Alternative to Surface grinder

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BradleySmall

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Mar 6, 2022
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I have yet to find any deal of some old industrial surface grinder, neither converted nor convertible to belt.

So I know not everyone has a surface grinder, nor do they have the 1000-1500 attachment to their respective belt grinder to accomplish this task.

So other than gluing sand paper on a jointer table and rub, rub, running away... What other alternatives or tricks are people using?
 
BradleySmall said:
I have yet to find any deal of some old industrial surface grinder, neither converted nor convertible to belt.

So I know not everyone has a surface grinder, nor do they have the 1000-1500 attachment to their respective belt grinder to accomplish this task.

So other than gluing sand paper on a jointer table and rub, rub, running away... What other alternatives or tricks are people using?
Click to expand...
a granite block is what I use
 
it's a proper granite slab like a machinist type person would use
 
I remember watching a Tony Bose video, perhaps one of the interviews where he held out his hands and said "These are my magnetic chuck" then pointed to his belt grinder and said "And that is my surface grinder". That was simultaneously reassuring, and intimidating as hell. :) I know that if I take a piece of steel, and hold onto it with my magnetic handle, or my welding triangle or whatever and my platen is the same size or larger than it I can definitely get one side pretty damn flat. And, in theory, if I found figure out how to present that to the platen at 90° in both directions, I could get it parallel, but I am not certain I can do that. I also know I can buy magnetic chucks on eBay for under $200 all day long. The problem remains how to present it to the platen at 90° both ways, or to move it across a contact wheel in such a way as to maintain consistent distance and a good 90° as appropriate. I also know that in theory. a work-rest/table could maintain up and down 90° to the wheel if presented horizontally leaving the maintenance of the other direction. It just seems like there should be a way given sufficiently stiff and flat starting points.
On the other hand, I do have a vertical mini-mill. One would think that if my mill is correctly configured I should be able to hold metal flat and work on it in a parallel fashion with something like a fly cutter or end mill, or whatever the tool is that people use to jewel things.
As I understand it, if I am making a knife from scratch then my spring and blade (or at least the tang) need to match thickness or be relative to one-another with one being some 0.000x thinner than the other. On the other hand, if I am repairing an existing knife, then I have to get my working pieces to "match" the existing thickness (unless I am replacing both a blade and spring at the same time :) ) So if I order metal from NJSB and pay the extra $4 or how much ever, I can have the stuff come precision ground. That would only help with my own knives from scratch. If I am doing repairs/restorations I will still them need to take something that may come at 3/32" or 1/8" and size it down to 0.0781.
Someone also suggested that I familiarize myself with the art of "metal scraping" ... still not sure what that means, but I will look later.
 
Since you already have a mini-mill, you could build your own surface grinding attachment. I don't know exactly how much I spent on materials, but I would say it was maybe around $300 or so.
 
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