belt sanders

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brantoken

Joined
Feb 6, 2004
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I have been looking around at belt sanders, They look like pretty simple devices. The one custom knive shop I have visited (20 + years ago) had
made his own sanders, and they worked very well. They seem a little expensive for what they are. Has anybody tried to make one?

I have seen the grizzle and it looked good, moderately priced but a large, I looked at the texas knife supply and their sander looked like a joke. I have seen delta an they are only 1/3 hp( I killed my craftman, not enought hp). I have seen some more by others but they are in the 1K range ( way too expensive) and it looks like do that my self with a milling machine and a little time searching for pullies.
Any help appreciated......
 
I have a Kalamazoo 1 x 42, 1/3 hp that I like a lot. Sounds like it's not strong enough for you, though. I don't do a lot of heavy grinding with it. Knife sharpening and wood shaping mostly.

Guess it depends on what your usage is going to be.
 
The least expensive good 2x72 (in my opinion) is the Coote
You will have to mount it yourself and add the motor, but it you can make knives with it. The KMG is one of the best all round grinders, and has many attachments, but costs more.

Steve
 
You can make your own very easily....as long as you already have welding equipment, or access to pressure treated wood stock & a table saw, drill press, etc. Wayne Goddard reportedly still uses his homemade grinder. But he's a nut. :D With all the business he's got off knifemaking/article writing he can afford the best there is. He grinds on his homemade grinder because years ago he was the prophet of the "$50 knife shop" and that kind of pride dies slowly...:p ;)

You could also build your own car....why not?

But understand what you will be getting: Will it track true? No. Will it have variable speed? Probably not. Will it cost less? In the short run, Yes....long run, No. Will it be a pain to maintain? Yes. Will it last very long? Probably not.

There's a reason the 2x72 sanders you see cost so much. They are precision machines with well-thought-out-and-time-tested tooling.


If you want to make knives, you need a 2x72.

If you want to learn to make knives, you can start with a 1x42 or 2x42. They're plenty powerful....just takes patience.


Whatever you choose....I wish you the best. I've enjoyed the ride on my roller-coaster....:D
 
make no mistake....ain't no fat lady in my seat....:D
 
I do believe you when you say you get what you pay for.

I did search the forum and looked up the KMG, saw an earlier post .
Which mode and accessory is the mode useful?
What do you use?

looked at the coot and the grizzly as well.

I guess I'm having trouble understanding what your getting for all that cash.

Let me ask this question , can you run a 1 inch belt on a two inch grinder?

Right now I just want to sharpen things and I do have a few simple knife kits
I would like to do to get the feel.

I just want to do some sharpening now.
 
If you're just doing sharpening and starting on some knife kits, a 1x30, 1x42 or 2x42 will do you just fine.

You can in theory run a 1" belt on a 2" grinder. With some poorly made small(ie the 2x42" grinders), you may have trouble getting any sort of tracking with a 1" belt. But with anything from the Grizzly/coote on up you should be able to run a 1" belt just fine, and can get a belt splitter to split regular 2" belts if you want(haven't found a use for it myself, but I know some makers do that to get in tight curves, etc).

Roadrunner, i've had that Grizzly for a coupla years now, and bought it used, and works great for me. I only finish a few knives per year, so doesn't get a huge amount of use that way, but don't know how many other things i've sued it for before, wher eI could have used a file, or hand sanded, but the grinder was just so nice to have(and so much easier/nicer to use than the 1x30 I have on the other workbench). But like in last few weeks, made saddlebag brackets and a new license plate mount for my bike out of cold rolled steel and zinc plate respectively, and so nice once I cut them out to go and quickly clean up the edges/reshape a bit on that belt grinder. Used it for gun stuff and other projects too. Only thing you have to add(though a 4" slow down wheel is definitely a nice addition, not a requirement thoguh) is a pyroceram platen, which one of the makers here sells, though who slips my mind. But a pyroceram platen is a good upgrade for just about any grinder

And yes brantoken, KMG is the ultimate in knifemaking grinders, at least from what iv'e been told by people who's opinions i trust, but haven't tried one myself, so can't say which accessories/options are the best. Rob is a great guy, and very easy to deal with though. He made me a slow down wheel for my grizzly(4" drive wheel, runs belt at half the speed of the stock 8" wheel).
 
Roadrunner said:
Dan (and others), what's you opinion of this Grizzly?
Click to expand...
RR the Grizz is a great belt sander for hobbiest knife makers like myself and with a bit of tweaking it can be a damned nice grinder!
I lost all of the info I had on modifying the Grizz when I had to wipe my hard drive but there's a lot of really great guys out there willing to share, send you really good pics and such. Inquire on the ShopTalk Forum.:D
One of these days when I get to where I can stand for any length of time, hopefully, I'll get a round tuit and fix mine up. Until then it does okay and much better than any of the 1" grinders!

I have split 2" wide belts to run on my Grizz for special work, seems to make getting a convex edge on a khuk easier than with the 2" wide belts.
But I wouldn't recommend running them exclusively or for long term.

Edit:
Another plus is the buffer on the through shaft. And it has enough horses that I can't pull it down with a coarse wheel!
And the one in the link you posted looks exactly like mine.:D
 
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