bench grinder q
- Thread starter Dijos
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2002
- Messages
- 670
yes it can be done but its a pain in the @$$, the steel heats up pretty dam quickly and unless you dont care, you have to take the steel off the grinder to cool it or else it'll burn and go weird colors. when its cool and you put it back on the grinder, you'll NEVER have the same bevel angle as you had before. my suggestion, get an attachment for your grinder so that it can use the belts, or do the rough work on the grinder and the rest with a file
- Joined
- Nov 24, 1999
- Messages
- 4,981
Wimps! 
Guess what? I grind everything on an 8" bench grinder. Its a hell of a lot faster than my 4X36 belt sander, and with some practice I've turned out blades a lot nicer than with my belstander.
The trick is to get good wheels, and a good grinder with good workrests. Nothing fancy I've just got an 8" craftsmen profesional. Overheating isn't the big deal everyone makes of it, keep the bucket handy and keep the steel cool. When you get down to thin stock, you just have to have a light touch and keep the steel moving across the wheel. Its not as horrible as these guys make it out to be. Its not as nice as a 2X72, but I can't exactly afford on of those critters
The main things you'll want to have, are a good stone dresser, and 2 different grit wheels. Nothin super coarse because they wear down faster.
And you can't do large batches very well, because as the wheel wears it gets smaller. If you grind out ten knives and HT, when you go back to finish grind the wheels will be smaller than the radius of your bevel on the first knife. Doesn't cause a lot of problems but your in for more hand finishing work.
If you think about what your doing it works out pretty good.
Profile and set the bevels on the coarse wheel, and then clean things up on the finer grit wheel right before your ready for heat treat. After heat treat finish grinding on the fine wheel, and go slowly.
Dress the wheels often to keep them square and balanced.
I actualy like mine, and wouldn't trade it for anything but one of the big professional belt grinder set ups. I can grind a 4"-5" blade out of 1/8" X 1" stock in about 2 hours easy. And I don't have to deal with belts going dull halfway through.
Guess what? I grind everything on an 8" bench grinder. Its a hell of a lot faster than my 4X36 belt sander, and with some practice I've turned out blades a lot nicer than with my belstander.
The trick is to get good wheels, and a good grinder with good workrests. Nothing fancy I've just got an 8" craftsmen profesional. Overheating isn't the big deal everyone makes of it, keep the bucket handy and keep the steel cool. When you get down to thin stock, you just have to have a light touch and keep the steel moving across the wheel. Its not as horrible as these guys make it out to be. Its not as nice as a 2X72, but I can't exactly afford on of those critters
The main things you'll want to have, are a good stone dresser, and 2 different grit wheels. Nothin super coarse because they wear down faster.
And you can't do large batches very well, because as the wheel wears it gets smaller. If you grind out ten knives and HT, when you go back to finish grind the wheels will be smaller than the radius of your bevel on the first knife. Doesn't cause a lot of problems but your in for more hand finishing work.
If you think about what your doing it works out pretty good.
Profile and set the bevels on the coarse wheel, and then clean things up on the finer grit wheel right before your ready for heat treat. After heat treat finish grinding on the fine wheel, and go slowly.
Dress the wheels often to keep them square and balanced.
I actualy like mine, and wouldn't trade it for anything but one of the big professional belt grinder set ups. I can grind a 4"-5" blade out of 1/8" X 1" stock in about 2 hours easy. And I don't have to deal with belts going dull halfway through.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 1999
- Messages
- 4,981
For getting the bevels to match:
Its all practice. You have to be able to get a bevel started and feel whether the wheel is sitting in it or not. That goes for any type of grinder to ever take a peice of steel to.
You can't lean into it, or you'll never know what your grinding away. If you take your time with it, you'll get a feel for it and things will go faster.
To keep bevels even from side to side is pretty simple since your hollow grinding (it takes a long long time to get perfect at it, but its not hard to get decent results). Start out with the cutting edge of your stock just barely against the wheel so that your mostly grinding a channel down the middle of the blade. Keep working that side to side until you can easily keep the wheel in it. Then its just matter of applying more pressure on the cutting edge or the spine, to move your grind up or down the blade.
Its all practice. You have to be able to get a bevel started and feel whether the wheel is sitting in it or not. That goes for any type of grinder to ever take a peice of steel to.
You can't lean into it, or you'll never know what your grinding away. If you take your time with it, you'll get a feel for it and things will go faster.
To keep bevels even from side to side is pretty simple since your hollow grinding (it takes a long long time to get perfect at it, but its not hard to get decent results). Start out with the cutting edge of your stock just barely against the wheel so that your mostly grinding a channel down the middle of the blade. Keep working that side to side until you can easily keep the wheel in it. Then its just matter of applying more pressure on the cutting edge or the spine, to move your grind up or down the blade.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2002
- Messages
- 85
I used to use a bench grinder for sword making, Id have to due a lot more file, sen and stone work though, but it can be effectively done, sure.
