Common to drift belt when flat grinding?

[krept]

Hope this question comes across right...

Is it common to drift the belt past the platen and use the corner to assist in flat grinding or is this primarily a technique used on hollow grinding?

I have ground a couple bevels and recently I ground a bevel without drifting the belt (only using flat platen surface) and the bevel came out much more even. I know one of the problems I am having when drifting is that only one side of the belt will actually drift off the platen... the other side comes within a couple hundredths of an inch. This is a pain when grinding with both hands.

I was thinking about cutting a notch about .5" by 2" or so out of the platen (4" x 36" grinder) on the side that doesn't allow for drifting, but since I had good results recently without drifting, I'm thinking about solely using the platen.

Is it common to only use the platen without drifting the belt when flat grinding?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

-Erik

 

[RHINOKNIVES]

i dont drift on flat grinds but others do. you can get a slopeing plunge cut by running the 220g and finer about a 1/4" over.it all depends on what you like the looks of.

 

[krept]

Thanks for the tip, it actually helped out more than you think. I'm so new to this and grinding that I didn't realize drifting the belt changed the grind!