Getting the Rob Frink edge grinder ! ! !

R

rlinger

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
Messages
4,591
That is correct! Just sent the bucks out today and already have a Leason 1 1/2 HP DC motor on its way.

Don't really understand how much use it is for me to say this to you guys except that I am very pleased to have been able to purchase it. This should speed my profiling up a lot and allow me to not depend so much on my slowly failing eyes to get edges perpendicular. Of late, I do not see things that well up close and am the only one on all sides of my family that has never needed glasses before. I feel my blessing is expiring.

Rob is every bit as I have read him to be. I am positively impressed with him.

One more BIG aquisition and I'll have little excuse to make a knife: I want a reliable Rockwell tester.

Thanks for letting me share my glee in being able to get this edge grinder that I have been wanting.

Roger
 
You're going to love it Roger, I've had mine for a few months now and it is absolutely fantastic to work with. That, and my two KMGs and I'm in knifemaking heaven out in my shop. :)

BTW, I made myself up a buffer like the one you posted the picture of some time back with the double shaft treadmill motors. This things works really well also! :)

-Darren
 
Darren,

Oh yes, that little buffer is the berries for sure. I have two different wheels on mine - one for green and one for white compound. You can can get down to the short hairs with it. I also have a fixed speed 1750 RPM AC motor single shaft for black buffing compound (ruff). I'm still in a learning curve as to how to properly buff hardened steel.

I am impressed that you remember me posting the picture of the buffer you refer to.

Roger
 
Man you guys are lucky to have the money to buy all these tools! I must not make enough knives. :D Roger, I hope you'll share a pic when you get it set up, congratulations! I want one too, but that's gonna have to wait until I get my disk sander built. The Rockwell tester will be great too. Do you already have an oven? I'm thinking about looking at one at Blade.

Dave
 
The last piece of equipment I bought was a used Wilson with testing blocks. I have been using it for two years.I cannot describe how much this added to the total learning experience. It eliminates the guess or reliance on someone else. I know that every single blade that leaves my shop is where I want it. It was the most important money I have spent.
 
Originally posted by ddavelarsen
Man you guys are lucky to have the money to buy all these tools! I must not make enough knives.
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Hi Dave,

No luck about it :), here's how I've been financing all of my recent knifemaking equipment purchases:

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/zenda2000/

and

http://web.utk.edu/~kstclair/Sale/

The wife and I have decided we've got way too much "stuff" and have been de-cluttering the house and trimming down our personal belongings and then sinking the money into more important things...like tools! :D Knifemaking tools for me and woodworking tools for her! :)

-Darren
 
Darren,

Looked at some of that stuff. I didn't know you were a techie. I spent 7 years on the electronics bench at Newport News during the Reagan years.

I may bid on the leather strop.

Dave,

I don't make much money. I do get it in spurts though and when I can I go for broke and pick up a major tool. Yes, I have the 18 inch Even Heat w/Ramp Master 2 controller. I speak highly of it and recommend getting in touch with Tim Zowada if you want an Even Heat.
Is the Boston Gear DC Drive still working?????

Roger
 
Originally posted by rlinger
Darren,

Looked at some of that stuff. I didn't know you were a techie. I spent 7 years on the electronics bench at Newport News during the Reagan years.
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Yeah, I did avionics back in the Navy, then industrial electronics for 6 years as well as some side work (hence all of the components and stuff), then went back to college and did physics for an undergrad degree and grad work, then electrical engineering for more grad work...does it ever end? :confused: I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Since I'm getting out of any electronics side work to focus that time on knifemaking, I'm selling off all of my accumulated stock. Also, in electrical engineering, all work has gone to computer simulations now...you do all of the design, simulations and testing using software tools and then you send your design out to have the chips made (ASICs).

Did you work at Newport News Shipyard? What kind of stuff did you work on?

:)

-Darren
 
Yes, I was a Yard Bird. We worked mainly on electronic test equipment. Fixed them, made them calibrate when they would not pass cal; scopes, DVM's, spectrum analysers, computer stuff, it goes on and on. Did a lot of computer work back then too. Those were the days just before what we know them to be like now. I started computer design on a very small scale back in the mid seventies. I used to like designing and making video terminals. Marketed two of them on a circuit board level back in the early to late eighties. They both were 6502 CPU based and my uncle did most of the software work for them.

I never attended a college though.

Roger
 
Originally posted by rlinger
We worked mainly on electronic test equipment. Fixed them, made them calibrate when they would not pass cal; scopes, DVM's, spectrum analysers, computer stuff, it goes on and on. Did a lot of computer work back then too. Those were the days just before what we know them to be like now. I started computer design on a very small scale back in the mid seventies. I used to like designing and making video terminals. Marketed two of them on a circuit board level back in the early to late eighties. They both were 6502 CPU based and my uncle did most of the software work for them.
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Sounds like that was a fun job, I love working on equipment and machinery. :) Hey, I remember the 6502! I've done a lot of development on my own using the 8051 based microcontrollers...good robust controllers for industrial applications.


I never attended a college though.
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I'd have to say you're probably luck for not! You have to go through so much superfluous crap in the process that it actually hinders the learning process in some ways! You probably learned more by doing it on your own. The only real thing I've gotten out of college (other than research and teaching experience) is that it forced me to read lots and lots of books on scientific and technical information...that's where I really learned...I can think of very few times that I actually learned something in a lecture by some professor. :)

-Darren
 
I remember the 8051, vaugly. We had our roots in the 6502 and graviated to it because it always seemed to meet our needs and we had some developement software tools for it; assemblers and cross assemblers - ya know. Sometimes you had to play some design tricks to make it interface with some stuff, like Z80 based support chips. They were port based while the 6502 was address based.

How's that for knife talk'n..

Roger
 
Congrad's Rodger I really like the look of it and heard a lot of good things about it, but never used one. Guess I will have to use the old Wilton for a few years more. What contact wheel size did you get ?


Have a nice day
Glen
 
Glen,

After speaking with Rob, I decided to go with the standard 1 1/2 inch and one addition wheel in 3/4 inch. I will probably want the 1/2 inch later for tighter work such as finger groves and such. I chose the 3/4 inch because of the D'Holder type front and back ends I seem to like so well.

Roger
 
Hey, Roger,

Man oh man do I understand about the eyesight thing. I was an eagleye my whole life, 20/10 vision, see stuff other people couldn't even see. Then, in my mid 40's the vision started to go, and I rapidly progressed through a number of levels of magnifier glasses. I was really worried about it for awhile, scared, actually. Then after about 5 years, it settled down and I am now at a steady +2.25-2.50 for reading and such. It has a significant impact on working at the bench, and grinding is more difficult than ever before. However, I have found that by having several Optivisors to complement my glasses, that I am able to get by, just work a little closer to things than ever before. :) I have learned to wear a cap as sort of a "curb feeler" (you youngers know what those are?) so I don't put my forehead into the grinder.:D

I am happy for you to get that grinder, those are very very nice. Also, Roger, I sincerely hope that your vision does like mine does, and eventually stabilizes at a level you can still accomodate readily.
other than having made it to an age where i wondered at times whether I'd ever make (52), I have to say that by and large THIS AGING PROCESS SUX! Still, preferable to the alternative, eh?
 
Man this eye thing'll drive you right up the wall! I finally have reading glasses about everywhere I sit or stop to do anything, saves me having to carry them around. Can't keep track of stuff like that so I just put em everywhere. (Can't find my sunglasses this week, dang it.)

But middle age is better than the alternative, hard to argue that one. I just wish I'd settled in sooner. :)

Roger that motor just whizzes. I get it out for company. :D One of these days I'm going to have to put the disk machine together. Springtime has a way of pulling me out of the basement though, not much work getting done in beggar's tomb. :)

Darren we've been giving that very thing some serious thought. We sure are getting pushed out of here by stuff. You have the right idea and it's good to see it working out. But you might find yourself buying stuff at garage sales to sell on eBay...watch out! :D
 
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