Grizzly Knife Grinder

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Mike Mossington

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Does anyone know anything about the Grizzly G1015 Knife Belt Sander? Recommendations?

Much thanks for your comments.

Mike
 
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Knife-Belt-Sander-Buffer/G1015

I think Rick Marchand has one


It's cheap, but

No:
small wheel
variable speed - slow it down

Less room off one side of the large wheel than the other side
limited tension adjustment and possible tracking troubles.

The $525 is 1/2 to a 1/3 of the way to building a nice grinder with toolbar and VFD variable speed-which is what I would do.
But
If you just want to buy a grinder and use it
& variable speed & small wheels aren't important in your designs
then go for it.



The 10" wheel purchased as a replacement part if the cheapest 10" contact wheel I know of.
 
I have one and use it extensively.
The drawbacks that Mike pointed out are real, but can be worked around.
I say the Grizzly is the most bang for your buck.
 
Bill's got a good point about bang for your buck for a plug-in-and-go grinder.

But, for $525 I'd probably get a G.I.B. kit, the 10" Grizzly contact wheel and bore it for bearings, turn my own idler and tracking wheels from UHMW, and get a cheap surplus or scrap 3phase 2hp motor (they are everywhere if you look) with the Teco FM50 202 VFD and still maybe be within budget. The tooling arm feature is a big design bonus, and variable is huge too.

It helps to know someone with a metal lathe.
 
I would recommend the coote grinder. if you have the money for a grizzly then just save a little longer for the coote. I have have one for 4 years and it was a great investment, Im so glad I got that over the grizzly. all you need is a motor and something to mount it on. then you can have adjustable speed and can get some other accessories down the road.

http://www.cootebeltgrinder.com/
 
I'm in the same boat, looking for the best grinder overall option...asking myself which grinder would give me the greatest return on investment and...investment including time spent building as well as dollars.

Salem has SOLID advice that I'll be following, I've been looking at upgrading for the last 6 months. His solution is the answer for me, the tooling arm design and accessories will pay dividends down the road.

good luck with your search.
 
It took me most of a day to get my Grizzly set up and tracking well. You need to read all the old post on Grizzlys befor you buy.
I have a Grizzly and a NWG. the Grizzly will eventuly burn up I'll use the parts to build a Belt drive VS grinder.

Grizzly Cost delivered $565.00
NWG Cost current $900.00
Grizzly Tracking. fair with work
NWG Tracking. excellent
Grizzly Set up time. One day
NWG Build/fine material time. 3 months
Grizzly Speeds. 1 (fast)
NWG Speeds 4 Very slow to Warp
Grizzly Add ons. Real crapy tool rest
NWG Add ons. currently 3 tool arms and 3 specialized tool rest. No limit to the possibilitys
Grizzly durability. Grizzly are known for burning up motors
NWG Durability. Rock solid machine with a sealed motor that set me back $10.00 at the swapmeet
Grizzly Repairability. Costly and with difficulty
NWG Repairability. unlimited, simple and cheep.

Just my POV
.
 
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I have a grizzly and I'm very happy with it. It has issues for sure, but it's great for what it is.

- Chris
 
Do not have that item but have bought about 4 motors from grizzly, a few 1HP ones and a 1.5HP one. Basically for redoing a craftsman table saw, a leather burnisher fabrication, and a couple of other things. Still gotta get one for my bandsaw as well.

So far have not had any issues with the motors. I bought the right size motor for the job and made sure they were the sealed type and what not. Not sure which motor is on this sander though so cant chime in there. I think with Grizzly it is a good idea to pick and choose what to get from them. For instance the bandsaws they sell. Some have gotten rave reviews while some of the cheaper models have gotten horrible reviews.
 
I've been using a Grizz for about 8yrs. now for all phases of my knife work. Grinds blades, shapes guards and handles and buffs. Maybe I got lucky, but not one issue to date with the machine. It tracks well and no way I can bog down the motor. On the other side, there is a pretty big learning curve with the speed it runs, tool rest is a piece of junk and you can't hollow grind any thing longer than 5" with the 8" wheel. With that said, I'd like to have another grinder that ran slower when needed, but this one will do the job.
 
The Grizz was my first grinder and it turned out a lot of blades. Like Rick said, there is a learning curve, but I guess that is true with any piece of equipment. It runs at twice the speed of light, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I now run a variable speed/reversible KMG with most of the bells and whistles. I sold my Grizz to the brother-in-law and if he can't kill it, it can't be killed.

Wish I had it back. It had its place, especially for a light buff of handle material on the "non-business" end.

Robert
 
We have a coote, now set up to run on 4 different speeds..Added a glass platen liner, man that was a world of difference..Small wheel attachment is great too..
My only small fault with the coote is the two wheel design..Not a lot of room for tension adjustment..Sometimes belts, even the best 3m will fit more loosely than others..Wehn a belt isnt good and tight you can exp belt drift and I know firsthand what that does to a nice clean plunge line:grumpy: Also with the two wheel disign you cant see down on your work..You have to learn to judge it straight ahead..
Great grinder but it also has a learning curve..
 
I just upgraded to a KMG last spring. It is way better than my old Grizzly but the Grizzly just cost a little under $300.00 when I bought it 10 years ago. I turned out a lot of knives with the Grizzly and it is still going strong. If it is all you can afford, it will damn sure get you by.
 
I have a Grizzly. It was my first grinder, and like Robert, I ground a good number of blades on it. It will teach you about hand control since you don't have the luxury of slowing it down for finer/detail work. I still do the majority of my handle work on that machine (even though it is easy to burn delicate woods with how fast it runs).

--nathan
 
I have used a no weld grinder for about 2 1/2 years now and I love it. If you can find a motor cheap then you could build one with a 4 step pully setup, flat platen and an 8" contact wheel for around 450-550 $ depending on how much you spend on your motor.
 
Save a few $s in the begining but you will soon realise you should have bought a Better Grinder and wind up buying another one anyway! GIB is the way to go IMO. I use a Beaumont Metal Works and started out on a Coote. Took about two years and I had outgrown it. Too limited in function.
It will serve the purpose for training maybe as a Backup for later but us Frustrating to use and changeout wheels Etc.
 
Well I'm very much a newbie. I've just finished my third knife...All I have is a 1 X 30 HF special.....$40! No its not working out well! The idle wheel baring is already shot and I'm gettin a lot of belt wobble and I'm feelin Kentuckys pain on the nice plunge line:mad: I have got to get a grinder before I finish this next knife I have started. Thanks for everyones input. Where would I get a variable speed motor?
 
I'd listen to all these guys, as they make very good points. Here is my 2-cents worth:

Get the Grizzly with the understanding that you will buy a better grinder later. Make some money with the Griz and then, in my case, I turned it into a dedicated woodworking sander and set it up far away from the metal grinding with a dust collector. You will never have enough tools and as you grow, you will see the need to have multiple grinders. I'd definitely get this first and upgrade as soon as you can to one of the other grinders that are better for knives.

-M
 
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