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blade steel billet clean up?

G

gixxer

Joined
Sep 21, 2006
Messages
1,472
After seeing the surface grinding thread, it was like somebody was reading my mind... kinda. This evening I was cleaning up some 154CPM by hand since the piece was not ground, and I was thinking, is there a better way?

Since I use a 4 x 36 I am able to get quite a bit of steel on the belt @ once to keep things flat, but to my dismay after working up to a 220 belt I had imperfections. Almost divots about the diameter of a pencil in various places put there by the 220 belt. Not real deep, but noticeable. After the 80 grit scratches were gone, I backed up to 150 grit by hand with a block to get rid of the divots. What do you guys do to prep the billet before profiling and grinding a bevel? I guess more or less I am asking if you just go to town, or clean up the billet first. Maybe I am looking too much into it. I figured if I cleaned up the billet first, it would be easier to get the ricasso cleaned up later on. Make sense?:confused:
 
If you're going to be doing a lot of work you're going to want a surface grinder/belt-modified surface grinder. Hard to screw up with that sort of thing.
Not sure what you're talking about divots, but it sounds like there could be bumps/dips in your platen, which will create consternation aplenty.

A nice horizontal disc grinder set up can help keep things flat too.

I think it's important to start with a straight, flat piece before grinding bevels. It's more hassle to straighten things up the further you go along, so making things right before moving on is almost always the best policy.
 
I have a dual disc grinder I use for my flattening chores.Works great.Certainly not as accurate a surface grinder but that isn't always a requirement with most fixed blades.Dave:)
 
DC KNIVES said:
I have a dual disc grinder I use for my flattening chores.Works great.Certainly not as accurate a surface grinder but that isn't always a requirement with most fixed blades.Dave:)
Click to expand...

Do you mean you have a 'double-disc grinder'?
(two abrasive wheels/discs facing each other vertically and the part is passed between the two??)
That's a pretty industrial piece of equipment. Should be accurate to better than .0005, I think.
 
Oh, they make 'em ...
Double disc machines come in all shapes and sizes. The most common type I've seen look vaguely like a big lathe.
There are two independent heads with stone discs that face each other and these heads can be very precisely drawn together. A part is passed between the two head/stones, often manually in a fixture, though they're doing some more of that by CNC now.

This is an example of a new horizontal version, but it'll give you the idea:

http://www.supfina.com/Bilder/Planet_V_e.pdf
 
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