flat platen problems

Jack O'Neill

Jack O'Neill

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2007
Messages
7,193
I've been having problems lately with the flat platen on my 2x72 machine . It seems to build up junk on it rapidly which in turn will cause worms in the steel I am using on it and I can see on the back of the new belt where it was being cut . I have hand resurfaced it once and buffed it smooth , it helped but did not last . I sure could use some help and advice as this is very frustrating .
Has anyone heard of having glass glued to the platen ? For some reason I believe I read that somewhere . This machine was built by Speed cut , if anybody has heard of it before , a garage machinist out of Utah . I would love to have a new 2 wheel platen but don't don't know how to fabricate a mount to work on this machine .
Any thoughts from you folks , all input will help .
Thanks
Jack ONeill
 
Add a ceramic plate to the flat platen...round or taper top and bottom edges of the plate... make a "scraper/ chisel" from a 1/8 or so/less by 1/2"or so piece of brass....use it at least every time you switch from one grit belt to another.....or at least check the platen/plate. Especially iff you buy belts in quantity and they age, the back of the belt coud cause buildup of material...keep the platen clean, use the brass "scraper"
I'm not always right, but on this one I speak from experience.....
 
I second the ceramic plate from Ellis, great stuff and a great guy to deal with.

I have used 1/8" high temp glass before on a cheaper grinder and it served well for 2 years. Just radius the leading and trailing edge of the glass platen or run your belt reversed on it for a bit.
 
If you dry the blade after dunking in water to cool, the belt-back and wheels won't build up grit slurry nearly as quickly. It will even wallow out a ceramic platen.

Mike
 
Just epoxy regular old plate glass to her! i was using the pyroceran but after a lengthly discussion with my local glass lade..,she told me that standard plate glass would probably work just as well at a fraction of the cost.turns out it does!! i've got a stack of it and have built several platen from aluminum.this way if one cracks i can toss another on ASAP!!have yet to break one though.
 
balibalistic said:
Just epoxy regular old plate glass to her! i was using the pyroceran but after a lengthly discussion with my local glass lade..,she told me that standard plate glass would probably work just as well at a fraction of the cost.turns out it does!! i've got a stack of it and have built several platen from aluminum.this way if one cracks i can toss another on ASAP!!have yet to break one though.
Click to expand...

I'm with this guy. I've used plate glass for years. It's a true surface, just clean the edges up and round the top and bottom. I glue them on with thick super glue. When it gets bad just pop it off and glue on another. I had a bunch cut for 50 cents each.
 
I believe the glass platen is the way to go, tempered or not however I've been
using a piece of Ats-34 left Ice hard for about 4 years, no ill effects on the blades or the platen.
Ken.
 
I love this place and I love you guys . Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with me . It has always helped to ask the questions here .
Once again , thank you all
Jack ONeill
 
Funny enough I just bought some more glass for platens this morning to replace a worn one.
 
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