3m 967? Belts for hardened stainless?

J

Jason Fry

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Jun 5, 2008
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I have used 967’s for six or seven years on hardened stainless. About four or five months ago, they changed something and the belts went from yellow to red. The red ones seem to last about half as long as the yellow. anybody else notice the same?

What’s a good belt to try for hardened stainless, now that 967’s have gone to the dogs?
 
Cubitron 2 984 from pops is what I like to use.
I was using 967 on titanium and they seem to have worked well.
 
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I use the Cubitron II 984 up to 120 grit or 777 which goes to 180g. Norton also has a nice ceramic R 984 up to 220 grit I use on my 1X42 sharpening grinder.

All of them will wet grind and not be phased.
 
I talked to Pop about the belts when I thought they had sent me the wrong belts. I have had the same experience as you had. Next time I will order the 984 and try them.
 
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Another longtime fan of the 984F belts here. I'm working with XHP at 63.5 Rc right now, and the 984F belts are fantastic for that application.
 
I've used the 967 for some time, and then switched to 984 a couple of years ago. They're expensive, but effective. Recently I've tried the 784 which is specced for medium pressure applications. I think they work great, but as always, it comes down to personal preference (often based on your grinding style). I discovered I couldn't apply enough pressure when grinding bevels with my 984s and I often glaced them, which is bad economy.

Nowadays, I use the 984 for heavy profiling at around 6000 SFPM on my 3 hp grinders, where I can really lean into it. I don't even bother profiling my blanks with the band saw, it takes longer for me than doing it on the grinder. This is where I've found that the 984 shines, at least in my processes, they last incredibly long.

So, for me the 984 is amazing at profiling with heavy pressure, and the 784 is great for my medium pressure bevel grinding.
 
I tried a few 984 once, but they weren't much different than the yellow 967 for how I worked. I guess I'll have to try them again, and maybe the 784 also.
 
Jason Fry said:
I tried a few 984 once, but they weren't much different than the yellow 967 for how I worked. I guess I'll have to try them again, and maybe the 784 also.
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I've been a 984F fan since day one, it's still my favorite belt, however, for hardened stainless or high alloy, at high SFPM and heavy (hand, not heavy by abrasive standards, but it does matter whether you get down on it hard or not) pressure, on a 3HP grinder, I felt the yellow 967s were better. However, recently, they had gotten significantly more expensive (30-ish percent), than the 984F's, so I really couldn't justify it. Hell I can't even justify 984F's when they're 30% more expensive than Blaze belts, even though, they're better, they're not 30% brand-new better.


The 947A's didn't work for me, although I wanted to like them, looking at 3m's current description (they've got some seriously fucked up coding and branding obfuscation, I'm glad they're trying to clear it up, but they need to stop introducing new belts with a slightly different number and the same fucking name), this makes sense.


I'd like to try the 784s, 966, 997 and 994s to see what works best for me. Nickel alloys and titanium is where I always saw the absolute best value in the 984F's, if they've got better versions, I'll be impressed. Hopefully we'll see the 997s and 994s in something like a 40 or 50 grit though, I dislike 36's even for the roughest grinding, because usually the binder doesn't hold up and the abrasive is too loosely distributed, but I'll reserve judgement.

Anybody have any feedback on these newer ones?
 
I haven't had a chance to order the 984's yet, but I did figure out something about the red 967's. I was grinding some annealed Alabama Damascus Saturday with a red 967 and it cut very well, for a very long time. While it may not be the belt for hardened stainless anymore, it still cuts well in its intended application.
 
Who carries the 784?

Normally get belts through Tru grit and Jantz but not seeing 784 on either of them o a couple others.
 
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