Best steel for a hardened Platen?

M

mgysgthath

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Dec 15, 2009
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I'm thinking of ordering some 2.5" wide steel from Aldo for making a custom platen for my BEE, as most platens are just 2" it's hard to find any to fit my grinder. I was thinking I'd just cut it to length, shape it slightly, drill and tap it (I'll have to get a tap), and send it out for full hardness HT.

I have really only looked at steels for their knife qualities, but not really abrasion resistance. What do you think would be the best steel for this purpose?

I know Aldo has D2 in 2.5" width, but haven't checked out the other steels yet. If you have advice I'm happy to listen :)

Thanks all.
 
I'm leaning towards D2 mostly because I know I've seen one other member here sell platens from it so he probably had his reasons. Plus I know I can get it wide enough for my grinder. Do you think there's any real benefit to using CPM D2 vs rolled D2 for this application? Grain structure shouldn't be as critical I wouldn't think.
 
This is not a good plan !!! It will still wear. I have been running a Bee and a clone for at least 25 years. The answer is to make up a platen from a piece of angle iron and attatch the pyro ceran or similar overlay. Even it will show wear if you doi a lot of contour grinding as I do. Youi can with care turn it over and use the other side. There is lots on this if you use the search. You can even buy another factory platen and overlay it with the glass. Frank
 
Thanks Frank, I appreciate the advice. I've considered running glass as well, but frankly it scares me, as my grinder gets used for other rough grinding tasks as well and I know that glass would crack. Not under normal use, but it sees some rough use sometimes. My idea was to use my custom platen for knife grinds (I"ll have enough D2 for 3 platens which should last a good long time the way I use it) and use the old platen for rough shop work. But I like the angle iron idea.
I know it will wear, but it should wear much slower than the mild steel they use from the factory yes?
How do you like the BEE by the way? Do you find the workrest arm gets in the way of a fist grip when holding the tang on that side?
 
mgysgthath said:
Do you think there's any real benefit to using CPM D2 vs rolled D2 for this application?
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Nope. If you don't want to use tempered glass I think regular D2 would be almost ideal. It has very good wear resistance and isn't crazy expensive.
 
Thanks James. Ya I love the idea of glass but I'm 99% sure it will break under the use mine grinder sees (mostly not knives, up until lately). I can get 3 platens worth for $42 so im fine with that, even with the HT costs its still fairly cheap, and I need a tap/die set anyway, so this is a good excuse for me hehe.
Thanks everyone for your input, you've all helped a great deal.
 
Well if your gonna be using two different platens then may as well throw a piece of glass on the one and it will last a very very long time. Atleast thats what I would do, I thought about it the same was as you did and used L6 for it, I hardened it but while grinding I was still starting to see wear so just slapped on a glass piece. May need to be a little more careful but it last a very long time.
 
I use a piece of ceramic tile from Home Depot. I buy the 6" by 8" white tile, cut it 2" wide and then epoxy it to my platen. This has served me well for two years now. It is also the cheapest option I have found yet to serve this purpose.
 
I think the hardened platen is the best way to go. Aldo had some perfectly sized (for the KMG) O1 a while back. I am running it full hard; no temper. One of the best things I have done for my grinder in my short career!
 
I think both methods have merit and I really do see the benefits of glass/ceram but in my particular situation I don't think it's best. Once I get a second grinder I can relegate one to hard shop use and put glass on the other. But I may experiment certainly, especially if I'll be switching platens. I have yet to see how much of a pain it is to change my platen lol.. so my opinion my vary once I get started.
 
The most reasonably priced options with good wear resistance would be D2 and 154CM, i think.

A2 or A6 might be good options as well if you happen to have some lying around.

As far as super budget steel if you want several shapes of platen made all at once, 5160 as hard as it can be made would be OK(better than some common choices but not ideal.)
 
Big Chris said:
I use a piece of ceramic tile from Home Depot. I buy the 6" by 8" white tile, cut it 2" wide and then epoxy it to my platen. This has served me well for two years now. It is also the cheapest option I have found yet to serve this purpose.
Click to expand...

Can we get a pic of this, please?
 
I run a 01 harden platen and it too has been a great choice.
 
TooQuiet said:
Can we get a pic of this, please?
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I just put one on my new grinder last night. If you had posted sooner, I could have done a work in progress since I just went through all of this last night. I figure for about $1 or less, you easily get 2 platens out of it. The platen on the green machine (my Grizzly) I figure I have ground and profiled well over 100 knives. There are no signs of wear, cupping, dishing. The dark line across at the bottom is where I do all of my profiling. There is no wear in that spot. I feel that it is a very cheap alternative to the pyro-ceram.
 
I attached mine with JB Weld roughly three years ago, and I've ground more blades on it than I can count.
 
I too put a piece of ceramic tile on my Grizzly 6x48. The platen had all kinds of whoopeedos on it. I went to a tile shop and actually went through quite a few with a straight edge before finding a truly flat one. Cut it to size and floated it with about 3 packs of JB Weld. I actually like that old grinder now. The tile really worked very well in that application.
 
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