Home Built Surface Grinder

heads up to anyone wondering, I am having major issues w/ the China seller from AliExpress, PDVCN Store. This is in reference to ordering the sliding linear table. I have not received my item and they refuse to refund my money, the AliExpress dispute process and 'case management team' is pretty much a joke at this point. I am hoping I can get my money back or the item, but it's looking pretty dismal at this point and my whole project is put on hold until I get this worked out. Part of the joys ordering from China I guess!
 
Bummer!!!! Did they provide tracking number? Wait, I see it's the "slow boat" type of shipping with 20 days.... usually more. How long has it been since they say "shipped". I've had good luck when they ship via DHL with only 3 to 5 days shipping time.

BTW, that is one good looking adjustment table - not sure I see the difference between the two selections, but with only $16 or so difference in price it's not a big deal there.
 
razor-edge-knives said:
Underneath the whole assembly, this would allow you to traverse a 4" axe head or whatever across a 2" belt as you raised the assembly up and made your passes ...
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Gotcha. Yeah, as Ken pointed out.... It “sounds” good in concept, but I am certain you would find a host of problems. From the start I can see weight being a problem, and more importantly it would introduce a substantial amount of play to the system. Thus it would render the SGA pretty useless!

Like I said, great idea in concept. But I can tell you that creating the “Z” axis, while maintaining the kind of tolerance we are looking to achieve, is a task! I believe it can only be properly utilized in a full size SG, with proper “XY” axis table.
 
razor-edge-knives said:
heads up to anyone wondering, I am having major issues w/ the China seller from AliExpress, PDVCN Store. This is in reference to ordering the sliding linear table. I have not received my item and they refuse to refund my money, the AliExpress dispute process and 'case management team' is pretty much a joke at this point. I am hoping I can get my money back or the item, but it's looking pretty dismal at this point and my whole project is put on hold until I get this worked out. Part of the joys ordering from China I guess!
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I’ve been through this. Just keep posting messages on the Dispute page. I never accepted their terms. Finally I started making comments calling out Aliexpress for not following through with their buyer protection. It took forever, but I did finally receive my product. It was only a set of 2” Neodymium mags that cost $20, but I continued out of principle!

You could also take the route that myself and Ken both did...just build your own sliding table! It’s not very difficult! And produces a much higher quality part in the end. Both Ken and myself have made slight “tweaks” to our designs, which have resulted in sliders with minimal weight & ZERO play! My design was based loosely from Travis Wuertz’s origional. Although the inner workings are my own design. I know Ken’s is similar, but he chose a slightly different path more comfortable to him. I do know neither of us have any inclination to switch to a “ready made” slider assembly.
 
One Armed said:
Gotcha. Yeah, as Ken pointed out.... It “sounds” good in concept, but I am certain you would find a host of problems. From the start I can see weight being a problem, and more importantly it would introduce a substantial amount of play to the system. Thus it would render the SGA pretty useless!

Like I said, great idea in concept. But I can tell you that creating the “Z” axis, while maintaining the kind of tolerance we are looking to achieve, is a task! I believe it can only be properly utilized in a full size SG, with proper “XY” axis table.
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Yeah good point, I was actually wondering about that as well - I'm sure you are right!

Ken H> said:
Bummer!!!! Did they provide tracking number? Wait, I see it's the "slow boat" type of shipping with 20 days.... usually more. How long has it been since they say "shipped". I've had good luck when they ship via DHL with only 3 to 5 days shipping time.

BTW, that is one good looking adjustment table - not sure I see the difference between the two selections, but with only $16 or so difference in price it's not a big deal there.
Click to expand...

Yeah they did, this issue was partially my fault. I ordered 3 things at the same time from 3 different stores but my google chrome auto-fill apparently put in my name/address w/ out putting in my actual street name (only the house number). 2 of the 3 stores contacted me stating that my address did not look right and they wanted to confirm. I got those items no problem. But the 3rd company did not.

I contacted them a few days after they shipped and they stated to not worry that the post office would call me when it arrived. Long story short, the USPS did not and I even went up there to get it but they had returned it to the sender due to a non sufficient address. I contacted the seller, PDVCN Sore, and they refuse to return $ or send a new one until they receive the other back (of course I have no idea where it is or if it's lost in customs somewhere).

Anyway, I'm going through my bank to get the money back, and through Ebay this time for the purchase. This is the new one I'm getting (from the same seller but through Ebay - so more protections in place).

s-l500.jpg
 
One Armed said:
I’ve been through this. Just keep posting messages on the Dispute page. I never accepted their terms. Finally I started making comments calling out Aliexpress for not following through with their buyer protection. It took forever, but I did finally receive my product. It was only a set of 2” Neodymium mags that cost $20, but I continued out of principle!

You could also take the route that myself and Ken both did...just build your own sliding table! It’s not very difficult! And produces a much higher quality part in the end. Both Ken and myself have made slight “tweaks” to our designs, which have resulted in sliders with minimal weight & ZERO play! My design was based loosely from Travis Wuertz’s origional. Although the inner workings are my own design. I know Ken’s is similar, but he chose a slightly different path more comfortable to him. I do know neither of us have any inclination to switch to a “ready made” slider assembly.
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Ok thanks for the encouragement! At this point I want to be done messing w/ it and get it up and running so I would like to get the above ready made assembly - but if I have to I will make my own for sure. can you shoot me an email when you have a sec, josh@razoredgeknives.com.
 
OK, I did it - I ordered a 150x75 mm contact wheel for the SGA. That's 6"X3" wide which should run 2-1/2" belts nicely. OK, been looking for 2-1/2"X72" belts, but only find 60" inch belts. Anybody got any ideas?

edit: No problem - a 60" belt will fit just fine. I'll get some of those on ordered
 
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Ken H> said:
OK, I did it - I ordered a 150x75 mm contact wheel for the SGA. That's 6"X3" wide which should run 2-1/2" belts nicely. OK, been looking for 2-1/2"X72" belts, but only find 60" inch belts. Anybody got any ideas?

edit: No problem - a 60" belt will fit just fine. I'll get some of those on ordered
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I found some 3x72" when I googled it .. .That's what I'm going to order
 
I didn't check for 3X72, just the 2-1/2"X72 belts. Now I see the 3"X72 from aaabrasives.com - did you find them anywhere else? Don't really wish to order 12 of each grit at one time. For a couple of grits that runs into some decent money
 
Not sure how much extra adjustment ya got Ken, but here are some 3 x 132!! http://www.supergrit.com/products/products_belts-ceramic Pretty long I know... but a heck of a price! I think I could fit these on mine. Other thing I was thinking, you could grab a couple of these..cut them and reattach. It’s not difficult to make your own belts. Then you would have TWO 3” x 66” for like $4.25ea.!!
 
I ordered the 2-1/2"x 60" belts yesterday - we'll use those up and see what winds up for next order. Thanks to all for comments and links.

Since I ordered a 3"X6" contact wheel, and have a 3" wide drive wheel I can use up to 3" wide belts. My tracking wheel is only 2.5" wide, but think it would work with 3" wide. We'll see.
 
Ken H> said:
I didn't check for 3X72, just the 2-1/2"X72 belts. Now I see the 3"X72 from aaabrasives.com - did you find them anywhere else? Don't really wish to order 12 of each grit at one time. For a couple of grits that runs into some decent money
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I found these or these, and these are zirc belts although I would just have to try them to see how I liked them - I would only probably use the 3" wide ones if I needed them - otherwise I would use the regular 2" wide belts.
 
I'm wondering if the serrated rubber wheel is the best wheel for this application - seems like it wouldn't give as smooth of a finish...
 
I agree Josh - the serrated rubber wheel wasn't my first choice either. I couldn't find a smooth 3" wide (or 2.5" wide) wheel anywhere, at a reasonable price anyway. I suspect the serrated wheel will be "ok" (maybe better), not a final finish by any means, but we're not looking for a final finish from the SGA anyway.

Remember, the use of the SGA isn't for final finish, but to remove metal to getting billet parallel, creating a distal taper, or other steps more related to metal removal vs a finish grind. As I write this, I'm thinking the serrated wheel might be first choice now.

Those 3" belt links you gave above - some expensive belts at $12 to $14/belt for Zirc or AO. The decatur Industrial site is $14.25 each with min order of 50 belts. That's over $700 belt order!! Too rich for my blood. I'll work with the 2-1/2" wide belts I ordered at around $5/ea for Zirc and $2.20/ea for AO belts. Those are more my price of things.
 
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Ken H> said:
I agree Josh - the serrated rubber wheel wasn't my first choice either. I couldn't find a smooth 3" wide (or 2.5" wide) wheel anywhere, at a reasonable price anyway. I suspect the serrated wheel will be "ok" (maybe better), not a final finish by any means, but we're not looking for a final finish from the SGA anyway.

Remember, the use of the SGA isn't for final finish, but to remove metal to getting billet parallel, creating a distal taper, or other steps more related to metal removal vs a finish grind. As I write this, I'm thinking the serrated wheel might be first choice now.

Those 3" belt links you gave above - some expensive belts at $12 to $14/belt for Zirc or AO. The decatur Industrial site is $14.25 each with min order of 50 belts. That's over $700 belt order!! Too rich for my blood. I'll work with the 2-1/2" wide belts I ordered at around $5/ea for Zirc and $2.20/ea for AO belts. Those are more my price of things.
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yeah definitely gonna check out that link you posted! Thanks for that!

Out of curiosity... why couldn't you use the SGA for a final finish?
 
Well, I never think about using it for final finish since I normally do a FFG on kitchen knives, and even hunter knives, so all the SGA finish would be in grinding the bevels. BUT - if a bevel was used that left the top part of blade flat then it could be final finish. Since I started using a disk grinder for final grinds, I'd use that for final flattening of any flats and cleaning up a good grind line.
 
Ken H> said:
I agree Josh - the serrated rubber wheel wasn't my first choice either. I couldn't find a smooth 3" wide (or 2.5" wide) wheel anywhere, at a reasonable price anyway. I suspect the serrated wheel will be "ok" (maybe better), not a final finish by any means, but we're not looking for a final finish from the SGA anyway.

Remember, the use of the SGA isn't for final finish, but to remove metal to getting billet parallel, creating a distal taper, or other steps more related to metal removal vs a finish grind. As I write this, I'm thinking the serrated wheel might be first choice now.

Those 3" belt links you gave above - some expensive belts at $12 to $14/belt for Zirc or AO. The decatur Industrial site is $14.25 each with min order of 50 belts. That's over $700 belt order!! Too rich for my blood. I'll work with the 2-1/2" wide belts I ordered at around $5/ea for Zirc and $2.20/ea for AO belts. Those are more my price of things.
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Did you checkout the Benchmark site links I posted Ken? $9.99 for 3x79 ceramic up to 120grit, and $5.99 for AO up to 400grit. That’s about the best deal I think exists!
 
Yep, I did take a look at it, but $10/belt is a bit more than I'd like to pay, and with my SGA I'm not running fast enough to really use Ceramic belts. Zirc and AO are more my speed there. The AO was largest grit of 240 is which is finer grit that I'd normally use for the SGA since I'm removing metal, not looking for a finish grind. Also, 79" is a bit long - I can just barely fit 72" in and 60" is actually about right for the SGA on my machine.
 
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