Kalamazoo on the WAY!

Jason B.

Jason B.

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
11,191
I've put off the purchase of a good quality grinder for many years and tonight I caved. I purchased a 1x42 Kalamazoo from Trugrit along with some norton blaze, 3m, and leather belts.

Besides being able to offer better machine sharpened edges I will soon be offering regrinds and refinishing services :D


One question I do have though, I here the platen is not that great and was thinking of using a thin piece of delrin plastic, thoughts?
 
I've made all my knives to date on that grinder. I use the platen maybe once a month. The "tool rest" is garbage. Other than that, it's a great investment. Mine has paid for itself exponentially.





All the knives have been convex slackbelt ground, freehand. The sweet spot is 2" below the idler pulley.
 
Slamosam, thank you!

CM,

Looking good buddy, congrats!

I'm excited to receive mine and get started with different projects.
 
It arrived yesterday but I had to wait for the belts until today. I realized I needed to do something about the platen and do it quickly, so I got to work with a marker and a Sawzall. Once the bulk was out of my way I finished it up on the grinder before hand sanding all the edges and face of platen. Once I had everything dialed in I slapped on a 120 grit Norton Blaze belt and sharpened a few knives, worked perfect!

Obligatory photos,

IMG_1893.jpg

IMG_1894.jpg
 
You don't need the yellow thing. I tossed it. You can use the idler pulley for contour inside curves.
 
Tempered glass works fine for a platen liner. You can have them cut at your local glass or mirror shop. Quarter inch thick material is quite satisfactory. Attach with JB weld, it will slide out of place until the adhesive sets up; I super glue farmer match sticks around the perimeter to hold the glass in position. Bevel the leading edge of the glass where the belts come across.
 
Is that a set of paper wheels in the first picture to the right of your belt grinder?

Omar
 
Yeah, picked it up some time ago, was never real happy with its performance though.
 
A piece of hard felt and some finer belts will do a niece satin finish.You can cut it down to the width you want.With temporary glue you can go back and forth from a tempered glass to a satin finish just clean the old glue back off and you've got the glass.A lot of the finish on a paper wheel is in the compounds you use just like you r water stones.I've used up to an 8000 grit diamond compound on a non slotted wheel.A 3000 grit worked really well on both slotted and non slotted wheels for me.8000 grit required really light pressure and worked best in a forged blade.
 
Some mods I made over the years to my Kalamazoo:
Can set the belt grinder to any angle quickly then back to 90 degrees just sliding the angle (below the legs) and dropping the plate the grinder is mounted on. Plate is hinged on the back.
P1010560-vi.jpg


Made an adjustable platen to allow the belt to be as slack as I wish. Less/more convex on edge.
P1010567-vi.jpg

P1010502-vi.jpg


Handle for leverage when changing belts.
P1010561-vi.jpg


Some belts: grits 800, 2000, 2500, 3000-3500,5000-6000
Stock belts: 80 up to 600 grit
1200X (9 micron), 500x (20 micron), Trizact A45
Leather belts, Linen belts loaded with Hand America 0.5 & 0.25 spray, green chrominum oxide

I have been working with water stones and have followed your advise on what to use. Hope you enjoy the Kalamazoo as much as I do.
Ron
 
Nice mods Ron!

I really like the handle idea for changing belts. I also like the angle adjustment.

Beagles,

I will be replacing it with a surgi sharp wheel soon, I have a fine scotch brite wheel coming that I will be using to deburr between the belt and the leather wheel. It's a solid 3 step system that creates very nice machine edges.

I haven't done a lot on mine but did refinish a Swamp Rat the other day, turned out nice. More than sharpening this was one of the main reasons I purchased the grinder.

before
775779D1-C34A-46B8-BC34-0E215E49E07A.jpg

E2913037-68C9-4E1A-AE80-27AA14A2A9BB_1.jpg

After, A65 belt
902B94BD-7204-40D6-ACA3-48BEB78DCA9F.jpg

3F93956B-A73B-4CDE-9EC7-D6E89BA763A1.jpg
 
Nice work.I don't know if they make a scotch bright belt for a 1x42 but they really put on a nice finish and they're pretty fast.Is the surgi sharp a leather wheel?When I visited RW Wilson He used a hard felt wheel to finish his edges.He came off a worn 320 belt and used a green and then a fine white to finish. He said he considered it to produce one of the best edges.It was really sharp and well polished. I've considered getting a 1x42 just because of how portable they are.My 2x72 is pretty much sitting in the same spot it was for the last 16 years.
 
There are several Scotch brite belts available in 1"x42".
I prefer zirconia alumina over the blaze belts and have had better results with Trizact than scotch brite.
 
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