Making knives on a bugdet part 2!!!!

Armless

I have to second Bryce's advice about saving up. If you are going to buy a belt grinder, you will have to buy belts too. You will then want to buy all sorts of other power tools. Learning to do it by hand will give you a much better appreciation of what you are trying to accomplish with power tools. I have seen various people here say that having power tools means that you screw up faster ;) and that is what happens to me. Put in some sweat equity! It took me about 4-5 hours to file out my current knife. I will probably spend about that much time to hand sanding it once it comes back from heat treating.

I understand that you are a poor student. I was there too. Now I am a poor working guy. Unless some rich relative leaves one with a big chunk of change, there will always be more things that one would want to spend money on than there is money available to spend. There is no free lunch. The guys here on this forum aren't swimming in money either. They will have tried just about everything to save money by now. Some of their solutions involve spending more money than is appropriate for your situation but then their situation is different from yours. Many do this to make a living now. Ingenuity and patience will help you overcome the lack of money and other power tools.

Have you considered taking a metal working class in the evening, offered by some local high school. That will get you access to all sorts of large power tools and instruction on how to use them for very little money.

Most important of all, don't give up.

Phil

PS: How about getting a job in your spare time, if you haven't already done so. Don't ignore your schooling though. I've met too many guys who have the intelligence to be making more money but blew their chance. They obviously have fewer toys than they could have had. One of the guys here is a good example of what to do. He put his hobbies asside while he finished chiroproactic school. He has recently become active again.
 
point taken, i have a job, but im keeping my hours low because my math teacher has been piling us with homework and i need an 80 average to take my next class, i do some other things for money
i have some saved up from old jobs and its in my account for spending, but i dont want to spend it all on one thing.
 
Armless,

KBC tool has a 2x48" for about $250 CDN. It does not have a useable contact wheel but does have a platen. I read in a post somewhere that Eric Elson was using this machine. It is not much at 1/4 hp but would be faster than doing everything by hand.

hope this helps
Dean
 
Hi this is the DaQo'tah

you have asked where I got my Grizzly?....I believe I just did a websearch,,,I typed in Grizzly knife maker, or something like that into GOOGLE...and soon I was at the grizzly website,,,I used my Credit Card, and in 2 min the grizzly was on its way. I got a E-mail right away telling me where to go to keep track of its movements across America.
'
It was fun to plot things on a map, the Grizzly was in my hands in the 10 days they told me it would be,,,so Im very happy with the shipping.

why Did I get the Grizzly?. when there are way better things out on the market?..."MONEY"!

the Grizzly comes with a buffer, and its under $300 American, so thats the best deal i could find.

All the other belt grinders that people tell us are better than , and as little money as, the Grizzly, mostly also need a motor...and such things are a ton of money by themselves...
 
Originally posted by armlessbandit
Alain: do you have a picture of the coote?? how much was it in canadian $$
Click to expand...

A picture of my Coote grinder:
http://www.cuirsfins.com/temp/my_coote_grinder.jpg

For the canadian price;

- Coote Grinder with 10" contact wheel: 398$ US
- A extra 8" contact wheel_ 89$ US (I asked Mr Coote and he can adapt the grinder for the two wheels)
- 9" sanding disc attachement 31$ US
- Knife rest_ 35$ US
- Small wheel attachement 40$ US
- Shipping_ and insurance (With extra 8" wheel) 40$ US

Total: 633$ US = 992,042 CAN
+ Taxes (TPS + TVQ)__ = 1140.84$ Can

And i buyed a variable speed motor with controler
1 HP Variable speed motor: 600$ CAN

I hesited a lot between Coote and Bee Grinder (almost identical to Wilton grinder)http://www.downieknives.com/GRINDER.htm but I have more with Coote for less $...
 
Armless,

The grinder does have a contact wheel but it is a very small bare metal one which would not be suitable for hollow grinding. A platen is a flat piece of steel mounted just beneath the belt. It is used to grind against. This is what is used in flat grinding. I do know that KBC has a Canadian website. Try a google search. I have seen this model on sale a few times.

Best Regards
Dean
 
not only btt, but also i was talking to bruce bumb, and he suggested a portable bandsaw for cutting metal, anyyone have input?
 
I use a angle grinder its a cheap jobmate one from canadian tire it cost 40 bucks its good for shaping and cuting barstock
 
Has been made with a drill press, a handful of files and a crystal block used as sanding block to get flat planes.
You need a lot of time, but it works.
I find it even easier than with a grinder, but the grinder saves a lot of time and, if you can get one, get it.
With another fistful of dollars you can get a soft firebrick, two propane burners and get your own small forge.

The drill press is useful but not mandatory. Certain designs can be done without one, but I strongly suggest you buy one, and one which is significantly bigger than what you expect to need. This for two reasons:
1) you probably don't need it now, but you could need it later.
2) the bigger the more stable.
 
I would not recommend cutting stock this way, A band saw is better. Or buy your steel in app. sizes ie 1 1/2 wide 3/16 thick, then cut or hiy it with cold chisel from both sides and break it. I tried to cut out some blanks from a 24" circ saw blade my first attemp was with the dremel but the flex connector on the motor inside the dremel melted, quick way to wastes 40 bucks. So heres where the *&%$ hits the fan.
I whipped out a sears 4 1/2 angle grinder put on a reinforced cuttoff used it to litely score my blade profile, the second pass a little deeper keep in mind im right handed and to cut in this fashion you have to rotate the disc into a vert. position. So off coarce you eat sparks. ouch... But theres more in my case as the disk penetrated the steal so that i could see daylight through the saw blade, the sparks stay down at that point. But in my case the disk broke right in half and since I had the blade clamped to a saw horse about 24 inches from my face. Where do think the disk peices went at 10,000 rpm The forward most pice went through my truck windshield and shattered the back window. The rearmost part or the disk because or its rotation went straigt up in my jaw and neck and into my mouth, through the jaw bone and a couple teeth. Worse part about the story I was home alone so I got in my broken truck and drove my stick shift all the way to the hosp. 40 miles away while trying not to bleed every where....sort of amusing to look back on. After being sewed up and wired together I went back home to clean up. Its then I noyice that the disk rpm rating was 5000 rpm and the grinder 10,000 Ive since look at other brads of disks and most do have the same rating. So this is just my advise. Yes Imade a pretty knife, but it ended up costing 2500 dollar for the hosp, 5 dollrs for the disk, 100 for a windshild 150 for the back window, a pair of jeans, a T shirt and a seat cover So that around 3000 dollars. Aperson could by a grinder, a band saw and who know what else with that money. BE smart And Be safe.....Oh what is BTT it in a couple of your replies?
 
BTT = Back to topic or Back to top (i think)

Anyway, my best suggestion is to be patient, as said before. Ask every body and their brother whether they have what you are looking for or if they know of anybody who might have one. You will be supprised at what the word of mouth factor will do for you.

When you start looking for a high quality cheap anvil you will go out of your mind. Well, at least I did.:) Everybody wants big money for em. I asked, and asked, and asked every body I knew and didn't know. One day I was at work and the phone rang, it was a guy from another plant. He says: "I heard you are looking for an anvil." Well it turned out he had one in his garage that had been sitting there for about 15 years. He heard from a guy who heard from another guy that I was looking for an anvil. Turns out it is a 152 pound Hay Budden in very nice shape. It now is in my shop, total out of pocket - $75. :D

I have been very lucky/fortunate in finding my equipment. I got a Burr King model 760 2hp grinder for nothing! I saved it from a dumpster, believe it or not.

I got my LG 25# power hammer for $250 and a 600 mile round trip drive. One of my vendors at work CNC cut two new sets of dies for me for nothing, I just had to give them the design and material.

I ended up geting my brand new mill drill for nothing because I bought and sold a different mill and made enough profit to buy this one. I did not even have to touch the other one.

I got a brand new VFD for the grinder for $76 off of eBay.

I Built my own forge and HT oven, and dynamic 3phase converter.

Anyway, not to brag about all this (well maybe), but there are alot of deals or free stuff out there. You just have to be willing to do the leg work and be patient and ask everybody! Who cares if it is a little embarassing when they look at you like you are stupid? The bottom line is you will find good stuff for cheap.

I had to search for 3 months to find the anvil and about the same for the grinder. It only took about 4 weeks to find the hammer and that was by word of mouth too. The patience will work to your bennefit, by allowing you to make sure you want to make knives. If you do it the hard way at first, and you still want to continue, then you will most likely stay with the craft for a while. Once you know you want to do it long term, it won't take much to justify the capital investment in the tools.

Just my $0.02, hope it helps.
 
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