Mill to Surface Finish over Surface Grinder

S

SilentPartner

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Jul 17, 2021
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Does it make sense to use a mill to dimensionalize and face finish blades and scales over a surface grinder if I want to limit the number of expensive tools?

Also does using a magnetic chuck to do that surface finishing in a mill make sense?

Thanks!!!
 
I have both in the shop, the surface grinder is my go to for blade flats quick to set up and finish is great, the mill is a very useful Shop tool. If I only had to get one it would be the Mill. Although in knife making I use the surface grinder more.

I found a super old one and converted it to use 2x72 belts.
 
Are the surface grinder attachments for 72x2 grinders viable? It seems like it would create parallel faces and do a pretty good job.
 
SilentPartner said:
Are the surface grinder attachments for 72x2 grinders viable? It seems like it would create parallel faces and do a pretty good job.
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Those SGA attachments work GREAT. Typical accuracy (for me) is around .001" to .002" over a 12" blade.
 
I used to use a mill, and it does work pretty well once you have everything set up well, but I use a surface grinder now.

No, a magnetic chuck on a mill won't work well for this application.

The advantage of a mill is you can deck wildly un-flat material and take heavy cuts. This is a good choice for forgings and other wonky shapes.

A mill is one-at-a-time and you're always turning inserts etc. I find a surface grinder to be less trouble.
 
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