Description of services

[Bobby Branton]

Hi Jeff, for the guys who have never used your services, can you give us the procedure on the process involved on something like blade grinding?

How do you determine prices? 50 blades versus 500?

What does a maker need to have when the call you?
CAD drawings etc?

What are your minimum amount of blades to make it worthwhile for blade grinding, water jet cutting CNC work on handles etc?

What are the set up or upfront cost?

What is the attrition rate for blades while dialing in your machine for blade grinding?

I am sure a lot of guys never think about this. Thanks and I look forward to your answer.

Bobby

 

[reidmfg]

Hey Bobby,
Holy smokes! You're making me think! All good questions though,I'll try to give some guidelines but if anyone has any questions just ask.
Grinding blades on a CNC grinder is a bit like grinding blades on a belt, there's an art to it. Unlike milling or turning with hard tools, a grinding wheel acts much differently. The biggest variable is of course the steel being ground. Same as on a belt, the exotic steels like S30V and D2 are much harder to grind than 440C and the plain high carbons. Because of the variables involved there can be a set up loss of blades, usually 2 to six blades depending on size, grind style number of bevels to be ground etc. Uniformity of the blades plays a huge part in this step, a bad laser job can make grinding quality blades very hard.

I usually try to get a customer to build at least 100 blades or components each time. Writing programs, and doing set ups can take a long time and if spread out over less than 100 parts it can look pretty expensive. Most programs require several hours of design and computer time along with the necessary fixturing.