Waterproof belts?

R

Ricky-O

Joined
Oct 30, 2021
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I grind mostly post-heat treat and like to keep my belts rather wet. Recently I put on a 400 grit 726A Cubitron belt and pretty quickly the belt began dissolving. I had sludge all over, the writing on the back has disappeared, it twisted, etc. I've had the same problem with other belts. I spoke to TruGrit and was told that this belt is not designed to be used in a wet environment. Since I like grinding wet, I was looking for suggestions about what belts work well when wet. I don't have the problem with my 36 and 60 grit belts, just the higher grit ones.
 
Using Google, it looks like Norax U936 are waterproof, and maybe Triizack 347 series. The Klingspor CS321X says it is formulated to work wet.
 
Good to know! I just started using those belts in 320 (I can see grey dust coming off of 64 HRC Magnacut from the 320 after a few blades!). I do grind fairly slow, too and I dampened the belt with a wet sponge, but haven't noticed any issues yet. Trizact Gator 347 White Backer and Ceramic Norax U936 work well wet, as do the VSM Compact Grain Abrasive, Hermes Green 120 and 220 grit ceramic belts and the blue belts from Pops that are the 120 and 220 ceramics. The Trizact Gator with the red backing and regular Norax abrasive crumble off if they get wet, even dunking the blade in water and not drying it first can make them come apart.
 
The 726A's seem to work fine on the one I tested... I just have to aim an additional mister on the back of the belt to make sure it stays fully wet and you won't get gunk. I've only tried one but really liked it so I ordered 20 recently.

337 trizacts (non ceramic with red backing) also work great wet contrary to popular belief. I've been using them for years absolutely soaking wet with zero issues. That's interesting T Taz , have you experienced this yourself? I could take a video showing me running them quite wet with no issues.
 
I've had chunks of the abrasive fall off the 337 Trizacts (red backer gators) before? Maybe it's the wet/drying, or maybe they were wet and froze in my unheated shop? The Norax literally crumble and dissolve the grit off...lol. Made that mistake a few times!

I really like the 726A; I need to get a couple more in different grits. It's cool to see the dust coming off a Magnacut blade on a 320 grit belt and it grinds smooth with a smooth belt splice, too. Once I get a surface grinder adapter set up, I want to try them as a finishing belt before hardness testing!
 
Taz said:
I've had chunks of the abrasive fall off the 337 Trizacts (red backer gators) before? Maybe it's the wet/drying, or maybe they were wet and froze in my unheated shop? The Norax literally crumble and dissolve the grit off...lol. Made that mistake a few times!

I really like the 726A; I need to get a couple more in different grits. It's cool to see the dust coming off a Magnacut blade on a 320 grit belt and it grinds smooth with a smooth belt splice, too. Once I get a surface grinder adapter set up, I want to try them as a finishing belt before hardness testing!
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could have been the freezing... the only time I've seen this is on the 307 and 407 (they are still called 'trizacts' but aren't the 'gator' tread, much finer and closer spaced). But the red backed green alox 337DC's have worked GREAT for me for about 9 years of constant use.
 
REK Knives said:
The 726A's seem to work fine on the one I tested... I just have to aim an additional mister on the back of the belt to make sure it stays fully wet and you won't get gunk. I've only tried one but really liked it so I ordered 20 recently.
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Were you using the 726A's in higher grits such as 400, or just lower grits like 60? As I mentioned, my 400 grit 726As dissolved very quickly, and I wonder if yours weren't dissolving was because they were a different grit or something else. I've never had problems with coarser grit getting wet, just the 220 and up.
 
Ricky-O said:
Were you using the 726A's in higher grits such as 400, or just lower grits like 60? As I mentioned, my 400 grit 726As dissolved very quickly, and I wonder if yours weren't dissolving was because they were a different grit or something else. I've never had problems with coarser grit getting wet, just the 220 and up.
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Ah yeah I've only tried in 120 didn't try higher grits
 
I have had Trizact Gator 337DC get muddy when grinding a wet blade. Didn’t crumble the way that Norax U264 do, but definitely not great. The 347FC Gators definitely work better wet than the older ones did for me.
The U936s certainly worked well for me too.

Regardless of what the abrasive binder is, the 726As use a polyester/cotton blend backing. Anything with cotton in the backing should most likely be kept dry. The cotton is the cause of the twisting. My cotton backed U264s twist like mad just from environmental humidity.
 
So I just tried a 400 grit 726A with a misting system (pretty wet). By the time I'd done 4 passes on one side of my knife, I had slimey white suds all over the work rest. So I'm convinced the 726A at 400 grit should not be used wet.
 
Here's me wet grinding with some a160 337dc trizacts... At this point had been grinding over an hour with this spray on this belt so it was thoroughly wet. But many times I'll grind for 6-7 hours at a time this way with zero issues with it breaking down... And it makes no difference whether a160-a30.

 
Just got some 120 grit cubitron 726a's in... If it's not fully wet it will fling white 'strings' everywhere. But if fully soaking it does work (and doesn't twist later) but it does have this white sticky liquid that comes off the belt. See the below video:


So best to be run dry
 
That's the same conclusion I came to, but I only tried it on higher grits, not 120. By the way, I really like the 'shields' you have that blocks water spray from getting all over you! I may make something like those.
 
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