Does Making Quality Folders Require a Surfacing Machine?

Work with the same shop. It would be cost effective, like sending to an experienced hand for a fair price. I think that will be my first direction; Thank you!!!!
 
Judcargile said:
Please explain why you have 5?!
Click to expand...
You can check out his subforum Carothers Performance Knives. His team produces an evolving variety of knives on what I would call medium scale. Although hand finished, many steps are done by machining (milling etc).
 
HV900+ said:
SGA's do not work. You need a free-standing surface grinder to get those tolerances as I learned the hard way.
Click to expand...
I've had pretty good success with SGA's. The only thing you need flat/parallel on a folder is the small bit of the tang under the washers/mill reliefs. Using nice trizact belts and shallow passes has given me quite good results. SGA's are very expensive, but I certainly think they have valid applications.
 
HV900+ said:
Oh I wasn't disagreeing with you on that specific fact and which trizact belts micro or macro? The key to em is actually finding the flex point and putting your weight so it stays relatively flat - the best I can do over 12" with a 3" 95 duro serrated wheel is .00275ish which. It's okay but I have extreme expectations that require a standing surface grinder unfortunately. You definitely can make folders with SGAs, just Beaumont's is absolutely shit. They don't know what steel it is they said 1018 then A36 which are similar but different and the head "engineer" I spoke with wasn't an engineer. I could tell instantly they have no idea what they're talking about.

No I didn't expect anything more either. Steel on aluminum backing - nuff said.

Grade 8 bolts on plastic (k probably nylon I'd hope) Chinese bearings (Chinese, besides the drive shaft) and grade 3 on the structure. Nuff said? Lol
Click to expand...
I have an absolutely awesome SGA, it's a Reeder w/ an on/off platen from NRT. I can get the run out down to about .001 or so but that's with a hardened steel wheel, fresh belt, and light passes. And it's also on folder blades. The thing about using a belt is that it works well on blade bar stock but once you have holes and cut-outs and more or less material (of a blade shape) contacting the belt, the belt will remove more or less material (unlike a stone wheel).

I use my SGA to remove a bunch of material quick (i.e. taking .156 stock down to .130") then I use my real surface grinder for precision.
 
I plan on building a SGA in the near future. I want to try a fly cutter out. I am not put off by bringing it in by hand when I see how close my tooling gets me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top