belt sander and grinder differences?

V

vikingextreme93

Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
250
First and foremost I am new and have been doing lots of reading for the last 3 weeks on knifemaking. I have been collecting manufactured knives since I was a kid and have amassed a decent collection and have grown bored so one day I took my first sword, some cheapo I think 420 j2 and hacked and ground it down..and now I am here!! anywho researching the belt grinder sander issue I have wondered truly if there really is such a amazing difference between the two. I have been meaning to buy a belt/disk sander combo for a while as I do woodworking for a hobby so it could serve dual purpouse for me as I have a angle grinder and bench grinder already. Would this work well for me? (belt changes for projects of course)
 
The best belt grinder for the money for knifemaking is the Coote 2X72. I guess you could get by with some of the little sears/harbor freight 1x42 machines, but most arent suited for knife work.

Look into the Coote grinder if you're serious about making knives.

www.cootebeltgrinder.com.
 
I started out with a Delta belt disc combo,but as psycho78 pointed out, the smaller 1x42 machines aren't really suited for knife work. The main difference is the power of the machine to "hog off" blade stock. Another difference is that most grinders suited for the task are built more heavy duty. Opinions on grinders vary greatly from maker to maker, and so do budgets for equipment. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck! :D
 
grinder vs. sander:

It's funny ... some guys simply cannot call a belt grinder a grinder because it uses a sand-paper-like abrasive. To them it is always a belt sander no matter what.
To me, if the machine is designed for the task of grinding (i.e. using an abrasive in rotary action to change the shape of metal), then it is a belt grinder.


I was just over at the precision grinder's yesterday. He's got three huge Blanchards, about 10 double-disc machines, and all sorts of other cool stuff. I went in there with a couple parts to be precision ground (fixtures for my belt grinder that need to be dead-on flat and parallel). He asked me what the parts were for and I told him. He then asked what kind of grinder I use and led me over to a set up they're using for some second-opperation belt-scotchbriting. He showed me one of those Craftsman "Professional" 6-inch belt grinders/disc grinder combos. It had a rather ingenious little jig they made for a certain opperation mounted to it and there was a 6-inch scotchbrite belt on it.
He told me the thing was pretty new and had already been in for repair. It was again, failing. It was suffering from some major structural problems which I could describe, but it would take too long. Just looking at it though, you could see that it wasn't a particularly rugged machine. Lots of thin stamped parts and insufficient bearings (the ones you can see, at least).

Suffice it to say, he's looking for a 'real' belt grinder now.
 
While this is mostly semantics,the way I learned it - the difference is in the use. Grinding is removing material to shape an object. Sanding is removing material to prepare or smooth the surface.Thus you sand the paint off a piece of metal and grind the weld after welding it. The same device may do both (disc sander/disc grinder). Since knife making is a removal process,and there are different surfaces (curved and flat) available to remove metal,a machine like a KMG is a belt grinder. A flat table machine (sears 4X36)is a belt sander.
 
psycho78 said:
The best belt grinder for the money for knifemaking is the Coote 2X72. I guess you could get by with some of the little sears/harbor freight 1x42 machines, but most arent suited for knife work.

Look into the Coote grinder if you're serious about making knives.

www.cootebeltgrinder.com.
Click to expand...

Why the 2x72, and not some other size, wider or narrower? Why the 72 and not the 48, or some other length?

Why? Why?? :confused: :o

Andy
 
Belt availability and life.
The shorter belts will heat up and thus wear our more quickly.

The 72" belt is pretty much standard and so there are a wider variety of belts types and grits available.

There are possibly more reasons, but hey, i'm new, and this is what I have learned thus far.

Hope this helps.
 
I have several different grinders for making my knives.

The J&L 2 x 72 grinder was 1700 bucks with all the bells and whistles included. I got lazy and decided I needed a dedicated grinder for hogging out profiles. For under 300 bucks I built a grinder. Search the web and you can probably find several designs that are economical to build and will allow you to customize to suit your needs.
 
just bought a craftsman 2 x 48...actually a fairly nice unit considering i only paid $99 for it...i think its going to work on the short term...maybe a good starter grinder? at least until i can justify the need for a grizzly or make my own or something...i finished shaping my first blade on it last night, i can say i like it a heck of a lot better than my harbor freight 1x30(?)
 
Buy the best machine you can afford. The 2x72 size is probably the industry standard. If for no other reason than the wide range of grits available.
The better the machine the less time it takes to perform a grinding function. A smaller or less powerful device will probably work....you will need to be more patient and willing to spend more time at each required task. But in the beginning thats 90% of the fun.


Good Luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top