Pyroceram Platen?

colu41

colu41

Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Messages
1,598
Wheres the best place to get the pyroceram platens? Or is there anything better to use? I think my current platen may be causing the slight grind issues Im having.
 
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Can you place a straight edge against the platen and see areas where there is light - worn spots? if not then this is not your problem today but may be in the future.
Frank
 
Yes I did. There is a slight concaved gap on the entire platen. Didnt measure it, and its very slight, but its there. I guess it just took time for me to notice it while I was in the process of learning freehand grinding.
Its just 1/2" angle iron. Probably wasnt flat to begin with :rolleyes:
 
I'm not a fan of the glass platen. They are not easily attached and they don't always end up straight once attached. They have also been known to cause injuries when they fail. I started out making a 5/8" thick platen from mild steel. I surface ground it whenever it got too worn. It didn't take me long to realize that mild steel wears pretty fast so I made a 1/4" 440C liner to attach to the face of the mild steel platen, HT'ed it to full hardness and ground it flat. This is what I'm using now and I like it but it does still wear, although much more slowly. A few weeks ago I was down at Jerry Moen's shop and he showed my the new platen liner he had made for his TW-90 from solid carbide. It was probably 3/16" thick and he had it mounted to a water cooling platen. He had been using it for a couple months and seen no noticeable wear.

Bob
 
Hi Bob,any idea on price and availability.I,ll check around but it sounds very expensive.Love the idea tho. Thanks Lu.
 
I've been using one of Nathan's hardened D2 platens for my KMG that I picked up earlier this year. It's a wonderful option for those that may not want to fuss with installing glass. I'm sure I will have to eventually have it surface ground, but so far so good. It's infinitely better than the mild steel platen my KMG came with, that's for sure.
 
I bought 5160 steel in 1/4 thickness, hardened to 62+ RC (Don't recall the exact reading), surface grinded both sides and attached it to the grinder untempered, they last a lot more that the platens I used before and when one side worns, I use the other.
Hardened three in total, so I can have a new platen while I take the time to resurface the worns.


Pablo
 
I have used pyroceram jb welded to mild steel and it works great... Something both Tracy (usa knife maker supply) and chris (wilmont grinders) recommend. Chris says you will get about a year of hard grinding out of one. I can confirm this and had some noticeable wear after a year, however, I just lap it flat on a dmt lapping plate and I'm good again. Jb weld was amazing too. The only issue I see being possible is that you may install it tilted one way or the other if you aren't careful, so I will use a caliper next time I do it!

The carbide one does sound interesting though... Would love to see someone making and selling these!
 
Lu1967 said:
Hi Bob,any idea on price and availability.I,ll check around but it sounds very expensive.Love the idea tho. Thanks Lu.
Click to expand...

He had it custom made and I believe it was seriously expensive, $1k+. It is actually three plates that cover the entire platen. The seam between the plates are dead flush. I think he said he did it that way so if one got worn he could switch them around. He said he was going to order another for one of his other TW-90's but would have it made as one piece because wear doesn't seem to be an issue. He posted a picture on his Instagram.

Bob
 
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