How to hold on to small parts when grinding them?

Hengelo_77

Hengelo_77

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Mar 2, 2006
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How do you do it?
How do you hold on to a guard when you grind the flat side and it is non-magnetic?
 
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A good way to go especially if your machine has speed control is to slow it down and use masking tape folder in a "T" shape to stick on the part. The tape has to have some good stickiness to it. It's the same as most use when leveling a piece on a flat surface. Frank
 
+1 to Mr Niro's suggestion. Fast, always handy and IME Gorilla tape takes it to another level.

Another common approach is use a few drops of cheapo Dollar Store superglue. Somewhere along the way on each build seems like I will mount small parts on PG steel or temporarily fix 2+ components together for shaping or finishing. Seems to work well for most combos of steel, iron, wood, synthetics, etc. Here is one place in tool making where you can absolutely count on joint failure AND keep a smile on your face and your fingerprints intact. Just knock them apart with a deadblow hammer or slap it down on the bench.

As with any adhesive – including the tapes - surface prep is a huge factor. Clean your surfaces well with acetone then EtOH or the like and you’ll have to work harder to separate them. Or don't...
 
vise grips with the jaws ground smooth

or machinist clamps

or kant twist clamps

or do the part still attached to the long piece before you cut it off

or just burn your fingers

or make a plate and screw it on
 
I just use my fingers, too. I can't feel what I'm doing through a block of wood or clamps.

Or are you talking about surface grinding?
 
I've used magnets (though I do have a demagnetizer for after), double sided tape, vice grips (sometimes wrapped with cloth, leather, or tape for protection from jaws), and on rare occasions I've even made some jigs to hold pieces. It just depends on how the piece is shaped, and how it needs to be ground.

IIRC, jewelers even have a putty that becomes malleable at certain temps and then cools/solidifies around the piece for holding it. Cool stuff.
 
Best thing in my shop for that is a pair of jeweler's parallel jaw pliers (obviously don't work for flat stuff, tape is the cure for that).
They have a groove down the middle of one jaw, so you can hold small pins and screws securely while shaping the end.
They don't crush things like vice grips do, and because the jaws close parallel, it gets a really secure grip on lots of things that are squirrelly with regular pliers.
Try it.
 
Fingers work up to a point. On very thin stock, I just can't do it so it's Frank's T shaped tape using Gorilla tape like Andy said.
 
After a few ground down finger tips I've taken to hot gluing a piece of wood to smaller scales and such to form the T that you guys are talking about with the tape.
 
Patrice Lemée;12874348 said:
Fingers work up to a point. On very thin stock, I just can't do it so it's Frank's T shaped tape using Gorilla tape like Andy said.
Click to expand...
Another vote for T shaped Gorilla tape. Trying to hold a guard for flattening on my 4X36 just removed the tip of my index finger. Healing very slowly.
 
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