I need a recomendation on....

[Fishmagician]

..on polishing wheels and the brands of machines that turn them. I need to polish some scratches out of highly polish blade and I need to do it via the polishing wheels with compound...can you learned knife fixer-uppers recommend units to me. If I go looking I'm not sure I wouldn'tt get something that turns with too many RPMS...Thanks for the suggestions. Mike

[orvet]

Probably the best buffer motor you can buy is a Baldor.
I priced a 1 HP early this year when I bought mine.......we are talking aout $500-$700 depending where you buy it.

I ended up with a 1HP Jet, 1725 RPM. Works good, except when the capicator went out & they sent me a brand new buffer.

Dale

[knifemaker3]

Any 1725-1750 rpm motor with a threaded shaft attachment will work. Used that type of set up for several years before I started buffing on my grizzly knifemaker grinder/sander.

Just be careful and don't get it too hot. You can loose temper and not change the steel colors if not real careful. I buff with a bucket of water to dip in after every pass to keep the blade cool.

WEAR GLOVES WHEN BUFFING! Leather gloves. And keep your mind on what you are doing. Buffing is probably the most dangerous of things we do in knifemaking.

Hope this helps!

[orvet]

Hey Craig,
Can you post a picture of your grizzly or a link to it?
I have heard good things about their equipment.

Thank you,
Dale

[knifemaker3]

Dale,
Here you go: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Knife-B ... ffer/G1015

For a cheap starter grinder they work good. For a more professional grinder I've heard the KMG works great. But you can buy about 3 grizzly's for the price of 1 KMG.

There have been many people that have upgraded their grizzlys, but I never have mine. I noticed yesterday that I'm going to have to do some work on the platen on mine. I've used mine pretty hard through the years and it's starting to show a little wear. But it still runs good.

Hope this helps!

[Hukk]

Sorry to hear about your Jet Dale, I still love mine. But it was $170 (out the door - on sale) when I bought mine and weighs all of 100 LBS - no vibration at all. I don't know why they have gotten so expensive lately - seen some over $300!

I would buy some capacitors of the same or similar type (ceramic, mica, electrolytic, etc) - sometimes you can get a bad batch. Needs to be the same voltage rating, watch out for polarity (if they are polarized), and they can be off by a few pf or uf, whatever the rating range is. Capacitors have a lot of slop - some can be +/- 100% tolerance!

[Ringmaster]

Craig,

I'm also a fan of the Grizzly grinder. There are fancier, better units available, if your pockets are deep enough... but I like mine. Do you plan to replace your platen with ceramic ? I've been thinking along that line.

I also like their small 1" x 42" sander, for smaller work. It's built just like the older Jet, which they've discontinued.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-X-8-B ... nder/H8192

Mike,

Be VERY careful, when you first try your buffer. Practice on a scrap piece of wood or something - that buffer will grab anything, if you're not extremely careful.

Take Care,
JR

[Hukk]

Craig,
I put the fire place glass on my platens - for my Bader III, with the variable DC speed control. They can also be bought from Darren Ellis. I like it better than the graphite. http://refractory.elliscustomknifeworks.com Click on Ceramic Platen Liners, left column and third from the bottom. I may do the same thing to my 4 x 36 sander also. I used JB Weld to hold the glass in place. It's been fine and it has gotten fairly HOT!

I think I've seen you over at Knife Network also.

[knifemaker3]

JR, no I hadn't thought about changing it but I may have to in the near future.

Hukk, YEP you've seen me over there. I lurk alot, just don't post much.

I was at Grizzly today in Springfield MO. which is about 80 miles west of me. I noticed they have a couple of smaller buffers for sale. Didn't check them out much but they should be listed on their site or in their new catalog.

JUST BE VERY CAREFUL BUFFING!!!. I've had knives get away from me 2 times while buffing. Once it landed point first in the floor about 3 inches in front of my feet. The second time it flung clean across the shop about 5 feet and stuch in the wall

Keep your buffing speeds low. I've seen charts on speeds of different sized wheels and corresponding speeds at 1725 and it will surprise you how fast they are actually going.

Use solid buffing wheels for buffing steel and just buff the lower 1/2 of the blade. Turn knife over to buff the rest. Only use a loose buff on handles.

DO NOT BUFF A SHARP KNIFE!!! If it is sharp, dull it before buffing.

Hope this helps!

[orvet]

Sorry to hear about your Jet Dale, I still love mine. But it was $170 (out the door - on sale) when I bought mine and weighs all of 100 LBS - no vibration at all. I don't know why they have gotten so expensive lately - seen some over $300!

I would buy some capacitors of the same or similar type (ceramic, mica, electrolytic, etc) - sometimes you can get a bad batch. Needs to be the same voltage rating, watch out for polarity (if they are polarized), and they can be off by a few pf or uf, whatever the rating range is. Capacitors have a lot of slop - some can be +/- 100% tolerance!

Hukk-
I didn't say I didn't love it........when it works!
It just seems that the capacitor only goes out when I am busy, before a show or something. I don't know how it knows.

Jet replaces it every time & this last time they let me keep all the wrenches & shaft sleeves so I have 2 sets. I thought that was pretty cool!

Dale

[orvet]

Dale,
Here you go: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Knife-B ... ffer/G1015

For a cheap starter grinder they work good. For a more professional grinder I've heard the KMG works great. But you can buy about 3 grizzly's for the price of 1 KMG.

There have been many people that have upgraded their grizzlys, but I never have mine. I noticed yesterday that I'm going to have to do some work on the platen on mine. I've used mine pretty hard through the years and it's starting to show a little wear. But it still runs good.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the link Craig. It looks good & the price is great in comparison to other machines.

I am curious how you grind blades on it.
Are there jigs to hold the blank?
Can you hollow grind with that machine?
What accessories should I get?

Thanks a million,
Dale

[Hukk]

The 10 inch wheel is nice to have.

[Ringmaster]

Hey Dale,

The whole belt assembly tilts backward, to lay flat. That allows you to hollow grind against the drive wheel. It comes standard with an 8" wheel, but there's a 10" available as an option.

There's no jig, but there is a tool-rest, if you're flat sanding. It's not really much use - I modified mine, by cutting a notch for the belt to run through. The tool rest won't work, in the horizontal position, when you're hollow-grinding, tho'. (Altho', with a little field-engineering, a tool-rest could be made, to work when hollow grinding.)

Note: when you switch positions, from flat-grinding to hollow-grinding, I always hafta fiddle with the belt tracking adjustment. But maybe that's just my machine ? One thing's for sure, it's built "Stout", heavy-duty.

Oh, Oh - the motor isn't enclosed, either. It's not a huge problem, I just covered the vent holes with some scrap panty-hose (NO, they weren't mine) and duct taped it to the motor.

And, Grizzly belts suck - get your belts elsewhere.

Take Care,
JR

[knifemaker3]

Dale,
I learned very early on to grind both flat and hollow without using a rest or guide of any kind. It takes lots of practice, but since this is how I learned I've always done it this way.

I grind with the edge of the knife facing upwards. Grind with my thumbs controlling where I'm wanting to grind.

Think of your knife as having 3 seperate points to place the thumbs.

1. more toward the top of the knife which when grinding like I do is the knife edge.

2. the mid section of the knife

3. more toward the spine of the knife.

When I need to take more material off the edge, I place my thumb in postion 1. When I need to work the top of the grind I postion in 3. When just needing to better refine the middle of the grind, postion 2.

I know this probably isn't making much sense. I have a hard time trying to write out what I mean.

Hope this helps. I do this with both flat grinding on the platen and hollow grinding off the wheel. I don't use a rest or jig of any kind.

Good Luck!

[orvet]

Thanks JR & Craig!
Every little bit of info helps.

I sort of figured Grizzly's belts were junk.
Cheap is seldom better!

Dale

[Fishmagician]

Thanks for all of info...Mike