ceramic platen

If you have a local glass company, they can cut a piece of pyroceram for you. If they don't keep it in stock they should be able to order a piece for you.
 
thanks guys, ill try my local glass shop. and patrice, what size do you want? im going to buy a few.
 
Wear your asbestos underwear....it will shock your pants off once you start using it. I've tried it twice and just had to give 'em up it was so bad.
 
The local glass shop, or Tracy sells them at USAKnifemakers supply. Yes he sure does ship to Canada. Frank
 
all you have to do is to put a piece of metal up against the grinder to ground it. I had one, and on low humidity days it will shoot sparks of electicity out at you. It is a van de graf generator, basically. A good one, too.

Put a length of chain or cable or a bar of steel so it touches the grinder and then also the work table or the floor. Having the metal piece either touch the floor or something that is metal that touches the floor is best so you have a ground wire, basically.

Otherwise, you have to personally touch some part of the grinder all the time. Otherwise, it acts like a static electricity capacitor, and when you get enough voltage for the current to arc across the gap between you and the grinder, you will get a zap. I had a little grindr that did this 1x42. A 1.5 or 2 hp grinder will zap the poop out of you.

kc
 
godogs57 said:
Wear your asbestos underwear....it will shock your pants off once you start using it. I've tried it twice and just had to give 'em up it was so bad.
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A ceramic platen alone won't shock you, and if it did, asbestos undies wouldn't help. There's another issue happening, I guarantee it. Kevin's advice is good.

Another thing is, change your shoes. When I wear my swampers in the shop, I get zapped by everything that moves, because they insulate me from the floor and make me into a 220# capacitor with no ground. All my other shoes/boots, no problem, the slow buildup of static dissipates before I even notice it.
 
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james terrio said:
A ceramic platen alone won't shock you. There's another issue happening, I guarantee it.
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As soon as I changed over to Ceramic the shocks started, I usually grin and bear it. On occasion I get surprised at the spark and jack up a grind! I get the worst shocks with Jflex and Gator belts.
 
I'll bet my grinder against yours, the shocks were already there, they just got strong enough to notice when you put glass between the belt and the grinder, static increased, and the "juice" had nowhere else to go except up your fingers. See the tips above re: grounding the machine and not allowing the static to build up in you. You don't have to suffer to grind.

EDIT: there may be a grounding problem in the shop wiring itself, which is not good at all. Check it.
 
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Peter, I have a flat platen from KMG. 2" wide but can't remember the length right now. I never thought about the ceramic platen. Is there a big advantage in using it compared to the regular steel platen?
 
james terrio said:
I'll bet my grinder against yours, the shocks were already there, they just got strong enough to notice when you put glass between the belt and the grinder, and the "juice" had nowhere else to go except up your fingers. See the tips above re: grounding the machine and not allowing the static to build up in you. You don't have to suffer to grind.
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Haha... call me sadistic, lame what have you. I kinda like the shock keeps me focused! I will run a ball chain from the grinder to a ground when I feel vulnerable.
 
+1 for USAknifemaker.com. And when I put mine on, I drilled two small holes at the bottom of my metal platen, put in two short pins for the ceramic platen to rest on, and JB-Welded everything together. No shock. The two metal pins take the charge and it gets grounded out through the metal in the machine. Even if you do the other grounding solutions mentioned above, you should still put in one or two pins to physically keep the ceramic platen in place.
-M
 
I use one of Tracy's plates and love it. I did the two screws at the base and the JB weld as well. Until just recently I've never been zapped. I just use a 2x42 craftsman grinder and it's never come up. I work on a wooden top bench so no natural grounding there. Just the other day I got zapped a few times while using the gators to finish up a knife, I had to find a way to keep a pinky or something touching the grinder as I worked or I'd get hit every twenty seconds or so, basically every time I went back to start the next stroke after a dunk and wipe. It hasn't happened since, so I'm hoping that the small size of the grinder and our natural humidity level around here means it won't be a regular issue. I could certainly follow the grounding advice in the thread, but it's a concrete slab for a floor so to be safe I'd probably run a ground out to just outside the garage with a little copper spike. :)
 
I just installed mine on a 2X42 sears but haven't been able to try it out seriously yet. I bought a spray can of Static Guard and sprayed the insides of my belts. This was recommended somewhere I read.

- Paul Meske
 
Guys, there's no need to use pyroceram unless you just feel like spending more money. Go to a local glass shop and have them cut you the right size plate glass for a couple of bucks, and adhere it with super glue. RJ Martin told me this trick, and it works flawlessly.

In RJ's words:
Yup, straight 1/4" thick glass. All I've used for almost 20 years.
Have the pieces cut a little longer and wider than your platen. Support the platen horizontally, clean platen and glass with acetone. Use green ZAP on the platen. Float the glass on top. You can press out the air bubbles completely if you use a liberal amount of ZAP. Spray kicker around the edges, from the backside. When you reinstall the platen on the grinder, be sure to move the platen back so that the belts barely preloads as it comes across the glass.

Your local glass shop will probably cut these for you for about $1 each. I buy 20 or so at once, but, as long as you have a few spares you're golden.

I have mine with sharp corners, but I don't grind blades on them. BUT. if you asked nicely, your glass shop could easily give you a nice radius on the sides for a little more $$.

Glass seems like it wouldn't be good for this, but, it really works and is extremely flat. If you want to rough grind your tapered tangs or whatever "hot and hard", then get a spare steel platen and use the glass for finishing up. Use a sharp, new belt, slow it down, and don't press too hard (if you press hard, you'll just flex the steel and it won't be flat anyway).
 
thanks Matt - I need a "finishing" platen to go with the steel one I have already from Uncle Al for rough work. I never noticed how much a truly smooth platen was needed until I got a higher quality variable grinder (Al's). Now, I see tracks from the flaws in the platen and divots from the overlap splices on the belts. When I had a grizzly I lost all of those in the general lack of precision.

kc
 
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