips and any long radius curve.  Finally there is, of course, the dremel. Couldn't live without it.  That's about it for me.

[TimWieneke]

Thanks Joel.  I'll take a serious look at that one.

Tim

[Will52100]

Check out http://www.beaumontmetalworks.com/ and the KMG grinder, it's my dream machine and hope to one day own one.  I would love to try the rotory platen for convex grinding.

I started out with a craftsman 2x42, but wish I'd went ahead and got something better.  I'm using a Coote 2x72 with 8" wheel and small wheel atachments and love it.  The Coote is probably the best bang for the buck grinder out there, well made and with step pullies makes it a lot cheaper than varible speed, but lets you slow the thing down.  It takes a couple of minets to switch to the small wheel set-ups, but realy beats using a mandral chucked up in a hand drill for those tight curves.  I'm glad I got it and if I ever do get a KMG I'll still keep the Coote, probably permantently set up with a small wheel and for roughing.

The Grizzly also is popular and is well spoken of, but I never cared for the round suport(the Coote has aluminum chanel suport) and the motor gets in the way for hollow grinding. I've started to hollow grind then switch to the slack belt for convex grinding, faster than doing it on the platen and less chatter.  Don't realy care for a hollow grind though.

I need to build a better disk sander, I'm using a washing machine motor with the disk off the Craftsman after it died.  Not real strong but it works.

I've got a dremal, but if I had it to do again I'd go with a Fordum tool, much heavier duty and tougher.

Good luck.

[Don Buckbee]

I have a Bader grinder, the one with the big 2.5 hp motor, that I've been using for over 20 years. It is a horse... Just keeps on running.. Have several different size wheels for it. Also have a couple of home made grinders, one with a big 18"x3" platen for doing work needing the platen. The platen is moveable so I can use it anywhere from vertical to horizontal and all angles in between. And, I have a slack belt grinder set up just for doing handles, mainly. I can also use small wheels on the top end to do any radius cuts I want. All use 2x72 or 1x72 inch belts. I hollow grind, except for David Boye's Dendritic blades which I use a lot. I flat grind them.
Don