paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

Richard, I was looking at bench grinders in lowes today. Does it matter if I get a 6 or 8 inch? They were both variable speed down to 2,000 rpm.
 
Anyone know who makes a decent priced slower speed or variable speed grinder? All the variable speed grinders I've found so far are over 2x the price of the 3500 rpm fixed speed.
 
If you have a wooden table that sticks out a bit around the edges, I believe you can use a C clamp or two to secure it. I did that on a Rubbermaid plastic folding table, and it worked well aside from denting the table a bit:thumbup:.
 
rusty, find a 1/2 hp motor and an arbor to mount the wheels on or you can get some pillow blocks and a shaft with both ends turned down for the wheels to mount to and ends threaded. you will need to make it a belt drive setup.
 
diff_lock2, find a 55 gallon drum and use it as a place to set the motor on. a little sand in the bottom will make it more stable. a plastic drum would work best and last forever.
 
richard j said:
rusty, find a 1/2 hp motor and an arbor to mount the wheels on or you can get some pillow blocks and a shaft with both ends turned down for the wheels to mount to and ends threaded. you will need to make it a belt drive setup.
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Speak English please :) There's a reason I'm looking for a quick and simple way to sharpen my knives. I'm mechanically challenged. lol I think I'll just go with the $40 grinder at my local Canadian Tire and hope for the best.
 
if you look back through the thread you'll see a pillow block setup. i'll see if i can find the post and put the link down. you can also send me your number and i'll explain how to set it up. it might be cheaper and will work better since it would give you multiple speeds.
 
Hello Richard, thanks so much for sharing your sharpening wisdom. I have bought the 8" wheels kit from Grizzly and plan to buy the 6" variable speed grinder from Lowe's this weekend.

Question: do you sharpen all your knives at 1:00 on the grinding wheel with the blade horizontal to the ground? I.e., do you use the same edge angle on all types of knives?

Also, when removing the burr on the polishing wheel, do you use the same angle you used for the grinding wheel? Or do you increase the angle very slightly to eliminate the burr?
 
Also, for everyone: has anyone gotten hurt doing this? I asked my DIY friend/mentor for old hacksaw blades and showed him this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIC2Q9_g5o

Now he is freaking out. Here is his response. Note that he alleges I don't have a steady hand but that isn't true. I have at least average skill and have used power tools many times and have never gotten hurt.

"You are going to get hurt. What he is doing takes an incredible amount of skill and an extremely steady hand - neither of which you have. I don't know why you want to do this -- there are so many other ways to sharpen a knife. This appears EXTREMELY dangerous. The grinder is going to "catch" on the knife and spin it into your face. I wont watch you maime yourself."

Is it easy to catch the blade on the wheels if I trail it at 1:00 with the wheels running toward me (i.e. what the guy in the video clip appears to be doing)? Is it safer to start by running the wheels away from me rather than towards me?

Once again, I am not a beginner with tools and have at least average skill.

Thanks again to Richard and everyone. :)
 
I would recommend having the wheels spinning away from you and leaving it that way. Changing from having them spinning one way to the other way regularly, or even once, would be asking for trouble IMO, you may forget and accidentally touch the wheels the wrong way.

There's no way the wheels can catch the edge in that video, at any angle from flat on the wheel up to 90 degrees to the wheel.

If those wheels had been rotating away from him in that video, the wheel would catch instantly and take a big chunk from the wheel, possibly sending the knife into his belly. I had a friend do it on my polishing wheel but luckily mine is set up to spin away from the operator. Luckily he kept a hold of the 8" chef knife he was doing but it gave him quite a shock :D The blade was flung away from him too which is a good reason for having them spinning away from you, just in case it does happen.

I got a replacement polishing wheel through Phil (Bernoulli) here in Australia, he had it set to me from the USA.

Always remember to be careful about what direction you're touching the knife to the wheels!

With them set up as they are in that video any grit and stuff from the wheels gets thrown at you. With the wheels spinning the other way, it gets flung away from you, not that there is much stuff created anyway.

I always wear a 3M 6800 respirator/shield, ear muffs and head torch when using any equipment in my shed, it's just a good policy.

The wheels are quiet and don't make much dust but I would recommend safety glasses at all times as a minimum, eye injuries soon make you wish you were wearing safety glasses.

Hope that helps!

Steve.
 
I have mine set up so the wheels spin away from me. I never even tried it the other way and I never will. The thought of getting stabbed in the face, neck, or even the heart is a Big Red Flag in my opinion.

Maybe you could sharpen all your life with the wheels spinning towards you without incident. Maybe not. I get outstanding results with them spinning away from me. There might be a slight advantage to having them spin towards you but that slight advantage is not worth the risk in my opinion.

For example: I would not pull a circular saw towards me when cutting wood regardless of what advantage it might provide. It's not safe.
 
rusty, i would go with the cast iron portable with the 5/8" shaft. http://www.grizzly.com/products/5-8-Heavy-Duty-Portable-Shaft/H8025 this one seems to look a lot sturdier. the wheels have a 5/8" hole in them but come with a 1/2" reducer that you can take out.

johnny, i use the 1:00 position as a reference to go by. i try to match up the angle on the knife or get close to the same angle. if someone wants a steeper angle i go a little higher to make a thinner edge. you can go a hair higher when using the slotted wheel but too high and you can over strop the edge and dull it.

i took machine trades in school and i'm used to grinders running twoard me so i have always had my wheels running the same way which is just normal to me. i have not had anything happen other than running both wheels on my high speed buffer and running into whichever wheel i was not using. i have buffed or sanded each elbow many times :D.

there are many reason i like to have the wheels running twoard me. i can see the burr form which allows me to only take off enough metal to form a burr. i can make sure i'm not putting the blade on the wheel too high up (from the edge) and messing up the blade. you can also make sure you are keeping the blade square to the wheel and not at an angle.

there have been quite a few guys try my method after sharpening with the wheels running away from them and they like the way i sharpen better.

if you watch what you are doing and not have any distractions then you should not have any accidents. if you are absent minded or easily distracted then maybe the wheels are not a good idea :D.
 
JohnnyLightOn said:
Also, for everyone: has anyone gotten hurt doing this? I asked my DIY friend/mentor for old hacksaw blades and showed him this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIC2Q9_g5o

Now he is freaking out. Here is his response. Note that he alleges I don't have a steady hand but that isn't true. I have at least average skill and have used power tools many times and have never gotten hurt.

"You are going to get hurt. What he is doing takes an incredible amount of skill and an extremely steady hand - neither of which you have. I don't know why you want to do this -- there are so many other ways to sharpen a knife. This appears EXTREMELY dangerous. The grinder is going to "catch" on the knife and spin it into your face. I wont watch you maime yourself."

Is it easy to catch the blade on the wheels if I trail it at 1:00 with the wheels running toward me (i.e. what the guy in the video clip appears to be doing)? Is it safer to start by running the wheels away from me rather than towards me?

Once again, I am not a beginner with tools and have at least average skill.

Thanks again to Richard and everyone. :)
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IMO, the wheels are a tad more "grabby" than a belt sander, but I feel that has more to do with the fact that the belt flexes as opposed to the rock solid wheels. So long as you don't mash the blade against the wheel it shouldn't grab. Though I feel it's better to be safe than sorry and prefer to do it with the edge pointing straight down rather than towards me, which I believe is the recommended method.
 
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