What (blade work) do you use your disk grinder for? +1 unrelated question.

O

Omega Leather Works

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Jun 13, 2007
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I've got a small stationery disk grinder and I'm wondering if it's of any use for grinding steel.

What abrasives do you use (if at all)?

I'm woefully behind on technique. I have a small collection of knife making books, but don't really get much out of them, especially in regards to stock removal.

Anything you recommend?
 
I do pretty much all aspects of grinding on a 9" disc, even bevels. I use whatever favorite papers and glue them on. Nice thing about 9" disc is it fits a standard full sheet of abrasive (9x11).


-X
 
Really? I never saw it as something useful aside from the occasional wood working.

I need to look for videos on YouTube I guess.

Thanks Xander
 
i have 3 vids of chuckinohio grinding out a k II blank on my disk sander. i'll send them to you guys.

strigamort, send me your email addy :D
 
I'm no expert, but Loveless used them for making sure his flats were truly flat. I've also talked to a couple of guys that prefer the 9" disc grinders for grinding their bevels because they feel that they're better for getting things flat. I've only dabbled with 2X72's, so I don't have any first hand experience.
 
A number of us do use 9" disk grinders for blade grinding. Mostly for flat grinding to really flatten the
surface after establishing the bevels with the belt grinder.
 
It is the number two grinder in the shop. really useful. If you can make one reversible with VFD, it will really do a lot for you. This is a great place to use a 3/4HP 3Ph motor and a cheap VFD.
 
I have the quick change disk system and reversible VFD. It's a great tool, if nothing more than having four grits available right away for any kind of production. (I have three disks that take a couple seconds to swap out)
The 1 deg. bevel disk is particularly nice for flats on long blades, since it doesn't tend to catch on the far end of the blade- it's a lot easier to use than running the blade across a 2" belt, and a lot safer than trying to do it lengthwise on a 2x72.
 
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My Powermatic 6x48 has a 12" disc on the side. It's single speed, meaning fast, and non reversible so it's not as easy to use as the variable speed reversible types Stacy mentioned must be, but I have been able to use it some, mainly for achieving flat surfaces like the others mentioned,

Mine is to big for sheets of wet or dry paper so I've been using the PSA cloth backed Zirconia discs from Supergrit:

http://www.supergrit.com/products/products_discs-cloth.asp#psazarc

These discs last a lot longer than silicone carbide wet or dry paper.
 
The only real drawbacks of a disc grinder are small inside radii like finger grooves and unless you have multiple discs, havin to change out paper before it is used up completely. I tend to have several things going at a time all needing the same grit so I get full life out of it.


-Xander
 
Pretty much as Dan said in post #10 above. If I do a flat grind I start it on a wheel and
then move over to the disc (variable reversing) to really clean it up. Would'nt think of doing
a flat grind without it. Some may say yeah you do mostly folders-- true, but I've ground
plenty of fixed blades both hunters and fillet knives on a disc. As Stacy said 2nd most valuable
grinder in the shop. I can't express enough how useful they are.
Ken.
 
Wow, okay... For flat grinding? I'm gonna try that as soon as I can get some more psa papers.

Question.

Assuming the disk spins clockwise and you're coming from the right side, do you use the top (abrasive spinning toward you) or at the bottom (spinning away from you), or does it not really matter?

Mine is just a small humble machine, but we have a big, very heavy 24" (30"?) at work that runs off of a reversible vfd. Only problem with that one is that the maintenance crew tend to use the hell out of the sheet of abrasive and never replace it. I guess I can look into buying some psa's for it if mine seems useful for flat grinding, but as Xander pointed out, I'd almost certainly never use up one disk. They'd trash it pretty quickly, but if it's less than $10 it might be worthwhile if I took a couple of blades.

Let's see that video Richard! :)
 
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