Minimum belt collection?

Brock Cutlery

Brock Cutlery

Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
1,673
I plan to build a belt rack today, and you see a lot of posts on racks with huge belt collections. Anyone done the research to get down to the minimum number of belt types for your work?
It would be cool to see some lists.
 
Just buy a combo set off ebay. 10 belts/ different grits. You will find out quickly which belts are needed. They can be expensive so many of the pics you see are used belts that you just can' t toss or only used for certain tasks. I'd say start with something that will hold 6 belts and add later.


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Everyone's different, it depends on so many things.
On most of my stock removal knives, I use 60 to rough, 120 to convex (both ceramic) then go to gator belts on a soft platen- 160m, 100m, 65m, and a scotchbrite maroon to finish.
For the handles, 36 to rough, 120 x then 120 y weights, 320 j-flex for a comfortable working finish. That's ten- then for sharpening I also use finer Norax, 45m and 16m to finish and a 5m to deburr.
I run my production line with these 13 belts- I go through lots of everything low grit and pitch em when they get clogged, but the gators and norax, they just don't wear out that fast.
 
I pretty much know which belts I need now. I wanted to plan for capacity in my rack, so was wondering if someone had narrowed the field to a reasonable selection of go-to belts.
IOW, how few can you really expect to get away with?
 
I would think 8-10 belts would be the minimum I could get away with. 3 ceramics for pre heat treat grinding. Three structured abrasives for post heat treat grinding, and three AO belts for handles. Maybe a surface conditioning belt. I don't see how to pare it down farther.
 
10 isn't too bad. Here is what I typically use:

40-50 Cubitron II
120 Cub II
220
400 to clean up, then hand sanding.

I use the same belts pre/post HT, and doing more post lately than pre-HT. I like it now that I've got the routine down. Mist.
I use pretty much the same belts for handles as blades, again finishing by hand.
But I have a bunch of high grit belts. I should use them up and get them gone. :)

I like to separate my used vs brand new belts. I do employ the used ones for certain tasks, so that about doubles my need. But still, 10.... :) That should work
I also have a cork that I haven't tried yet. I want to get to that sometime...

I want to build a rack that pulls (telescoping type of slide) out from the wall above my grinder bench on the one side. I have some space and like the idea of shoving it back to the wall when not in use.
 
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