Cheap belt grinders, are any good for hollow grinding?

Matt Shade

Matt Shade

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Nov 24, 1999
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Alright I'm wanting to buy a belt grinder finally. The benchgrinders have been good and I'll never get rid of them but I'm getting to want to do bigger blades and there isn't enough room between the wheels. It would be nice to go above a 120 grit finish on the grinder also.
I can't afford a KMG, Bader, Burr King, or Hardcore :( . Just not in cards right now, or for a long time. I've thought about building one, but it looks like I'd have several hundred bucks invested in rounding up parts for it, which isn't too bad but I don't want to put the time in right now if I can buy a good usable machine for close to the same money. And projects like that I generally like to have used a machine someone else made first so I have a better idea of how it all goes together.

I looked at the Grizzly and it appears to have very little clearance from the contact wheel to the motor. Seems like you'd be bumping your hand into the motor all the time. I haven't seen one in person though to know for sure, do you guys have problems with this?

I looked at the Coote and it looks better, but I'm still not sure I like it as well as the design of the other grinders where the contact wheel is out front on a tool arm. Are you guys comfortable with this set up hollow grinding? I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with the 8" wheel. Might go up to 10, definitely no smaller than 8" though. Do you guys think this is a good machine to invest in for someone that wants to hollow grind? I could see if you mainly flat grind and only do an occasional blade hollow ground where you might put up with some hassle, but I really just want to hollow grind so I don't want to make too many compromises on that.

Any other grinders I should look at? Thanks :)
 
I would get the Coote, and have them set it up for 8, and 10" wheels at the time of purchase. They will do that for a slight fee.

On the grizzly, you can't upgrade it to variable later if you wish.

The Coote can be upgraded, as it's motor is not the mount for the contact wheel.
 
If you get a grizzly You'll need at least a 10" wheel to hollow grind. The motor gets in the way with the 8" wheel on anything over about 4inches long.
 
Jason Magruder said:
If you get a grizzly You'll need at least a 10" wheel to hollow grind. The motor gets in the way with the 8" wheel on anything over about 4inches long.
Click to expand...

Thats what I was afraid of :grumpy:

Looks like it will be a Coote. Thanks guys.

Also I don't know how much it would cost to get both wheels yet but I'm on a pretty tight budget right now, which wheel would you guys prefer if you were only getting one? I'm pretty happy with an 8" wheel right now, but I've never got to try a 10
 
how tight a budget are you on- the coote is around 400 without motor, extra belts, or shipping.
 
The Grizzly is going to be hard to beat for the money and you can put a 10'' wheel on it. I made a lot of knives with a grizzly before I was able to get a better grinder and it worked very good, although the coote is a better machine but will cost you more. For hollow grinding larger blades a 10'' or larger wheel is what I would use.

Don Hanson lll
 
My budget is as tight as possible. I'll spend a little more to get a better machine but I can't go all out. I still have tuition to pay and all that stuff.

I know the Coote doesn't come with a motor, I've got a collection of old motors scrounged off of stuff I can get it running with. Then after awhile I can get a good motor for it. I'm not interested in a Grizzly after what Jason said. It looks like a great value but putting a 10" wheel on it only moves your hand out an extra inch and I'm not going to shell out $400 on a machine that isn't much better to use than what I have now.

I like the idea of a 10" wheel. I'm thinking it might work out with an 8" wheel that I could do some hogging on my old grinder and finish with the new one though. That way I'd save some money on belts and might not go looking for a big motor quite as soon.

I appreciate the advice so far guys :D
I still have alot of figuring to do, the Coote is looking like its the one if I go for one at all right now. I'd still like to hear what anyone else has to say too :)
 
great, now you've got me reconsidering... hmm, might as well start with a little $60 thing i guess, then move up to a coote... o well.
 
Coote also has a neat small wheel attachment that is not high priced and may be one of the handiest yet. Gib
 
I use a grizzly still. I have a 10-inch wheel on it and I think it cost about $55 from grizzly to get it.

Another thing to consider is that with the coote, I think you can get small wheel attachments.

On the other hand, the grizzly is ready to go and as it may run fast, but you kinda get used to it. (I'm really ready for a KMG though.)
 
I have a coote and like it a lot, I would love to have a KMG but for the money I think the coote is the way to go. I just upgraded mine to variable speed and couldn't be happier. After I bought my coote I got the small wheel attachement plus I think 5 different size wheels, the 9" disk and the knife rest and all that extra stuff only set me back around $260. When money permits I'm thinking about getting another one. So eventually you could have one totally loaded for only around $700.(eventually). I think even with my variable speed and a 2hp motor I have around $1000 tied up in it. I think with the same setup on a KMG or Burr King your talking twice th money. Just my .02.
 
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