Belt Selection

[sdemars]

I have a Beaumont KMG headed my way.

I am not a knife maker (not yet anyhow). I plan to use the grinder initially as a general mini-fab purpose belt grinder.

Need suggestions as to which belts will track the best.

I don't want to get my KMG and think something is wrong with it and find out it's just a crappy belt.

Also any suggestions as to a "grit" selection for general mini-fab shop uses . . . I'm thinking 36, 60, 100, etc . . . not really sure. . .

Thanks in advance,
Steve

 

[12345678910]

Belt selection is really subjective


Have a look at the blaze, gator and other structured abrasives


Maybe the heavy backing is better for your needs than the flexible j weight belts.

 

[Greebe]

I placed an order from Truegrit this past month. Good prices and shipping. You can call them and talk to someone who will give you good advice. They also have VSM Ceramic belts at really low prices that seem to work very well.

 

[Remyrw]

I've found that sticking to premium belts for their category really helps on the wobble. It's not usually tracking so much as the belt itself not being perfectly true, you're seeing the differences in the edge path from a perfectly shaped belt. Obviously if your tension is way off or something else is out of alignment then tracking will be an issue, but the minor wobbles are usually mis-constructed belts or belts that have warped a bit.

I really like the blaze, cubitron II (984 model numbers), gators, norax and trizact stuff. The last few are really for finishing not shaping. A soft norax belt in x5 is one heck of a nice finish for a fabricated item that doesn't need an actual mirror finish. It's not a bad place to start for a bead blasted or sand blasted finish either. You reduce how much blasting it requires since you aren't trying to hide a coarser belt finish. I haven't done that yet on knives but it's been nice on other items.

I agree that Truegrit is a good source. I get most of my belts through them.