Considering surface grinder...

Doing sword size blades on that little grinder would take you forever. You would also have to move your blade and grind it in sections and the guard would have to be removed for the sword to fit.

There are a lot to learn about wheels, hardness, grit ect. You actually use a diamond dresser and shape the wheel to the radius you want for the fuller. Although grinding in the fuller would be a lot of work since you can only take of .002 at a time. You would be better to forge it in or set up a jig and use a small wheel.

This one is for sale in your state, although I have no idea where it is in relation to you.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/tls/3647693586.html
 
Thanks Chuck.

Okay that makes sense on the fuller. I was mostly just curious about the application. I'm mostly interested in establish a true flat after grinding on the platen. I want my surfaces to be absolutely flat before (however) I grind the fuller in order to get nice straight lines.

The guard would not be an issue as I typically don't start a guard until after the blade is ground and heat treated.

I've actually found a larger model at a nearby machine shop for a good price... hopefully that will work out!
 
Hey Scott, do you have a bridgeport or similar sized knee mill? Have you considered face milling with that? You've got access to much more travel and easier fixturing. Even with a larger SG, if I'm understanding your needs correctly (don't make swords myself), you're going to have to reset multiple times to get the whole length of a sword, depending on mill table size and travel you may not have to do more than move hold downs.

Of course, a Blanchard would be the ideal machine for this task, since you could likely do each size in one pass, but I"m guessing you're not trying to get *that* serious about it. ;)

I've got a 6x18 Surface Grinder, but I'm finding more and more tasks for my bigger mill where working on something longer than the envelope of the SG and it's mag chuck is necessary, since as much as I want one, I don't have the room for a Blanchard.
 
I do have a mill.. A Smithy 3-1. I have a nice big face cutter.. but I haven't used it because I need to figure out how to block up the vise to get it close enough to the bit! I suppose I should just make some big shims and give that a try. Or.... I wonder if I could make a 'table' that will sit in my vice as well. Because if I just sit the blade in the vice then the parts of the blade not in the vice are not supported. Does anybody have any ideas for that???

All in all... since I've gotten that mill .. I just haven't been able to take the time to truly use it. I use it to mortice handle scales and mill slots and that's about it!
 
Well, that mill may be a bit less ideal for this task, I'm not that familiar with them, but from what you're saying about the table I'm guessing you don't have any static Z axis movement via a knee or head? Is it just a quill?


What I would do on a larger sized mill would probably be to make a plate to mound directly to the table, with tapped holes to either fix clamps to the blade or bolt the blade down directly at the tang end if possible, and but clamps or hold downs at various spots that I could remove and reattach them as I traveled the length facing. I'm sure there are better ways, I'm not all that adept and work holding, and am by no means an expert with milling or machining in general.

I'm worried that the Smithy might not be powerful enough or rigid enough for this type of operation though honestly Scott, and may be less convenient than figuring out a grinding jig. I'm sure someone with more experience could give a more appropriate answer though.
 
Scott, just looking at it, I can see what you mean. On a more traditional mill, you usually have a way to raise the table toward the cutter. On this one you would have to build some sort of elevating platform to raise the work piece, which would be difficult to do accurately, and I'm still not sure how good the results are gonna be. If you're milling very narrow flats it might be viable, but I think this would turn out to be a lot of work getting setup in the first place, and may still be alot of refixturing since I dont think that table has much Y (assuming facing it from the lathe orientation is correct) travel.

If you're looking at a full sized surface grinder like a 6x18, I'm guessing that's going to be a lot more effective and efficient. You'll just have to figure out some ways to support the parts of the blades that aren't inside the working envelope most likely, and work in sections.

Face milling is usually a pretty machine intensive task requiring more HP and rigidity to swing a bigger cutter and handle the large cuts. Sorry, if I got you sidetracked here, but I think that mill might be great for slotting guards, but probably can't handle what we're looking at for this op.
 
Thanks a lot. I'm glad it side tracked because I probably won't mess with all of that. Might have a face cutter for sale!
 
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