Contact wheel or flat platen

K

Keith Willis

Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
812
I received a set of NWG plans from Tracy.This guy is great,and I will be buying what I need from him,however,given that money is in short supply,for me anyway,and at the moment can I only get what is necessary.What should I buy for all around grinding,such as,a flat platen,or a contact wheel(If a contact wheel,what size).The only thing I have used in the 2 years that I have made knives is a Sears 4x36,very slow,and I am working on my third sander.They don't last very long.
Also,and I know this may be an elementary question,but,for anyone that has built a NWG what size should the plywood base be?

Thanks for any help,God bless,Keith
 
Have to have a contact wheel for profiling a blade, hollow ground etc. A flat platen is also a must.
 
It's my belief that the two are equally important in knifemaking. I use both platen and contact wheel on every knife I make, flat or hollow ground. If you could truly have only one, I would have to say a platen.

I would recommend an 8" wheel.
 
I am using an 8" contact wheel (poly) and then a flat platen with a 2" and a 3" poly contact wheel for the wheels on it.

you will probably want both.
 
Thanks for all the replies.I think I am going to go with the contact wheel,then when money will allow I'll get the platen.
Thanks madness,for that info,I am going to check that out.

God bless,Keith
 
madness522 said:
You can have both on the same setup. Check out JTknives website for inspiration. You can get semi detailed specs from Tracy's NWG pic site with a few pictures. I built it and it works very well.
Click to expand...

I have redesigned it with better proportions. now it can take a 8" platen and you don't have to adjust the tooling arm very much for each position. it is hands down a better design. I am programing a cnc mill to cut it out right now. but you could do it by hand. i will post a cad drawing that has all the measurements you need. the one i made years ago works great but i needed to balance it a bit better and incorporate a 8" platen instead of a 4"
 
Keith - you will never be able to hit flats and keep them even with just a wheel. You can profile and clean up by hand on a platen, you can grind on one, it's just barely more versatile in my opinion. I would not forgo a platen to get a contact wheel - that is coming from someone who hollow grinds 90% of his knives.
 
JTknives said:
I have redesigned it with better proportions. now it can take a 8" platen and you don't have to adjust the tooling arm very much for each position. it is hands down a better design. I am programing a cnc mill to cut it out right now. but you could do it by hand. i will post a cad drawing that has all the measurements you need. the one i made years ago works great but i needed to balance it a bit better and incorporate a 8" platen instead of a 4"
Click to expand...


I would really like to see that! I built the first arm as per specs and it was good then I change it a little so it worked out to have a 5.5" platen. The biggest problem I have with it is when I want to hollow grind I have to rotate the 2" wheel back and it hits the upright support before the 8" wheel is as high as I would like it. But I still like the all in one design.
 
madness522 said:
I would really like to see that! I built the first arm as per specs and it was good then I change it a little so it worked out to have a 5.5" platen. The biggest problem I have with it is when I want to hollow grind I have to rotate the 2" wheel back and it hits the upright support before the 8" wheel is as high as I would like it. But I still like the all in one design.
Click to expand...

Do you have a NWG? i had that problem as well. but if the drive, tracking and contact wheels are spaced enough from the grinder then you dont have a problem. the tenson arm upright tubes being so big is what causes the problem. thy are what i can remember 1.5" or somthing like that. so the grinder head needs to stick out quite aways from the tooling arm using a bunch of washers. I will start a new post with my new revision of the rotating head.
 
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