- Joined
- Nov 25, 2009
- Messages
- 301
I've been making some shop upgrades & improvements, to help speed things along and make the crafting process more enjoyable. I decided to bring you guys along for the ride, so here's a big part of it.
-------------
1x30
I decided that my old 1x30 Grizzly belt sander wasn't cutting it anymore... I needed something to help with the different styles of knives I plan on making, and it was getting hard to keep up with the order book. It is an excellent little belt grinder, and for around $40 it made me over 100 knives and is still going strong. I used it for profiling the blades, grinding & polishing the edges, flattening the spines, some handle profiling, and more. If anyone is considering getting into knifemaking, or would like a very professional way of sharpening your knives, axes, and other edged tools with ease and accuracy, then I highly recommend a good 1x30 like this one.
As you can see, the 1x30 was getting a little... worn in.
The on/off switch stopped working, so I made it so it would always stay "on", and I'd have to reach over the belt sander and unplug the lead from the outlet to turn it on & off.
The wheels were wearing down on the inside, throwing off the traction. I combated this by wrapping masking tape around the wheel to try to even it back out... but in the end, I had to wedge a folded piece of paper underneath the tracking springs anyway.
An angled piece of wood attatched to the work rest gave me my angle (with a pitch indicator to double check the angle).
KMG
I finally ordered a famous KMG industrial belt grinder from Beaumont Metal Works. They are not free, but also aren't for people who are screwing around. It did arrive two days after I payed.
- KMG 8 inch wheel package
- Rotary platen attachment
- 1.5 hp 3-step motor (with pulleys & band)
- Base Plate
Did I mention, it's heavy?
Inside the grinder safely sat, encased in a wooden frame.
...a wooden frame which I soon broke down and screwed on to my table for reinforcements, because this thing is heavy!
Right off the bat I noticed how thick the steel is. Quite thick... most of the plates are 1 inch.
Most of the edges are nicely chamfered, no burrs.
Not too much later that day, another delivery containing the base plate & motor arrived. Another heavy, solid chunk of steel. Time to hook it up.
A bit of wiring, this & that, the grinder was spinning backwards so had to do some screwing around...
There it is. All hooked up with a 220 grit ceramic belt on.
This particular tooling arm has the attachment with the steel backing plate, useful for scandi/flat grinding. With two simple bolts the backing plate can be removed and you have yourself a mean slack-belt option for convexing.
Tried it out... and although it will take some time to get used to the new changes/shape/size/power/etc.. I was very impressed. It definitely removes metal faster, let's just say that.
And very even, now that the backing plate is twice as wide.
50 grit Norton Blaze Belt is... ridiculous.
So I decided to grind out a batch of four blanks, see how it really works. As you can see I left some extra material on, I didn't go nearly as close as I usually do with the angle grinder on purpose (to test the KMG).
8 inch contact wheel doing work
It worked very well, with a significant increase in speed & comfort.
Here is the attachment without the backing plate for slack-belting.
Here is the backing plate at an angle for putting the ramp on the front of some knife scales.
The 8 inch contact wheel can get around corners with ease
Easy to get the handle material to the tang
Handle contouring.
And using the top part for the basic shaping of a firesteel.
First Impressions
Overall, I'm loving the KMG. It takes off material like an animal, it's built to be an heirloom, and the multiple attachments you can use are great. The best thing is, you can always add more to the base package. I'll show more of me using it, showing the rotary platen when I get more into convex grinding, and the small wheel attachment when I get it. Five out of five stars.
The only thing I wish was different, was that the work rest was a bit longer. If they had an option on his website to buy a longer workrest, I'd be all over it. However, the company was nice enough to let me know that most people have great success by fixing (even glueing) a longer flat work rest on top of the original. I'll probably end up doing that for my 10 inch blade leuku knives.
Another upgrade which I'm loving... moved this into the shop. :thumbup:
Win.
I'd like to give a special thanks to Turley Knives & Fiddleback Forge for their input and helping me decide which attachments to go for. And of course Beaumont Metal Works.
Thanks,
Cody
-------------
1x30
I decided that my old 1x30 Grizzly belt sander wasn't cutting it anymore... I needed something to help with the different styles of knives I plan on making, and it was getting hard to keep up with the order book. It is an excellent little belt grinder, and for around $40 it made me over 100 knives and is still going strong. I used it for profiling the blades, grinding & polishing the edges, flattening the spines, some handle profiling, and more. If anyone is considering getting into knifemaking, or would like a very professional way of sharpening your knives, axes, and other edged tools with ease and accuracy, then I highly recommend a good 1x30 like this one.
As you can see, the 1x30 was getting a little... worn in.
The on/off switch stopped working, so I made it so it would always stay "on", and I'd have to reach over the belt sander and unplug the lead from the outlet to turn it on & off.
The wheels were wearing down on the inside, throwing off the traction. I combated this by wrapping masking tape around the wheel to try to even it back out... but in the end, I had to wedge a folded piece of paper underneath the tracking springs anyway.
An angled piece of wood attatched to the work rest gave me my angle (with a pitch indicator to double check the angle).
KMG
I finally ordered a famous KMG industrial belt grinder from Beaumont Metal Works. They are not free, but also aren't for people who are screwing around. It did arrive two days after I payed.
- KMG 8 inch wheel package
- Rotary platen attachment
- 1.5 hp 3-step motor (with pulleys & band)
- Base Plate
Did I mention, it's heavy?
Inside the grinder safely sat, encased in a wooden frame.
...a wooden frame which I soon broke down and screwed on to my table for reinforcements, because this thing is heavy!
Right off the bat I noticed how thick the steel is. Quite thick... most of the plates are 1 inch.
Most of the edges are nicely chamfered, no burrs.
Not too much later that day, another delivery containing the base plate & motor arrived. Another heavy, solid chunk of steel. Time to hook it up.
A bit of wiring, this & that, the grinder was spinning backwards so had to do some screwing around...
There it is. All hooked up with a 220 grit ceramic belt on.
This particular tooling arm has the attachment with the steel backing plate, useful for scandi/flat grinding. With two simple bolts the backing plate can be removed and you have yourself a mean slack-belt option for convexing.
Tried it out... and although it will take some time to get used to the new changes/shape/size/power/etc.. I was very impressed. It definitely removes metal faster, let's just say that.
And very even, now that the backing plate is twice as wide.
50 grit Norton Blaze Belt is... ridiculous.
So I decided to grind out a batch of four blanks, see how it really works. As you can see I left some extra material on, I didn't go nearly as close as I usually do with the angle grinder on purpose (to test the KMG).
8 inch contact wheel doing work
It worked very well, with a significant increase in speed & comfort.
Here is the attachment without the backing plate for slack-belting.
Here is the backing plate at an angle for putting the ramp on the front of some knife scales.
The 8 inch contact wheel can get around corners with ease
Easy to get the handle material to the tang
Handle contouring.
And using the top part for the basic shaping of a firesteel.
First Impressions
Overall, I'm loving the KMG. It takes off material like an animal, it's built to be an heirloom, and the multiple attachments you can use are great. The best thing is, you can always add more to the base package. I'll show more of me using it, showing the rotary platen when I get more into convex grinding, and the small wheel attachment when I get it. Five out of five stars.
The only thing I wish was different, was that the work rest was a bit longer. If they had an option on his website to buy a longer workrest, I'd be all over it. However, the company was nice enough to let me know that most people have great success by fixing (even glueing) a longer flat work rest on top of the original. I'll probably end up doing that for my 10 inch blade leuku knives.
Another upgrade which I'm loving... moved this into the shop. :thumbup:
Win.
I'd like to give a special thanks to Turley Knives & Fiddleback Forge for their input and helping me decide which attachments to go for. And of course Beaumont Metal Works.
Thanks,
Cody
Last edited:
