What's the advantage of a 2x72" belt grinder over a $60 one?

cotdt

cotdt

Joined
Oct 2, 2006
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What's the advantage of a 2x72" belt grinder over a cheap 2x27" one? The cheap ones seem to be able to grind knives pretty quick as it is.
 
Find a local knifemaker and see if they will go through their grinding steps with you. If you happen to get on the machine it will become quite evident.
 
cotdt said:
What's the advantage of a 2x72" belt grinder over a cheap 2x27" one? The cheap ones seem to be able to grind knives pretty quick as it is.
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Do you mean what is the difference between a cheap 2x72 and an expensive 2x72? If you are asking what is the difference between a 2x72 and a 2x27 then that's easy, more power, longer belt life, easier to find all the grits in 2x72 size.
 
Sam Salvati said:
Do you mean what is the difference between a cheap 2x72 and an expensive 2x72? If you are asking what is the difference between a 2x72 and a 2x27 then that's easy, more power, longer belt life, easier to find all the grits in 2x72 size.
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Well there seems to be enough power in the cheap belt grinder. Only if I use a massive amount of pressure does it slow down and motor heat up. And the 2x27" belts seem to last forever. I got custom-made belts in silicon carbide, zirconium, and ceramic, in a wide range of grits, so I'm not worried about belt availability.

What I mean to ask is, since the cheap grinders seem to work so well, what are the advantages of the big 2x72" grinders?
 
I don't know who told you they work so well because in my book they don't work so well. Good for a hobbist, perhaps. Frank
 
Could you link to a pic of the $60.00 grinder. As long as it is working for your needs, I say don't fix it if it isn't broken. However most people find that you get more value out of the 72" belts because they last longer. Look at it this way, when I used a 1"x42" grinder I would use 3-4 belts of each grit to do a small knife. With the 2"x72" I use less than 1 belt of each grit. When I did the math the smaller belts were costing me a lot more money, as well as being slower.
 
2x72 belts are easily found and fairly cheap. The longer belt really cuts down on wear and heat build up. Have you tried a 2x72? I used to think that a 1x30 could do anything a 2x72 could and I was right... it could.... but at a quarter the speed and in the long run, double the price. Just try and put your hip into a bar of steel on a 2x72 with a 36grit blaze belt....... then tell me there's no difference.

You can get fairly cheap 2x72's.... check out a grizzly
 
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AcridSaint said:
What is your cost per belt on them for AO and ceramic?
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I don't use AO belts anymore because they wear out too fast and work poorly with S30V. The zirconium and ceramic belts are about $2 each and I've done 3 knives so far and don't notice much wear.
 
Zirc spiked AO belts for 2x72 start around $2, AO belts cost me about that too for 3M. 3M Ceramic runs $6. From SuperGrit you can get no-name ceramic and zirc belts for $4, but I've found that 3M belts are worth the money in ceramics. Just looking at square feet of sand paper, cost is one reason to go with the 2x72.

Aside from economy of belts, the machine will just work differently. I don't know that anyone can quantify that over the Internet, but I have never met a person who had used both a small sander and a 2x72 and could not immediately see the difference.
 
Cool, thanks for the responses everyone. Maybe I will start selling knives here to pay for a 2x72" grinder. Then I can crank out 5 knives every hour.
 
cotdt said:
Cool, thanks for the responses everyone. Maybe I will start selling knives here to pay for a 2x72" grinder. Then I can crank out 5 knives every hour.
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Then you'd better upgrade to a knifemaker's membership ! :)

2"x27" interesting size !!! :D
 
sand paper is sold by the square inch also in belts. On a machine with smaller belts you change belts more often in the same type of sandpaper and grit size. Frank
 
5 knives an hour! Wow !! Is that griding the bevels only or from bar stock down to say 220 grit ? Boy I wish my machine would do that !!!! If you take a piece of 3/32" bar stock cut your pattern and then put beves on the edge of say 1/4" I don't think you can do that either. AndTruth is and I am willing to write it down here that you can't do that. Sorry but but I've done this too long to believe that with that much grinding time on a blade it's got to be a pretty rough looking thing and certainly not what I would call a saleable blade. Regards. Frank
 
You do have some spirit, Ide love to see you crank out 5 knives a hour . Sorry but if you can get one knife in 2 hours ready for heat sanded to 400 your built like superman lol . Serious though most knife makers take 6 to 15 hour to complete a knife pending on what your doing and how fancy ,a good working skinning knife fairly plain takes me 8 hours . Here is the break down. 15 min to profile , 1 hour to hollow grind to 320 , then 20 min to hand sand most of that is just checking to see if scratches are still evident. Then heat treat and i send out for that cuzz I dont have a oven or cryo tank or a rockwell tester. When I get it back is sand at 320 ,400 ,500, 1200 and buff thats about 1 1/2 then glue scales on and glue pins thats 30 min and 30 min to make mosaic pins . 2 hours to sand handle and 2 hours to make a sheath to fit . Ill try to help you out with the difference between a good grinder and a cheap one. A good grinder tracks perfect with {NO} {zero} vibration . a cheap grinder will vibrate and shake wont track good , maybee when new but wont hold up to hard use. Grinding steel is very hard on the machine if its not built well . I ve seen cheap grinders work and they will make knives but if you have a choice to drive a Porche or a chevy malibu what would you take.
 
I can currently profile and grind a knife in about 45 minutes, but I spend some time with the hand tools before heat treating. I figure, if I can grind 4x as fast, I can really crank out a lot of knives in an hour!

6 to 15 hours sounds about right for a complete knife though, it's about how long it takes me as well.
 
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