Finishing inside curves?

flatgrinder

flatgrinder

Joined
Dec 20, 2005
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Anyone have any recommendations for finishing the handle grooves?

I know a dedicated horizontal edge finishing system works well, or a wilton square wheel -but any other ways to get a nice even, clean finish?
 
Sometimes I use my oscillation spindle sander to get them square and roughed in and then finish them on my foredom, hand sanding and cratex.
 
Thanks for the reply Bruce. :thumbup:

What grits do you recommend for the spindle sander? I'll be working with Micarta.
 
Bruce what type of spindle sander do you have? I have been wondering about how one of those would work for profiling for quite some time now.
 
My JL grinder allows me to remove the platten and still use the tool rest or table.I slack belt with a very flexible J weight 400 grit belt. It works great.
 
My ocillating sander is a Ryobi. I has .5" - 3" drums. Its kinda spendy to buy new sanding sleeves though so I only use it to establish the 90 degree angles. Like Arthur said the slack belt and a frexable weight belt will finish it up. I use my foredom for shaping and contouring.

I acually bought the spindle sander when I made the axe/gun. There is no other way I could think of to sand and keep inside radious straight when I was profiling the stock. Its a handy tool if all you want is 90 degree angles and correct inside circle radious's. Sanding drums only come is coarse and fine grits I think. The fine grit isnt nearly fine enough for what we all do.
 
I slack belt on my KMG too. But I find myself over doing it sometimes with the edge of the belt if I'm not careful. I have found I have ok results with a thinner belt >1". I fight with splitting belts though-anyone ever use one of those splitters ?? Flatgrinder, what does a square wheel have over a KMG that eases what we're talking about ?
 
I use my small wheel attachment now but before that it was whatever size dowel rod and sandpaper. It will make you sweat though:D
 
I have had good luck with a drum sander attatchment in my drill press.
Do this while your scales are still flat before radiusing and you are sure to get them square. Also, even though as Bruce said of the spindle sander "they only come in coarse and fine", I have come up with a neat little trick around this.
I cut a strip of what ever grit paper I want to use to the same width as the drum sander. I then put a bead of super glue on the inside edge of the paper. Wrap the paper around the drum in the opposite direction of rotation so the the edge does not get rolled open. When the paper wears out rip it off and put another piece on. I have had great luck doin the same thing on the drums for my dremel.
Hope this helps,
Matt Doye
 
OK, Here are a few little tricks to go along with what has already been said. I use the small wheel attachment on the Bader III a lot. but sometimes you just can't get where you want with it. For years, I ported drag racing Cylinder Heads. I used a Snappon porting tool. They are nothing more than a long snouted rotary tool. With the longer snout, you can use both hands for great control. They are made in both electric, and pneumatic. I use the air. In Head porting, there are any number of 1/4" shanked cutters. I use only carbide. Next come the sanding rolls. Unlike drum sanders, the grit is wound around it's self. It last much longer. You can get it any where from 40 gr, to 400. You can get just about any finish you want. Next I go to a cut down 1" flap wheel. Again designed for cylinder head polishing. These leave a very fine finish. Texas Knife makers supply carries a yellow Klinspore belt that is 1 " Flex backing, that looks like the edges have been cut by pinking shears. These do a fantastic job of the slack belt of radius's. They won't under cut from the edge when broken in. I use the 320, and 400. The also carry the 220 grit. I use a worn out 400, with wd-40 before going to the buffer. You can full polish from there. Mike
 
Thanks for the replies. I might give that oscillating spindle sander a try.

David, I mentioned the square wheel because it has a standard platen that has a 1.5" wheel on one end and a 3" wheel on the other end -it can be rotated so that it becomes a small wheel grinder. For example:

http://www.caffreyknives.net/KMGarticle.html

Ed's KMG has a "square wheel-style" flat platen with rubber wheels on each end.

The KMG requires a "special made" platen or the small wheel attachment to work as a small wheel grinder. Kinda wish the KMG "platen grinder package" had this feature as standard. That would be superb!! That's all I would need in a grinder.
 
Flatgrinder, like so many others I have modified my KMG Platen with a 2" rubber contact wheel on top (instead of the alum. idler).That way ,without changing to the small wheel attachment I have the option of using a smaller wheel while on my platen attachment. I will say too, like has been said before,the KMG has an effortless,lightening fast changeover from one tooling arm to the next. I think I can go from one attachment to another in (no kidding here) about 30 sec. Thanks everyone for all the tips. Mr. Lovett, sounds like the elec. unit you're talking about is similar to a "Dumore" ???
 
I do all my handle grooves at first with the small wheel on the grinder, then for finer grooves, i do all my hogging with a half round file....you'd be surprised how much mateiral you can take off per pass with a rough one....then i simply wrap sandpaper around the same half round file and sand it. The tough part for me is getting the actual fulltang even and smooth and i havent found a better way than simple hand sanding and elbow grease. The more i do with my hands and without power tools, the better things tend to come out...but perhaps thats just experience...
 
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