Grinding hardened Elmax

egally08

egally08

Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
872
A friend of mine asked me to put a finger choil on his brand new zt 801. I am a little hesitant, but he assures me its not that big of a deal even if I mess it up, he can just get a re-blade.

My finger choils are done on a drill press, using drum sanders from supergrit. They work alright on annealed 1095. I can usually do two choils with one coarse sander. However, they are usually almost to shape by the time I start working on them.

I don't have to press really hard to do my choils, mainly because its bad on the drill press. Would I even be able to grind into hardened elmax with a drum sander, without using 10+ cartridges and having to put a lot of pressure on it?

I'm afraid it might be more trouble then its worth, especially how quick the grit wears down on a drum sander.

Thoughts?
 
Well, it may not be a great way to go and should not be a common thing to but if that little bit of side grinding is going to destroy the drill press it has to already be in poor condition. Frank
 
Thanks, I think your right frank, my drill press is pretty sturdy.

My main concern is making sure it would be able to actually grind the hardened elmax.

Like I was saying, I can grind annealed 1095 pretty decent, but it doesn't even throw sparks it grinds it so slow. So I was thinking it might take way to long trying to grind a hardened blade from scratch, since I normally have the rough outline at least of the finger choil.
 
Hog out the bulk of the material with an angle grinder then finish up with your drill press.
 
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