Let's talk grinders for a bit.

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Kevin Powers

Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
411
So I'm at a point in my knife making where it's taking less and less time to complete a knife, which is a good thing and bad thing. I always thought people were crazy for having multiple grinders but this morning it clicked. I had to change from contact wheel, to platen, to small wheel, to slack belt. Now that doesn't seem like much but each one had different grits to progress through. Literally took longer to change out the tool and grit than the actual grind time.

Lately I have been working on a tilting grinder design but now I'm thinking more about building another 2x72 for contact wheel work, use the current 2x72 as a platen, then building a standalone horizontal. I have all the ability and equipment to build these tools.

So what are the opinions of the masses, tilting 2x72 or dedicated horizontal.
 
I'd also go with a dedicated horizontal. That would be the most efficient. While flipping the tilting 2x72 wouldn't take much time, you would still need to re-position your worktable each time you flipped. Having the horizontal immediately ready to grind would be the ticket.
 
I'm starting to feel the same pain on switching out tooling, and am starting to think about at least a second grinder. I use a large wheel, and small wheels enough that it's a pain to switch them out.
I'm not yet convinced on the horizontal need though. I have the parts to make my Esteem grinder flip, but I just haven't had enough of a driver to put in on the machine.

I'll be watching this to see what the thoughts are.
 
I plan on building a dedicated horizontal grinder myself. Are you using multiple tool arms?
 
Yes I have an arm for each setup but switching constantly sucks. It's just time consuming pulling the table off, removing the tool, then putting the new tool on and resetting table at 90* etc. ok so now that we've discussed how everyone wants a horizontal are there any good plans out there?
 
I built a second grinder to go horizontal because I thought that I needed it. I did not it turns out....but I bought a Travis Wuertz surface grinding attachment for my KMG grinder and did not like the vertical configuration one bit. I wanted the attachment to work like the one on the TW 90 grinder so I milled the last 8 inches of an aluminum tool bar to be the same dimensions as the Wuertz grinder and mounted the contact wheel to my horizontal Polar Bear Forge grinder. If it wasn't for the surface grinding attachment there was really no great reason to have the horizontal grinder. Here's a couple photos. Larry
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Larry- I emailed you a question about the wuertz surface grinder. I didn't want to clog up this thread with off topic stuff.

I'm thinking about getting Beaumont's horizontal grinder myself. It seems to me that it may be a little more versatile than flipping a regular 2x72 on it's side. That being said I'd definitely love to see some plans for making a flip to side kmg. It's a damn heavy grinder.

OP- what grinder do you have? I know what saves me a lot of time is to do a few knives at a time. It's a lot more efficient that way because you spend a good amount of time on one process(because you're doing it on multiple knives). Doesn't really help you if you're doing one at a time I guess though.
 
JG Custom Metal Works said:
Larry- I emailed you a question about the wuertz surface grinder. I didn't want to clog up this thread with off topic stuff.

I'm thinking about getting Beaumont's horizontal grinder myself. It seems to me that it may be a little more versatile than flipping a regular 2x72 on it's side. That being said I'd definitely love to see some plans for making a flip to side kmg. It's a damn heavy grinder.

OP- what grinder do you have? I know what saves me a lot of time is to do a few knives at a time. It's a lot more efficient that way because you spend a good amount of time on one process(because you're doing it on multiple knives). Doesn't really help you if you're doing one at a time I guess though.
Click to expand...

I have a homemade eerf grinder. I don't typically make multiple knives at one time as I try new techniques or aspects of knife making with each one I do. I've started "production runs" but end up working on one til completion while the others sit. The only horizontal grinding I do is on my disc.
 
I think tiltings way more versitle.Don't forget you still have vert. capabilities.I do a lot of small wheel work,and for me it doesn't matter whether it's vertical or horizontal.I guess for folders it would be different,but I don't see an advantage for fixed blade knives.What am I missing?
 
The way I see it, in horizontal you have a platen, small wheel, and contact wheel all setup with rests all the time. Less tool changes, less rests to square up constantly with tool changes.
 
Hey Kevin,the way I finish out a knife I can't use the rest(nothings flat at this point) even tho I have an adjustable vertical rest thats square to the wheel,I rarely use it.Most of the time my handle shaping is part of working with the small wheels.In other words everything get cleaned up and straightened at the end.Just the way I do things I guess.All that said for a dedicated small wheel it would be the KMG 72'' for the things you mentioned above. It would be the smart choice.Good luck.
 
LARRYZ10 said:
I built a second grinder to go horizontal because I thought that I needed it. I did not it turns out....but I bought a Travis Wuertz surface grinding attachment for my KMG grinder and did not like the vertical configuration one bit. I wanted the attachment to work like the one on the TW 90 grinder so I milled the last 8 inches of an aluminum tool bar to be the same dimensions as the Wuertz grinder and mounted the contact wheel to my horizontal Polar Bear Forge grinder. If it wasn't for the surface grinding attachment there was really no great reason to have the horizontal grinder. Here's a couple photos. Larry
b9FLkvAl.jpg
Click to expand...

That last photo with the rest makes me want a horizontal grinder.
 
I have two grinders and about two more in the works, and I don't have a horizontal grinder(and the two in the werks aren't either) and I don't really feel a great need for it, I can see it being sort of nice for some things ,and the new grinders will have the ability to do that, but it's not top of my list. I could see it being more useful for folder makers and such.
 
I have an arm for each setup but switching constantly sucks. It's just time consuming pulling the table off, removing the tool, then putting the new tool on and resetting table at 90* etc.
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If you have multiple tool arms, why not have tool rests for each? Then it's just a few handles to turn.
 
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